Jennifer Miller writes: "When I was brainstorming titles for my debut novel, I had in mind something intriguing yet bold — a title that screamed Read Me Now! And after weeks of making lists and scouring the thesaurus, I found the five-word masterpiece that I was looking for: The Year of the Gadfly." But there was a problem.  Continue reading...

If you feel that lack of willpower has contributed to your difficulty with writing, then follow some tips from The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal. Writing coach Daphne Gray-Grant found inspiration from the book, even inspiring her to find the willpower to write this column.  Continue reading...

Communication — from the Latin "cum unio," union with — is the big answer humans have come up with to break us out of lifelong solitary confinement and link us up with other beings. Communication's content, the specific information sent or received, can be of life-or-death importance, but beneath the content, there's the bond, the union with, that communication creates, whether the content is "I love you" or "I hate you."  Continue reading...

We love to "range." When describing a new shopping mall, for example, an article might say: "It has everything from a roller coaster for the kiddies to high-end boutiques for fashionistas." The "from" and "to" implies a "range," and a range implies that "everything" will be along that line. But the only thing the roller coaster and boutique have in common is that they are inside this new mall. It’s a "false range."  Continue reading...

Novelist and journalist Jennifer Miller has been thinking about a recent scandal involving New York high school students cheating on their exams. She argues that one thing is clear from the scandal itself, and the reactions it engendered: we live in a culture of shortcuts, with ill-formed thoughts expressed in equally ill-formed language.  Continue reading...

I used to loathe writing. I found it both daunting and painful — kind of like going to the dentist and having a root canal. Every day.

I delayed and procrastinated, putting off the dreaded task as long as humanly possible. Only the force of an inexorable deadline impelled me to push out any words. And when I finally had them written down, little time remained for editing.  Continue reading...