I am a fan. An unabashed fan. I admire people openly and I tell them—and everyone within earshot. So if you want my advice on networking, that’s it: Be a fan.

What gave you the idea for WordRake?

Although I have a law degree, I’ve devoted my career to writing and teaching writing. I’ve taught to businesses, universities, government agencies, and writing/publishing conferences. But most of my teaching was in the thousand-plus writing programs I taught to lawyers around the country. While I was teaching to lawyers, I noticed patterns in their writing, and I wondered if I could use those patterns to help them. After years of studying the patterns, I realized that a finite set of “signs” showed up consistently in words and phrases that added no meaning or formed a dull expression. And I saw that this was not peculiar to lawyers: these signs appeared in all writing. I analyzed the writing of the best writers, from Pulitzer Prize-winning novelists, to writers in Esquire and Vanity Fair, to Supreme Court Justices. In about 2000, I wondered if I could work with software engineers to put these signs and patterns into algorithms. I was astounded to see how the signs and patterns so consistently hunted down useless words and dull phrases.

Writing competitions don’t reflect sustainable writing habits, but they can teach great life lessons. So far, I’ve written a 55,000-word novel, participated in 10 writing competitions and challenges, and placed in several writing and editing competitions. I’m sure no talent scout or publisher will offer me an advance to write my memoir, but those experiences have taught me about community, time management, and perfectionism.

We sat down with the newest member of the WordRake team, Ivy B. Grey, after completing her first month on the job. Ivy joined us in early November as our Director of Business Strategy. A legal tech entrepreneur and former lawyer, Ivy brings a wealth of knowledge to the WordRake team, and we’re excited to sit down with her and hear her progress and vision for the future.

When I describe the distance between my apartment and WordRake’s office as “walkable,” people usually envision a fifteen- or twenty-minute walk. My next line is that my commute is an hour and just under four miles.

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is an annual sprint to write a 50,000-word novel in November. According to NaNoWriMo’s website, over 394,000 people tried to write 50,000 words in November 2017, and more than 58,000 succeeded. Victors claimed two valuable prizes: bragging rights and a great sense of accomplishment: writing 50,000 words in a month is no mean feat. That’s almost 1,700 words a day, or about six pages, every day, for a month. I managed it while I was in an honors program, volunteering, and involved in several extracurricular activities. Here’s how you can, too.