Rejection hurts. We’ve all heard stories of popular books that had scores of editors or publishers reject them before someone realized the potential and published them. The rest is publishing history. Since writers deal with a lot of rejection, Writer’s Digest had the idea to provide a creative outlet for them to vent their frustration. […]
I’ve listened to the Writing Excuses podcast for years. In the first nine seasons they would sometimes give writing prompts. In season ten they started giving homework at the end of each episode. I’ve gone back to year ten and am going through the homework. Though the assignments are most annoying, they’re even more beneficial. […]
In the book From No Plot? No Problem!, Chris Baty (founder of NaNoWriMo), talks about constructing our Manga Carta 1 and Manga Carta 2. What does he mean by that? Manga Carta 1 is a list of what we like in the novels we read. Manga Carta 2 is a list of what we dislike […]
I sometimes give writing prompts on this blog, but it’s been a long time. Here’s one for today: whether real or imagined, describe your happy place. Share your happy place in the comment section below.
The best time to write your author bio is before you need it. That means, write it today. I gave some pointers on this in my post, “Why You Should Write Your Author Bio Now.” We need multiple length bios for different uses, but today, let’s focus on a 25-word or 50-word bio. Here are […]
I wrote this last week—and revised it today—in response to a writing prompt Ted Kluck gave at a writing conference. His assignment challenged us to describe a memorable photo: It may have been the pinnacle of my high school track career. It was at the biggest meet of the year, perhaps my life, and I […]
The Reader’s Digest recently asked readers to submit their life story—in 150 words or less. With over 6,000 submissions, Facebook followers voted and RD picked the best from the top 100. The winners are all excellent. If I had to pick my favorite, I’d go with “A Meaningless Diagnosis” or perhaps “I’ve Got Dirt: Memoirs […]
A logline is a brief summary of a story that is designed to hook the reader. Ideally, it is one sentence long. I recently entered another writing contest, where the challenge was to write a logline. Not just any logline, but a really bad logline. The rules were it had to be one sentence and […]
Like physical exercises, which are beneficial for your body, writing exercises are beneficial for developing your skill as a writer. While exercise is seldom pleasant, it is a wise and worthy pursuit. Here are some exercises to consider in developing your craft as a wordsmith: Personally, I have done most of these at one time […]