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Grammar 101: I Learned to Hide
Even though my infant daughter probably doesn’t understand much (if any) of what I’m saying, I read her a bedtime story (or three) every night. It’s really more about looking at the pictures and...
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Sunday Snippet: Eminem
“The writing process, the way I go about it is I do whatever the beat feels like, whatever the beat is telling me to do. Usually when the beat comes on, I think of a hook or the subject I want to rap...
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Word of the Week: Reactance
As I make my living as a writer and editor, it is in my professional best interest to expand my vocabulary. Instead of saying someone was very sad, I might say that she was devastated. Instead of...
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Writer’s Block Is a Myth
I’ve been writing professionally for 12 years. While I am nowhere near what you might even begin to consider wealthy, I have been able to eke out a modest middle class living that has been reasonably...
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The Tyranny of the Blank Canvas
There it is. The blank canvas. Filled with near infinite possibilities as you can turn that blank canvas into just about anything you want it to be. It could be a portrait. It could be a landscape....
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The Words of the Year for 2018
Trying to sum up an entire year in one word (or term) isn’t easy. As you know, my guiding words are forward-thinking (though I did do a retrospective). By contrast, the words of the year chosen by...
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Hump Day Haikus: One Year Later
Okay, okay, okay. I promise this is the last “look back at 2018” post. We’ve already looked at the BTR year in numbers, like the number of books I read (33) and blog posts I published (203). We’ve...
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Sonnet Sunday: Writer’s Block
There is nothing quite like the tyrannyOf a blank page staring you in the faceBlinking cursor blinking so vividly Blinking, blinking, in the same freaking space Write words and delete them, not good...
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Latino and Hispanic Are Not the Same
Words matter. Word choice matters. I’ve always championed clarity and precision of language, because you always want to ensure that you’re being properly understood. Despite what you might hear or...
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Sunday Snippet: Charlie Brooker (Black Mirror)
The only times in your career as a writer that you’ll be able to write what you want are at the beginning and the end, if you’re successful. Two of the best ways to get good at something is to do it a...
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