Thank you to Hired Pen Manya Chylinski for sharing this post. Take it away, Manya …  Storytelling is one of the big buzzwords in content marketing and thought leadership these days. For good reason. Rather than just stating facts or advertising your product or service, why not use words and images to simplify concepts, evoke […] The post Storytelling: Sparking Imagination in Your Business Writing appeared first on The Hired Pens.

I love you, em dash. There, I said it. Is it wrong to have feelings for a punctuation mark? Not when it is as versatile and graceful — and dare I say, attractive? — as you, em dash. Only a heartless anti-grammarian would claim otherwise. I remember the first time I noticed you. I must […] The post How Do I Love Thee, Em Dash? Let Me Count the Ways. appeared first on The Hired Pens.

I read a lot. A lot of bad copy, that is. It’s my job to fix it. My boss and mentor at my first job post-college described what editors do in the most perfect way. She said we were like midwives, helping writers to produce their best work and offering guidance and encouragement along the […] The post 4 Common Errors (Almost) Every Writer Makes appeared first on The Hired Pens.

Successful health content motivates people to do things that are good for them, like cutting back on salt or having a colonoscopy. But writing about health can be tough, especially when you’re asking readers to do things they’d rather not do. Like cutting back on salt or having a colonoscopy. Good health writing has the […] The post 8 Tips to Write Life-Changing Health Content appeared first on The Hired Pens.

In spring 2015, my husband texted me a spreadsheet with the names of a bunch of Army officers and locations of their next assignments. His name was highlighted next to “Germany.” Germany. Germany? I was shocked. True, this was much preferable to many of the alternatives. But it did raise a major question: Where did […] The post How to Work Remotely … Really, REALLY Remotely appeared first on The Hired Pens.

Question: What do you call two middle-aged white guys talking? Answer: A podcast. About a year ago, I decided that if there’s one thing the world is lacking, it’s middle-aged white guys hosting podcasts. So I decided to get in on the action — and the fame and fortune that inevitably would follow. Choosing a […] The post Confessions of a Newbie Podcaster appeared first on The Hired Pens.

1. Write Now. Revise Later. Here’s a secret: Even award-winning writers hate their first drafts. Just accept that your original takes will always need finessing. Bestselling author Anne Lamott calls these her “shitty first drafts.” And so can you, by using the “write now, revise later” approach, coined by English teacher Harry Bauld. Whenever you’re […] The post 3 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block appeared first on The Hired Pens.

I hate that the internet knows me better than I do. Granted, this is often helpful, like when I get recommendations for news stories, books, music, etc. that I’m interested in but would never have known existed. Gee, thanks, retargeting algorithm — that’s just what I was looking for. Still, the net’s intimate familiarity with […] The post Just Who Do These Algorithms Think I Am? appeared first on The Hired Pens.

TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, is one of the world’s most powerful and respected brands, with a robust online platform and podcasts galore. TEDx events, locally organized talks based on the TED format, are given in every major city (and a lot of small towns) across the globe every day. As the […] The post 5 Tips to Audience Engagement: Lessons from the TED Stage appeared first on The Hired Pens.

Unless you’re a New England Patriots fan like me, Super Bowl LIII wasn’t much fun to watch. Fortunately, we still had the commercials. Here are the ones we liked the most at The Hired Pens. (And by the way, Thrillist ranked their top 51 commercials — you can see them all here.) Pringles: Sad Device […] The post Our Favorite Commercials From Super Bowl LIII appeared first on The Hired Pens.