Creative Nonfiction
How to Submit to Literary Journals
For the last few months, you’ve opened the document on your computer and spent time constructing sentences, reading, researching, and working on the right metaphor for your poem, short story, or nonfiction essay. This writing is done in isolation, with no one witnessing late nights, pages of revision, and of course, frustration. You’ve finally revised…
Read MoreSimile vs. Metaphor vs. Analogy: Definitions and Examples
The simile, the metaphor, and the analogy are some of the most common literary devices, giving writers the tools to compare different ideas, concepts, and experiences. Yet, because these three devices are all comparisons, it can be difficult to keep track of which device means which. What is a simile vs. metaphor vs. analogy? Whether…
Read MoreOut of Tickets to Ride
I squirm at that phantom hand of smoke, a clawed finger beckons toward a carnie operator, keeper of the wheel in plaid knickers, who winks, “you’re next sweetie”. He rolls the spit-soaked cigar between tobacco teeth just as intuition grabs my shoulder, a mother rescue from the path of a speeding semi, ”watch where you’re…
Read MoreOn the Road
Objects at rest will stay at rest and objects in motion will stay in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. My great grandmother Mary Somers was born in 1852 in County Limerick, Ireland. She immigrated to New Britain, Connecticut with her family when she was nine years old. She…
Read More5 Tips on Self-Publishing Your Book
For book writers, the publishing process is often a fearful mystery. Self-publishing a book can intensify this mystery, because it can seem like you’re all on your own, with no clear place to start. Although I’ve managed Writers.com since 2019, it wasn’t until this past year that I learned the self-publishing process myself, while helping…
Read MoreWriting for Mindfulness: The Foundations of Mindful Writing
Being present, focusing on images, appreciating goodness: these are the foundations of mindful writing. Writing for mindfulness is a skill that any writer can develop, helping you to sharpen your language and keep it succinct. What are the foundations of mindful writing? Let’s explore what writing for mindfulness means in depth. What “Mindful Writing” Means…
Read MoreThere But For The Grace of God
The phone rings and you don’t know if it’s the phone or the new, beeping pill dispenser your husband bought so he could leave you alone in the house for long stretches of time. Before that, you were in charge of knowing which gaily colored pill was which and when to take the Rasagiline, or…
Read MoreTo Magic
Every mother dreams of the day her daughter gets married. She prays it’s to a man that will love her with all his heart. A man who will take on the role of head of her family with certainty and a little fear. Someone who desires to uplift and encourage her. Today, I am overjoyed…
Read MoreStick Figures
12Grandmother. Ten years old and I’m kneeling on the carpet next to her. She smells like flowers with English Garden names: peony, jasmine, narcissus; she smells like black and white movies, where heroines smoke PallMalls like they mean it. She grips the pins between smudged red lips, her breath coming in emphysematic wheezes, moving on…
Read MoreLiterary Agents: What They Do and How to Find One
What does a literary agent do? And where do you go about finding a literary agent? When you’re ready to submit a manuscript for publication, you might solicit top literary agents to represent your work. But, like most things in the writing business, actually getting a literary agent—especially a good one—proves much more difficult than…
Read More