a man sits in a lonely quiet house in the middle of the night unable to sleep his two children are up in their rooms sleeping on the floor the night grows long and stale when a foul stinch drifts in ...

What’s the most persuasive way to convey a message? Many writers say, “Tell a story!” Nothing hooks like narrative. I’ve said so myself. But research shows stories have a rival for hooking power: ...

Marble bust of Aristotle. Public domain. Metaphors are not user-friendly. They are hard to find and hard to use well. Unfortunately, metaphor is a mainstay of good lyric writing; indeed, of most ...

We have plumbed the depths of abstract words, but what about abstract ideas? Abstractions are a fact of professional life. The law is littered with them. Think of the legislative process, intellectual ...

“Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination” — Fitzhugh Dodson, clinical psychologist “A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and ...