7 tips to clean up your dirty first draft before you publish
There’s a coffee mug I bought last year inscribed with the words, “Write drunk; Edit sober.”
And that pretty much sums up the best advice out there when it comes to getting your pieces ready for publication. The quote “Write dunk; Edit sober,” is often attributed to Hemingway, but regardless of who actually said it first, the point is valid.
When you write a post for publication, your job is to forget every piece of advice you’ve ever learned about writing. That includes the grammar rules you memorized…
I rediscovered my city as a #hometowntourist
You want to know what’s exciting about Louisville, Kentucky — my hometown? Well, in a word, everything. But, then again, I might be a little biased.
From the exciting Kentucky Derby Festival to the Urban Bourbon Trail, to our great Olmstead parks, and our world renowned horse race, the Kentucky Derby, Louisville offers a cornucopia of opportunities for travelers.
An overlooked attraction that I love to boast about is our city’s museums. I love touring museums when I visit new cities. For me, strolling through a museum is a quick, easy way to boost my knowledge of the new locale…
Clear your energy, clean up clutter, and open up space in your life
When your to-do list is long, and your days are busy, the thought of having a self-care day may feel impractical and indulgent.
But the truth is, self-care is neither of those things. We all need a little TLC to blunt the edges of life.
Self-care is more than care-free days at the spa, getting facials and manicured toes. At its core, self-care is mindfully carving out time to focus on yourself in a way that ensures you are being cared for by you. It’s an important habit all of us should embrace.
Self-care doesn’t have to be a fancy…
OPEN LETTERS
When darkness is on the inside, that’s all you’ve got to give away
Dear News Break Commenters,
Who hurt you?
I mean, you must be suffering and in great pain to invest so much time and effort into writing such dreck. I know I am not alone in feeling perplexed by your motivation to spread all that negativity and nastiness.
What’s with you guys? Why do you bother spewing pessimism and hopelessness on News Break stories when there are so many more effective ways to get attention?
To be honest, News Break’s comment section is small potatoes and seems like a big waste of time. …
Editors and needed and necessary! As another writer-editor hybrid, I give this piece a standing ovation. Publishing a piece without putting it through a deep-dive edit is like walking around with spinach in you're teeth. At the very least, writers should run their drafts through Grammarly. Thank you for setting the record straight.
Back when travel was normal
There’s so much to love in this California town
I don’t know if it was its perfect climate, its 70 miles of shoreline beaches, or its herd of seals that lazily lay around La Jolla Cove — whatever it was, I fell hard for San Diego.
And the longing to return gets stronger with time.
You are so welcome! I love being your "first reader" and helping you make your stories even better. It's my pleasure!!!!
South Korea
The orchestra of new sights, smells, and tastes revealed how much I have to learn
Intrepid foodies like Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmerman — TV personalities who travel the world eating and drinking food from diverse cultures — have always inspired me. I love the way the TV crew shadows them as they zigzag through crowded street markets and undiscovered hole-in-the-wall restaurants in search of local, unfamiliar foods to feature. The stranger to the American palate, the better.
International foodies are ambassadors of cultural discovery, beacons of hope in a world filled with mistrust and disdain for anything foreign and unfamiliar. They always seemed so enthusiastic about their unusual food finds.
Nowadays it seems the…
I wrote about it last year
I was delighted to see CBS Evening News ran a story last night on a group of volunteers who used their sewing machines to make masks for frontline workers.
According to Wikipedia, craftivism is a form of activism, typically incorporating elements of anti-capitalism, environmentalism, solidarity, or third-wave feminism, that is centered on practices of craft — or what can traditionally be referred to as “domestic arts.”.Craftivism includes, but is not limited to, various forms of needlework including yarn-bombing or cross-stitch. Craftivism is a social process of collective empowerment, action, expression and negotiation. In craftivism, engaging in the social and critical…
