TakingDictation

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What Henry Ford Knew About Writing Books

Henry Ford is one of the most well-known American innovators. He's the guy who brought mass production to the "horseless carriages"--that is, cars--we zoom around in today. So what does Ford have to do with...
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Why Every Serious Writer Should Hate (Most) AI Services

I saw another one today. An advertisement, geared toward writers, for AI-based content generation. There was a time when I hated these services just because they were so astoundingly bad. Flow and grammar were awful....
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Why Every Writer Needs to Draw Their Books

Generally speaking, writers aren’t known for being visual artists. Their whole deal is crafting something beautiful with words, not with color or line or visual perspective, so they often do not draw. But if you’re...
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How to Get Storytelling Right Every Time

As I peruse social media (which I do a lot for *cough* marketing *cries*), I see writer after writer step up and ask the same question: How do you do storytelling "right?" You might hear the...
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How to Balance Spontaneous Creativity and Planning as a Writer

Your brain is prone to find solutions when you let it wander and don’t think too hard. So you have to be ready to write anytime, anywhere. You can't force the story, article, or other...
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5 Powerhouse Writing Tools No Author Should Be Without

Writing is EXACTLY the same as any other profession in that a few great tools can make a world of difference in the results you get. I’m compiling a list of some of my favorite...
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6 Benefits of Having Multiple Writing Projects

With a Type A personality, I have to admit there’s something beautiful in being laser-focused on just one thing for a while. You can get into a state of flow that enables you to produce...
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5 Things You Should Be Doing to Build a Writer Platform

A “platform” as a writer refers to the channels you use to engage with your audience. The more channels you use and the more people you engage with regularly, the bigger your platform is. So...
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Yes, Opinion Writing Is Real Writing with Real Value. Here’s Why

Let me start by saying I don’t lose the irony that this entire post is opinion writing. With that out of the way (phew!), I’ve been trying to spend more time interacting with writing groups...
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Should You Write in Multiple Genres?

A while back, I had the opportunity to attend the Northwestern Christian Writers Conference (virtually, thanks to COVID-19). In one of the panels, another writer asked a relatively innocent question: Is it okay to write...