At a party late last year, the owner of a new local web site asked me about freelancing. He’d been soliciting articles for his site from business owners and people who liked writing for exposure; he wanted to know how to attract professionals. “Well, you’re going to have to start paying them,” I said. (Too [...]

Avoid cliches like the plague if you want your writing to improve. You’ve heard that before, I know, but seriously–you need another cliche-infested sentence like you need a hole in the head. I believe it was George Orwell who said that if a phrase even rings familiar, it’s a cliche. So we’re not talking about [...]

Today I am grumpy. It seems one of the most popular search terms for sending people to my blog is “words to use instead of ‘said’.” People, why are you searching for this? What’s wrong with “said”? I have touched on this in an earlier post, but I want to reiterate. Even in more “colorful” [...]