In my last post, I mentioned that Napoleon Hill offered words of wisdom that could be applied to one’s writing. Among the quotations from...

In fact, I get a daily e-mail “thought for the day” from the Napoleon Hill Foundation http://www.naphill.org that has included numerous...

Lately, I’ve been reading a sadly ironic biography of a talented but confused author who spent his life trying to find himself. He...

But I’ve also seen this temptation arise occasionally in my writing career, and I was reminded of the lesson by an article in the latest...

If a writer wants his or her message to be understood, one must keep the readers in mind and write to them on their level. Failure to do...

Precision in writing is as important to good writing as brevity. In fact, precision, and it’s cousin clarity, inevitably produce brevity....

The next stage for a writer who continues to evolve in his or her skills is learning to “cut the fat.” First drafts are enveloped and...

The lead, of course, is what the professionals call the first paragraph (sometimes a little more) of your piece. It is supposed to pull...

During that time and through all the ups and downs of my writing career, I’ve noticed seven recurring characteristics that editors seek...

If one is making progress in his or her writing, that writing is constantly changing in many ways. It will be changing in content and...

At times, I get frustrated by the amount of reading material that pours in through both my postal mail and my e-mail, every item...

In two weeks, it will have been two years ago (yep, in 2016), since I submitted a particular article for publication. It had been even...

Sometimes things just turn out differently than we plan. That’s life. But, if you’re like me, such unexpected changes to the plans tend...

News Flash! Dateline North Carolina–Thurs., April 5, 2018 We’re grandparents again! Our daughter Rachelle gave us Number 7 yesterday...

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. But taking that first step is, admittedly, often hard. Harder for some than for...

A Chinese proverb states that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. But when? No time like the present! Do it now!...

Jordan Rosenfeld, author of numerous books, including A Writer’s Guide to Persistence, offers the following good advice for writers who...

At the recent authors forum in which I participated, the moderator asked us several thought-provoking questions. I summarized my...

Last Friday, I participated in an authors forum, or “talk,” during which the moderator asked seven or eight questions of the three of us...

I’m referring to those narrow, vertical green signs along the shoulder called mile markers. Today, this post is sort of a mile marker for...