Kirby's Sonja Broda on Proofreading

“I rely on a good night’s sleep to put some distance between me and my text.”

Writing doesn't start when you put pen to paper. It starts back in the lab, where you research and find out what works, documenting your progress along the way. Then it's pen to paper to tell others how to do the same thing in the future. …

A writer's guide to Google Analytics 4

The Google Analytics you've used for years is going away. Here's how to adapt to the new version.

It’s been the constant companion of bloggers for over a decade and a half, the analytics tool from Google that told you how many people visited your site. And now it’s going away. Not Google Analytics itself, that is, but Google Analytics …

Google Docs still doesn’t fully support Markdown

Markdown as shortcuts, not Markdown as formatting

A year before the Writely team released what would become Google Docs, two years before the search giant started building an online office suite, John Gruber wanted a simpler way to write. Writing blog posts in HTML, copying them into his …

Lyn Graft on Proofreading

"Wait 1-2 days and look at it first thing in the morning."

Everyone has a story. The best way to sell your product, your vision, your dream, is to tell your story. That's what Shār Snacks Chief Story Officer Lyn Graft focuses on in his book, Start with Story , and in his business storytelling …

Hitting the top of Hacker News = 30,000 Visitors

The knock-on effects of getting to the front page of Hacker News.

It’s the homepage for the tech crowd, the first thing developers and startup founders check each morning, the place for “anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity,” in the words of its FAQ. Hacker News is a little bit of …

Don’t kill your darlings: What writers do with the things they cut

How to rescue your darlings

Write first. Cleanup later. Then as you’re proofreading, you’ll hit something unique, something you love, but something that doesn’t quite fit in this piece. Something that will distract readers from your main point. You know you should …