We called it the “80% Rule.”
My first real professional job was as an assistant editor at a publication.
I acquired and edited magazine articles. I also edited books, since the...
My husband reads car repair manuals.
I’m grateful he has the brain to persist through that dreary copy—because when you own three used cars with hundreds of thousands of miles on each,...
Commercially viable memoirs are akin to novels. They engage the reader through storytelling techniques.
But new memoirists struggle to write an engaging story. They spend too much time inside...
Don’t bury the lede.
That is a principle that can be applied to many forms of writing.
It is especially true in hard reporting stories.
In journalism, the “lede” or...
I like to think of myself as an original. But, really, I’m a middle-aged female cliché. At least when it comes to the podcasts I tune into. I’m part of the 63% of women who...
“You need to hire a PR firm.”
“You need a large social media following.”
“You need to appear on radio and TV.”
Book marketing is overwhelming. Hop onto Google...
I don’t think you can really learn to write. Which is why few fine art programs in writing turn out prolific writers.
Mostly, you need to be trained to write.
You train yourself when you...
Before lockdown in March 2020, an HGTV producer (the team behind The Property Brothers) wanted to talk with me about developing a TV show around flea market decorating.
I’m not sure how they...
The other day, I asked ChatGPT, the AI text language model, “What is a gerund?”
It replied:
“A gerund is a type of verbal noun that is formed by adding '-ing' to a verb. It...
Tuesday afternoon I met with a literary agent to discuss a book idea that’s been swirling inside me for a few years.
The idea relates to my expertise in collecting and styling vintage.
On...
Is your writing time sacred?
Typically, people use the word ‘sacred’ to define what we’ve written. Confessional writing, memoirs, poetry and some narrative fiction are considered...
It might not impress you, because I was an English (not Math or Engineering) major, but I got straight As as an undergrad.
My quest for As led to panic attacks when a paper was returned with a B+....
