Writing & Translation

It’s a question I’ve received countless times from readers over the years—and one I’ve found myself asking of late as well: How do you stop overthinking your writing? Writers are often known as thinkers. Indeed, we’re often proud of the...

You know…first there’s a little cramping in your wrists and fingers. Maybe a burning sensation, tingling, numbness, or weakness. Because you’ve got deadlines, assignments, more freelance marketing work to do. And then there’s the crush of email. So...

We live in a world of dueling realities today, when it comes to media. If you’re trying to do freelance journalism, your job just got a whole lot harder. Even harder than it is for staff writers at newspapers. Once, the Fourth Estate — the...

In many ways story structure is a fractal pattern. The same patterns we find on the macro level of the entire story arc also repeat themselves, within an ever-tightening spiral, from scene structure all the way down to sentence structure. Somewhere...

Finding and dusting off my tattered, circa 1990 AP Stylebook was the first smart thing I did when I took the plunge into blog writing. I needed a crash crash course on writing tips to get back in the game. I have a journalism degree and news...

For instance, TV, movies, books, sports, music, games, wherever people spend time and money looking for an escape. However, with the fast pace of consumers devouring content, there’s always a need for more. If you want to get paid to write, now is...

I know you do, simply because you are a writer. I know because you are here reading this post, either because you subscribe to this blog and others like it as a way to mainline writing knowledge on a regular basis, or because you stumbled onto this...

Are you looking for ways to boost your blog post readership? You’re in the right place! If you’ve worked hard at writing quality content for your blog but are struggling to get traffic, I have great news for you: As a writer, you already have the...

Be clear up front. When the next possible client approached me for a low-rate project, I agreed. But I made it clear this was an introductory price only. Overdeliver. I wrote a short blog and made sure it was edited and submitted well before her...

It’s late morning, my second cup of coffee finished, and I stare out the window at pumpkins my kids decorated for Halloween. I see people wearing light jackets and notice the leaves turning yellow, gold, and brown. This is my favorite time of year....

When writers put on their story theorist caps, nothing is more exciting than those moments when you get to recognize consistent patterns emerging within obvious story forms. This is the basis of all of our understanding (and musing) about story,...

The kind that makes you want to tear your face off, scream into a pillow, or run away and never return. Only you can’t, because you know you’re meant to write. Freelance writing isn’t for the faint of heart. At every corner there’s an insidious...

The “saggy middle” of a story is one of the biggest challenges writers face. The Second Act is twice as long as the other two acts and yet is often less clearly defined. What’s a writer to do to keep the pacing just as tight and the events just as...