Full disclosure.

Welcome to The Writing Rundown, a weekly newsletter that offers advice, short essays, and reading suggestions to help driven writers (like you!) improve their writing craft. It's nice to see you here! If someone forwarded you this email because they love your writing, you can subscribe here.

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

"I believe that no one should ever have to choose between a career we love and living our lives with authenticity and integrity." — Selisse Berry

Last week I got a reply that hit me hard.

I don’t know that there was malice behind their question, though it would have been warranted if there was.

People not disclosing to their audience how they get paid for the things they are sharing is a bee that flies right up my bonnet to buzz around my brain.

I’ll try to be better at sharing that information when I'm sharing programs and resources, usually down in the PS/footer (don’t want to legaleeze the reading experience,) so you aren’t left wondering.

But to be clear straight out — I don’t promote anything from myself, CYC, or any other platforms that I would not use myself.

• Often I *am* using it myself, and that’s why I’m recommending it to you!
• There are friends and peers that I promote because I love them and pretty much anything they create.
• And yes, sometimes there are affiliate deals or joint ventures where we’ll make some money as well (I try to include a non-affiliate link as often as I can on these, so you can choose that option if you would feel more comfortable in the transaction.)

What You Missed on Craft Your Content …

Our articles have the same mission we do — to help you to make your own words even better!

• My best post on LinkedIn last week, about calendar links. I know, riveting. But it was actually kinda funny, if I do say so myself. If nothing else, a new way to schedule calls.

In Other Reading This Week …

Need more insights and inspiration for your writing and mindset?

• You might have seen clips of this speech about writer’s procrastination from Fredrik Backman (“I don’t suffer from creative anxiety - and she said ‘Well everyone around you does’” 😆), but here’s the full speech and it gets even better!
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• This quick read of quippy life-and-writer lessons from Stephen King in Esquire is just a fun read.
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• Are you using AI to do the research for your writing? I cannot say this enough…confirm and reconfirm all the information you get. AI has a real problem seeing things that aren’t there, and as this piece by Alex Cranz on The Verge explains how dangerous AI’s hallucinations have become.​
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• As we are sliding into summer in the north and winter in the south, holiday times are right around the corner. This roundup on Substack shares how different writers there spend their downtime.​
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• Writers need to read, we know that. But why do we need to read every day? What do we get from it? Anne-Laure Le Cunff explains the benefits your brain gains when it’s processing those letters and punctuations.

Weekly Writing Tip …

A quick chance to learn from the masters.

“You look ridiculous if you dance. You look ridiculous if you don’t dance. So you might as well dance.” — Gertrude Stein

Untranslatable …

Exquisite words from other languages.

Tallarinata [ta-yah-REE-nah-ta] (n.) – From the Spanish language, tallarinata is one of the most wonderful feasts I’ve ever heard of. Basically, everyone brings their own sauce to add to an assortment of pastas, for everyone to nosh. Sorta synonyms: potluck, Sunday sauce, potlatch

This Week’s Writing Resource …

Why not use the tools at your disposal?

​Gen Z Slang Quiz — Since we all know language is always evolving, how well have you kept up?

For the Upcoming Week …

Because we all need a good chuckle to start things off right!

Go home, Grammarly. You’re drunk.

‘Til next time! ~ Elisa