The semicolon is a mystery to many; just ask my friend. 

She’s a paralegal at a snazzy Chicago law firm.

One of her primary functions is to review legal briefs written by the attorneys...

Melissa and I just attended a terrific conference called STORY in Nashville.

We presented a breakout session called "The 5 Elements of Putting Your Story to Words."

Many of the attendees...

On Monday, I hit a milestone. I wasn’t expecting to.

There I was: sweat dripping from my face, mid-movement of a tricep extension.

And I heard my coach congratulate me,...

A friend sent me a great quote from Twitter the other day:

"I don't know who needs to hear this, but a first draft does not need to be good - it needs to be written."

The quote comes from Emily...

If I wasn’t speeding down the expressway already late for my appointment, I would have jotted down this scene from a podcast I was listening to. 
 
It would make for a great detail in...

The single biggest challenge in almost any form of writing is attention:

How do you sustain the attention of your reader?

There's an old line:

"When there's no more tension in a story, the story is...

“Melissa, I need you to rewrite this article. The hook is a cliché.”
 
My editor at Flea Market Style magazine served me one of the most valuable writing...

Ernest Hemingway was a wretched soul.

But he remains one of America's greatest fiction writers.

I recently read a profile of Hemingway, which was published in the New Yorker in 1950.

The profile is...

If I’m scrubbing a toilet at 2:30 on a Wednesday afternoon, I’m likely procrastinating. 
 
I’m an expert procrastinator, especially when it comes to writing. 
 
I...

A long, ugly sentence lays on your page like I lay on the couch after one too many slices of Chicago-style, stuffed pizza.

I feel like taking a nap.

And so will your reader if you don't shorten your...

I’m good at a lot of things. And I’m bad at a lot of things.

Certain things you don’t want me doing. Ask my husband.

Take loading the dishwasher, for example:

I guess...

Writing is always a grind for me.

On a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being "a breeze" and 5 being "pure torture"), I'm always at about a 4.

Not long ago, I decided to write a review of a marketing book...