Command Your Pet Words

Pets can be wonderful—I loved my orange and white cat. But when I received an editorial critique before publication of my short story “Casey,” I was horrified to learn it sheltered a whole menagerie of unwanted editorial pets —words, phrases, and grammatical constructions.

“Casey” is a story about a middle-school boy who feels like an outcast and later discovers he has healing powers. When I received the acceptance email, I was elated. Then the editor emailed me again: “Every author has pet words and phrases. Part of my job is to point them out so you can get rid of them.” She attached the manuscript and highlighted a herd of my pet words and phrases, in oxblood.

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Do Proliferating Ideas Threaten to Overtake You?

Do ideas flood your brain like a herd gone wild? Are you flailing around, physically and metaphorically, trying to corral them and drive them into the barn? Going mad trying to figure out how to use them all?

I am almost constantly barraged by ideas for essays, stories, poems, novel slivers, quirky descriptions, and metaphoric pearls. Ideas surface everywhere: as I work on the current creative piece, edit clients’ manuscripts, wash dishes, huff through workouts, wait on line, watch people, meditate, fall asleep, and even at business dinners.

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Why logging your writing is so powerful and how to do it

Have you ever noticed that pretty much any advice related to making progress suggests the same idea?

Track your progress.

  • If you want to lose weight, track your daily calories and weekly weight.
  • If you want to reach a financial goal, track your expenses.
    So, why shouldn’t we do the same when it comes to our academic writing?
  • If you want to finish your dissertation, grant proposal, manuscript, or book, track your writing.

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The teacher learns from teaching in the anxiety zone

For too long I’d wallowed in my routine: first planted at my computer writing, then client manuscripts, eating, gym, tv-ing, sleeping, occasional grocery-getting, and back again. But I couldn’t deny an itch, a subtle pervasive sense of dissatisfaction.

It was time to leave my comfort cocoon.

The idea had been lurking for several months. Having published many writing how-to articles, I knew I had to teach a writing workshop.

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