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Katie Ledecky swimming front crawl
Thursday, February 21, 2019

A stroke of creativity

Think back to your first swimming lesson, or the first time you went to the pool. Did you jump in with both feet right away? If so, how did that go? Likely, you got in slowly, or if you decided to take the leap, hopefully someone caught you before you got into trouble. Now think of an Olympic swimmer like Katie Ledecky or Penny Oleksiak. How do they get in the water at the start of a race? When the buzzer goes off, there’s no time to use the ladder.

a crazed man hacking through a door with an axe to attack a cartoon thesaurus
Monday, February 18, 2019

Thesaurus abuse: or a gross misappropriation of lexicon

A thesaurus groups together words that are similar in meaning. It exists for those tip-of-the-tongue moments when the right word seems just out of reach: “Gah! I need another word for something that’s pretentious … to be pretentious, to put on airs … Ah! An affectation!”

Children's Authors and Illustrators Week: February 1-7
Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Big stories for small people: A reflection on books from my childhood

Take a minute and think back to when you were a little kid. Did you have a favourite book? Was there one story that your parents had memorized because you asked for it to be read so often? These short stories for tiny people might appear simple and easy to write; however, I would argue they take a great deal of skill to create. The authors breathe life into colourful characters of all shapes and sizes, and for that, they deserve some credit and applause.

open notebook
Thursday, January 17, 2019

A pen in the hand: a reflection on freewriting

When was the last time you sat down with a pen and paper, and just wrote something? I’m talking about you and your own creativity, no prompt whatsoever. I can guess what you’re thinking. University is busy and finding time is hard. Why use a pen and paper when everything is handed in electronically? Why would someone use writing as a break from more writing? These are valid thoughts, but before you tune out, let me tell you about my notebook, and why pen and paper have become my best friends over the past few years.