Many artists feel mysterious power, readiness, or connection with the tools of their craft in hand. For me, it’s about touching the tip of a ballpoint pen to a sheet of unlined blank paper. I bring intention, and ideas take shape in words as pen glides on paper, opening a creative channel. The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard? One reason why writing by hand works for me is that my pen-to-paper connection feels more organic than poising my hands over a keyboard and raising my

I’m a sucker for those moments when people ask me, “Why?” I like it even better when they say, “Tell me all about it.” However: They pretty much always want the 411, the takeaway, the bulleted executive summary – while I think I’ve just been invited to lead story time at the library. Not sure which is worse, their disruptive cut-to-the-chase questions after my first few sentences or their eyes glazing over when they realize I’m just getting started. Photo by Daniel Forsman

Say it: “Snake oil.” Can’t you just feel the hissing, coiled power of venomous contempt? “Snake oil.” That two-word phrase packs more punch than “it’s a scam,” “fake news,” and “total B.S.” combined. Everyone knows that snake oil is just a placebo masquerading as a legitimate cure, peddled by a charlatan who cares more about your money than your health… …But actually? Placebo and charlatan more accurately describe something once called “patent medicine.” The real snake oi

Ghostwriting is a difficult skill to feature in a professional portfolio. Like the “silent corrections” that we editors make when we’re...

I’ve been a science fiction reader for much of my life, and I’m fascinated by the possibilities of artificial intelligence. However, as a...

For the same reasons that it would be difficult training an AI tool to edit something as human and nuanced as written language, I can’t tell you every little rule and trick in my toolkit. The use cases are endless, intricate, and might put you to sleep. Instead, here are some of the more obvious examples of things I’m looking for and how I address them. Photo by Mark Casey on Unsplash 1) Repetitive Frameworks and Structures a) Turning a finite list into a loose “from/to” r

When you hire an editor, you’re getting a very specific stack of skills. Each of those skills can certainly be taught to the AI tool of your choice, but the human element of editing is knowing what to use, when to use it, and all those case-specific how-and-why conditions and nuances (in all their permutations) that just aren’t practical to include when training up your LLM. Even more so than with writing, the devil is in the details of editing – especially if ChatGPT wrote y

A few years ago, browsing in a used bookstore in a town where I don't live (which, by the way, is a great strategy for finding titles...

One thing that makes the human species so unique is the complexity of our communication. We like to think of language as a fixed,...

[A note of apology: Ideally this should have been a Halloween-themed post, but the spirit didn't move me until this week.] As the waning...

It's not always easy to market your editing skills. As someone who's been doing this for a few years now, I see two main reasons: 1)...

Photo by Francisco Fernandes on Unsplash Welcome to The Village Wordsmith blog. I never really thought of myself as a wordsmith until my team members at the George Lucas Educational Foundation started using that term to describe my skill set. I finally embraced my wordsmith identity with that year's Halloween costume. The following comes from a services ad that I later posted when seeking new clients. I don't know about you, but whenever I hear the contemporary term "wordsmit