Writing is not like assembling IKEA furniture: You can’t build your skills by reading an instruction manual and then viola, product assembled. Particularly in fiction, you largely learn by doing.

How can you create a balance between short and long sentences, and how does that change the flow of ideas in your writing? This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences ...

When I took this assignment three years ago, moving my column to the top of Page A2 and writing six times a week instead of once, my editors told me I could write about anything I wanted. Just do it ...

Short sentences are most effective when used rarely; continually using short sentences creates stilted, awkward prose. However, neither should you start writing paragraph-long sentences! Rather, you ...

If two examples constitute a trend, then a movement is afoot among editors to encourage short writing. It began at The Washington Post, where an editor argued that many stories could be tighter.