Writing tips from "The Myth of the Purloined Combs"

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For writers, it’s all about the work. Someday, I will write about my new work boots. Watch for it!

Mark Twain gets credit for the observation, “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” which in my house is honored with this more specific take: “To a writer with a column deadline, everything looks like a topic.” During my decades writing editorials and newspaper columns, and in the nearly two years that I’ve been writing The Upstate American, I’ve found that topics aren’t hard to come by. In fact, they’re everywhere.

My wife, the writer and memoir teacher Marion Roach Smith, has long argued that the writer’s eye is a fundamental tool in a writing life. It’s not inherent, she says — that is, with smart practice, you can develop a writer’s eye. Marion’s classes from The Memoir Project offer training in that and other areas, including a class we jointly teach on how to write op-eds and opinion essays. (Our next class is coming soon, on Thursday, Jan. 26, and we’re offering the…