Jargon – it’s the language we love to hate. We complain about encountering legal terms in packaging, or dense abstractions in academic journals. The term jargon brings a negative connotation of being pretentious and incomprehensible. Yet the much-maligned jargon has its place. It saves us a great deal of time. Industry-specific terms are how we […]
Writing
A Quick Trick for Writing Better Emails
You need something from a colleague, a vendor, a partner, a relative – what do you do? If you’re of a certain age, you write an email. You do it in hopes that something will happen as a result – the recipient(s) will take action, respond, whatever. Yet often, those emails go unnoticed, lingering unread […]
Leaving Room for the Unexpected
Rummaging through a box of possessions recently, I found programs for theater productions from high school and college. (I did a lot of theater back in the day.) Most of those performance have dissolved into the haze of distant memory. Some stand out, though. There was the time the set fell over in the middle […]
How to Write Through the Holidays
Whether you want to blog more frequently, write poetry, or craft the next great literary novel, you’ve got to keep showing up consistently to write. Focus on the right routines, habits, and practices and you’ll get the writing done, while getting better at the craft. But life can get in the way. How can you […]
Thoughts on the Creative Life: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Short Version This classic writing-related book was first published in 2015, but I only got around to reading it recently. Elizabeth Gilbert’s wonder-filled, “magical” approach to creativity would seem to be the antithesis of my cognitive-science-based approach, but I loved Big Magic and found it inspiring. You probably will as well. Long Version At […]
Books to Give the Writers in Your Life
Why do books make such great gifts? Let me count the ways: They don’t perish or go stale. They’re easy to wrap. If the recipient is a writer, you know they like reading. The right nonfiction book can have an impact on the recipient’s life – the gift that truly keeps giving. The hard part […]
