Short Story
Story Writing Exercise: What Does Your Character Want?
Desire—what a character wants or needs—forms the backbone of any fictional plot and the basis of conflict. Often, when writers have problems generating a story, it’s because they’re not thinking in terms of a central, concrete desire, that which motivates the main character and moves them to action. They haven’t articulated for themselves what their main…
Read MoreHow to Be Confident in Your Writing
At some point early in our writing careers, we find ourselves asking a painful question: What if I’m not good enough? It’s an early indication that writing confidence—the ability to write freely, unimpeded by self-doubt—can be hard to come by. The focus of this article is learning how to be confident in your writing, and…
Read MoreThe 5 Elements of Dramatic Structure: Understanding Freytag’s Pyramid
What is Freytag’s Pyramid, and how can it help you write better stories? In simple terms, Freytag’s Pyramid is a five-part map of dramatic structure itself. Understanding the five steps of Freytag’s Pyramid will give you a clearer sense of what makes a strong, compelling story. Most stories follow a simple pattern called Freytag’s Pyramid.…
Read MoreCreative Writing Anxiety: What It Is and How to Overcome It
Editor’s Note: In this interview on writing anxiety, instructor Giulietta Nardone describes what creative writing anxiety is, what causes it, and—most importantly—how to get over writing anxiety. What is writing anxiety? There are many people who would like to start writing, or to take a writing class, but they never get started because the critical…
Read MoreHow to Write About Yourself and People You Know: Interview with Margo Perin
In this wide-ranging and honest interview, Writers.com instructor Margo Perin explores navigating writing about our own lives, and about the people we know. Below is a selected interview transcript: What are the first things people should know about navigating writing their own stories? Often people are motivated to write because they want to write about…
Read MoreCharacter Development Advice: 5 Tips for Creating Characters that Breathe and Move and Can’t Stop Talking
Editor’s note: This is the second of two articles (first here) on the fundamentals of character development written for Writers.com by our instructor Gloria Kempton, in support of a full character development course she’s developing. In this article, Gloria answers a number of commonsense questions about character development. 1. What makes a character relatable? Vulnerability.…
Read MoreEssential Character Development Questions: 3 Questions to Ask Every Character You Write
Editor’s note: This is the first of two articles (second here) on the fundamentals of character development written for Writers.com by our instructor Gloria Kempton, in support of a full character development course she’s developing. In this article, Gloria covers the three essential questions you should ask each character you write. There are three questions…
Read MoreEight Questions About the Novella, Answered
In this interview, Writers.com instructor Jack Smith answers our top eight questions about the novella form—everything from “How many words in a novella?” to his best advice on learning the novella form, writing, and maybe even publishing your own novella. 1. What is a novella, and how many words are there in a novella? What distinguishes…
Read MoreSeven Questions for Your Writing Journey in 2020
In our view, writing should not be a popularity contest, a struggle for validation, or a competitive sport. Instead, writing is a personal journey: an ongoing exploration, personally meaningful in ways and for reasons that are unique to each one of us, and with destinations that we ourselves choose and venture toward. In this article,…
Read MoreEmbodied Writing: Interview with Rosemary Tantra Bensko
In this interview, Writers.com instructor Rosemary Tantra Bensko discusses her practice of embodied writing, a creative writing process that uses movement exercises to access the wisdom of the whole body. How did you get interested in the relationship between writing and the body? Around five years ago, I was reading the new reports that came out…
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