Graham Greene called them beastly. Theodore Roethke said that, in order to write well, you had to hate them. Stephen King wrote that the road to Hell was paved with them. I'm talking, of course, about adverbs. While some English guidebooks and well-meaning authors warn writers away from … [Read more...]
List Custom Keyboard Shortcuts for Word Macros
As we learned in the first post in this series, keyboard shortcuts are a fantastic way to speed up your pace when working on a computer. Editors assign shortcuts to functions they use often, and to macros. However, keeping all those shortcuts top of mind can be a challenge. It’s especially hard … [Read more...]
How to Motivate Yourself When Your Motivation Is Missing
Next week, I’ll be on vacation, camping with my family in one of our favorite New England spots. We booked the sites last year, and I can’t wait to get there. First, though, I have a lot of work to finish. I’m dreaming of the woods while looking at words on a screen. It’s not going well. In the … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Write about the Summer Heat
Summer has officially begun, which means that for most of us in the northern hemisphere, temperatures are on their way up. Sure, we could write about how hot, or steamy, or roasting it is, or about how you could fry an egg on the sidewalk (please don’t), but English gives us a lot of other great, … [Read more...]
Freelancers: 7 Things to Know Before Your Next Negotiation
Editorial business owners are always negotiating. Whether it’s terms for an upcoming project or an existing contract that’s gone out of scope, having these tough conversations is part of the job. Here are 7 things to know before your next negotiation with a client. 1. BE READY TO SAY NO The … [Read more...]
Create Keyboard Shortcuts for Word
Keyboard shortcuts are a fantastic way to speed up your pace when working on a computer. Never taking your hands off the keyboard to mouse through ribbon options makes a huge difference. Anyone who has created a macro knows that they can assign a keyboard shortcut to a macro at the beginning of … [Read more...]
Identifying Nouns of Direct Address
In response to one of my older blog posts, “Punctuation Point: The Direct Address Comma,”* a reader asked me to expand on the direct address comma. Could the comma alter meaning? He offered these sentences: Look, Daddy! and Look Daddy! The first, he thought, seemed to introduce a pause that gave … [Read more...]
4 Tips for Becoming a Good Mentor
In the last newsletter, I talked about ways a mentee could get the most from a mentoring relationship. Mentors can benefit from the relationship, too. Providing guidance for others builds your leadership skills and gives back to the professional community. You can have a notable impact on a young … [Read more...]