Let Abe Lincoln become your writing coach

Tomorrow, Nov. 19, turns out to be the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. To celebrate, Poynter published a chapter I wrote about it in my recent book “How to Write Short” last week.

There is a great opportunity for us as readers, writers, editors and students to look at an enduring work of literary culture and ask the question “Why.”  What was it — what is it — about these 269 words that stick with us?  I like to call the process X-ray reading.

Join us for a chat about Lincoln’s great speech, and, more important, about his skills as a writer and an editor today.  There is no reason why Honest Abe’s writing tools can’t exist on your workbench.

You can replay the live chat on this page at anytime after the chat has ended. All of our live chats are archived at www.poynter.org/chats.