English prose styles change through time like musical or artistic styles, but within the period of a dominant style people often don’t see it as changeable—they think the current style is simply correct. I believe a period’s favored writing style can reveal something about how people thought. And that’s true for today’s ‘correct’ prose, too. …
If you can’t tell the difference between a novel written by a human being and one written by AI, why do you care? We need a good answer to that question, because we’ll soon be dealing with AIs that are all but human. Unless we’re prepared to surrender to them in many dimensions of life, …
A close friend or partner (in my case, Sarah is both) can be like an editor for your life, helping you avoid mistakes that you would regret. That happened a few weeks ago, when I wrote a newsletter while still drugged up and loopy from an operation on my back. Sarah didn’t have to read …
Generations pass on funny stories and family myths without really trying. That’s not what I’m talking about. The truth is perishable. You lose it if you don’t take time to seriously record the memories of your elders. Heirlooms become junk without their history and the people in old family photos become anonymous strangers without names …
To get people’s attention, you must give them something at least as valuable in return. Writing online makes that exchange explicit—brutally so, when a piece flops and the writer is forced to realize it just isn’t worth readers’ time. Publishing this newsletter for the last two years—this is the anniversary edition—I’ve learned more about this …
Few writing tasks are as risky as describing sex. The task itself is easy and can be fun—but even celebrated writers make fools of themselves doing it, revealing their own fantasies, hyperventilating at the keyboard, and giving their readers giggles or yawns. Writing well about boredom is difficult, too. And for some of the same …
Brian Patrick O’Donoghue spent half his career covering one news story, about four young Alaska Native men convicted of a 1997 murder. In 2015, thanks to his work, they were all released with their innocence proved to the satisfaction of any reasonable person. A decade later, O’Donoghue published a book to convince the unreasonable people, …
Eyes widen at parties when I tell people I am a ghostwriter, as if I’ve admitted I do something sneaky and slightly nefarious that’s barely legal. What could be more interesting? This happened the other night. I answered a lot of questions. People think this is rare and exotic. You are reading ghost writers all …
Recently I used a computer shortcut Rich Mauer taught me 35 years ago. A little later, I got news he had died at 76. I want to share some of what I learned from Mauer, skills I use daily as a journalist and non-fiction writer. I liked and admired him, but he was practical, and …
A journalist pulled out a notebook in a bar in a tiny town in Alaska and started to write down the stories the bullshitter on the next stool was feeding him. This writer came from out of state—from a different culture, a different social class, a babe in the woods—and lying to him was probably …
