Thanks to TCEA TechNotes blog for publishing my piece on Write Better, Write Short. Here’s the lead:

Once upon a time, the blank page in a composition book scared me. But probably not in the way you might think it scares most kids. Most see a blank page and feel trepidation at filling it, a self-fulfilling prophecy that what they write won’t be good enough. My fear? That what I wrote wouldn’t be concise enough. When you only have a few pieces of paper, writing too much means less paper available for the next project. My fear had an easy fix. Switch to loose-leaf paper in a folder. Crumple what didn’t work, keep what did. In this blog entry, you will revisit freewriting (or get introduced), as well as access a web-based image inspired writing tool. And, as a bonus, you can get a copy you can run on your computer via your browser.

Read more.