Crafting a Mini Masterpiece

Reprinted with permission. First appeared online at Nothing in the Rulebook, March 16, 2022. If you’re a writer, chances are the challenge of writing microfiction stems from figuring out how to pare your story down to the essentials, rather than how to fill up the space. What is microfiction? First of all, if you’re not […]

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How to Develop a Writing Process

Whether you’re a fiction or nonfiction writer, developing a writing process will make you a more prolific writer and improve your craft. With a process in place, the act of writing becomes like any other routine task, such as getting out of bed or showering. It’s no longer a question whether you’re going to sit down and write—and that’s a powerful thing. Here’s how you can do that.

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Editing in the World of Advertising

Do you want to be an advertising editor? If you want to help brands bring their products to market and play a part in iconic campaigns with slogans like “It’s Not Delivery, It’s DiGiorno.” then editing advertising copy might be for you. However, you also need to be ok with unconventional hours, executives having the final say, and other pitfalls.

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Writing a Book? Identify Your Reader Right Away

The idea of a client avatar doesn’t just apply to big business. If you want to be a successful author, you need to know who you’re writing for; you need to understand your ideal reader. This is especially important for the kind of nonfiction book that helps a reader solve a problem or reach a goal. How can you help if you don’t know who you’re helping? You need an ideal reader profile.

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Let’s Eat Mom

To comma or not to comma, that is the question. This seemingly insignificant punctuation mark causes more confusion in the lives of writers, editors, and all who work in publications or with web content than all other punctuation marks combined. This blog reviews some basic rules for the use of the comma, so you can brush up on your usage of the pesky comma.

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