Blog
Where I write about writing.
For more of my writing on consciousness, nature and living deliberately, please visit my other blog, Living the Mess.
For professional writing samples, please see my Writing page.
The Multitasking Myth
(This post was originally written for Resonance Consultancy in October 2012) Multitasking is more destructive than we think. And the best antidote is a practice we perfected when we were two. We’ve been hearing for a couple of years now that multitasking can reduce...
Show, Don’t Tell (for Business)
One of the fundamentals of narrative writing is “show, don’t tell.” People retain stories and scenes better than they do a list of facts. Stories resonate more deeply with readers, creating more of an emotional engagement with the material at hand. For example,...
Creativity and Mindfulness
Novels, JD Salinger wrote, grow in the dark. By that, he meant that true creativity comes from the subconscious mind, from allowing ideas time to percolate below our conscious awareness. It’s not just novels, though, that spring forth from the subconscious mind. So do all great ideas, innovations and insights.
Killing Your Darlings Painlessly
As writers, we work painstakingly to craft beautiful sentences, paragraphs and stories. And then there comes a time when an editor says we need to cut 1200 words, or a client wants us to “tighten it up,” and the horror of having to delete those beautiful pieces often...
Write Like You Speak
One of the keys to clear, engaging writing is to write the way you speak. In other words, your writing should sound like you. Your vocabulary, your cadence, your syntax, your dialect. Your verbal idiosyncrasies. Friends and colleagues should be able to hear your voice...
Editing, Ghosts and Doctors
I’m frequently asked what type of editing I do. That's kind of a trick question, because there are no operational definitions when it comes to editing. What I call "substantive," someone else might call "structural." What I call "developmental," someone else might...