It’s happened to all of us. We submit what we believe to be the perfect pitch to a publication — then we wait for a response. And wait. And wait. After a couple weeks, we muster the courage to send a follow-up email: “Hi, just checking on the status of my submission!”...
Ever started a blog, written a few dozen entries on a topic you care about, seen the comments trickle in, and then…gotten bored and quit? The three encouraging comments that seemed wonderful when you started the blog don’t seem quite so wonderful now that you’ve...
When I taught English grammar classes, I taught a 10-minute homophone lesson at the start of each class for the first 12 weeks of school. Reminder: Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings. Why? To ensure my students were ready to meet the...
Creating a perfect blog post is so much more than slapping a few hundred words on a document and uploading it to your website. There’s a craft to writing blog posts that are engaging and fun — and yet also optimized for search engines in a way that’ll bring you...
Are your pitches the reason you’re not getting freelancing work? Pitches or query letters are often the scariest part of freelancing for both new and experienced freelance writers. But master the art of the pitch, and your freelancing life suddenly gets a whole lot...
Whatever type of fiction you write, you’ll almost certainly need to include some dialogue. Even non-fiction writers may want to use dialogue occasionally (perhaps in an anecdote, or as part of an imagined conversation with a reader). Some writers, including me, love...
Want to get immediate feedback on your latest work-in-progress as you write? Grammarly offers a free Chrome extension that vets grammar as you type on Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Tumblr. It’s a dream come true for writers of all kinds! How to use the...
I spent years as an unsuccessful freelancer before switching gears to a full-time editing job. I had a passion for writing and…just about nothing else I needed to run this complicated and competitive business. A lot of people jump into freelancing just as blindly as I...
Call me a curmudgeon, but I’ve always felt jealous of other professions’ museums. I remember trekking through hall after hall of science museums, art history museums and space museums as a student, many of them full of fun, interactive features and exhibits that...
Can you start a sentence with “because”? The short and simple answer is yes, you can. Yet it seems that a lot of people don’t know this and think you can’t. We’ve been asked this question numerous times by readers of our “word nerd” books and listeners of...
