In case you’ve wondered what happened to The Writer’s Clinic for the past few weeks, I’ve been in Mexico. Specifically, in a Spanish Colonial city in the central highlands called San Miguel de Allende. It was amazing. I’m still digesting the experience. Next post I’ll tell you about it – and what I learned about… Continue Reading
Wit and wisdom for wordsmiths
Writing lessons from Lady Grantham
Bloggers have been weighing in all week about why Downton Abbey is making us all so misty for history. Is it the Lady Mary-Matthew love story? The inside look at the class structure of Edwardian England? That fabulous house? I’d say it’s for some of the best lines ever heard on television, the best of… Continue Reading
Writers, here’s how to eavesdrop – and why
Once, on Boston’s MBTA, I was standing in the aisle watching a young girl reflected in the window as she talked to friends. I didn’t know I was staring until she looked directly at me and said, “Yo, Sista – why don’t you take a pitcha?” Oops. For writers, eavesdropping is fabulous grist for the… Continue Reading
Why ALL your writing should be personal
A few days ago, a guest poster named Dr. Mani of Internet Infopreneur wrote this in Problogger Blog Tips “Listen, no one cares about you. . . . They only care about how much you care for them.” Come on. Nobody cares about your opinions? Your politics? Your career? I don’t buy it. Sure, readers… Continue Reading
The 3 elements good writing absolutely has to have
Once there was a woman who loved words. She loved words more than chocolate, more than Christmas carols, more than lightening or thunder, more than gigantic waves. More even than Golden Retriever puppies, though that one was close. Of course she was a blogger. So when she had to take a few weeks off for… Continue Reading
Writer’s Clinic Gets Liebster Award!
The Writer’s Clinic has been honored with the Liebster Blog Award! In case you haven’t heard of the Liebster, it’s an award given to blogs with fewer than 200 subscribers that are worthy of more recognition and link love. Which is why it’s called the Liebster Award — liebe is German for love. Google is… Continue Reading
Are blogging boot camps a waste of time?
Want to lost weight? Get six-pack abs? Excel at Pilates or zumba? Learn to make a beurre blanc? Sign up for a boot camp. There are boot camps (and their close relatives, webinars) for everything these days, including how to become a better writer or blogger. Zen Habits Leo Babauta and Mary Jaksch offer “A-List… Continue Reading
Why serious writers should read fantasy
Did you watch “A Game of Thrones” on HBO? Until my friend Judy got me hooked on “Song of Ice and Fire,” the so-far 5-volume set of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, I’d never read fantasy in my life. Not even Tolkien. Now I’m as antsy for the 6th book in the series… Continue Reading
How lightening words conjure up magic
“I turned a dark angle of the stairway and an invisible cobweb swung its lazy woof in my face and clung there. . .” Sometimes a single word can turn a sentence memorable. That “woof” in Mark Twain’s “The Ghost Story” is an example. It was Twain, after all, who wrote that “the difference between… Continue Reading