Are you writing backwards?
Imagine you have an assignment to write about how fuel cells work. After doing research and reading popular summaries, technical […]
Rough Drafts
Unfinished or quasi-finished prose that hasn’t been published elsewhere
Writing with purpose
My first “grown-up job” after college was as an editorial assistant at a magazine covering computer technologies. I felt so
Write like a real human
AI has been dominating headlines for years. It’s true that the apparent quality of the writing that chatbots like Claude
I was an 8-year-old polyester-wearing kid
I grew up in the 1970s, so there are countless photos of me as a kid wearing polyester. Spread-collar shirts
Mini-Intensive: How to Fight Slop and Influence Others
Hi everyone! I’m excited to share about a mini-writing course I’m offering to paid subscribers in September. I’ve spent decades
When the AI ghostwriter meets the AI ghost detector
Bertie Fielding, the dean of science at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, made a remarkable statement this week. “I am
The dot-matrix era of AI writing
Some day we’ll stop pretending we aren’t using AI. Then we can get back to the real work. Unfortunately, too much AI writing right now is obnoxious.
Two weeks in a monastery
While I don’t tend to mix my Buddhist practices with my writing and editing business, I’m wondering today if maybe a little more mixing might be a good thing.
Five things for June 4
The “five things” format dates back to the days of Livejournal, apparently. I was prompted to try it by this
Inner life
At Tennessee Beach, on the Marin headlands just north of the Golden Gate, jagged fins of soft, striated rock curve