Poetry
24 of the Best Writing Exercises to Become a Better Writer
The best writing exercises bring out our latent creativity. Especially if you ever feel stuck or blocked, making creative writing exercises part of your daily writing practice can be a great way to both hone your skills and explore new frontiers in your writing. Whether you’re a poet, essayist, storyteller, or genre-bending author, these free…
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 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 More8 Things to Know Before Signing Up for Online Poetry Classes
If you’ve never taken poetry workshops online, it can be hard to tell if they’re worth your time and money. In truth, no two online poetry classes are the same, but there are certainly classes out there that will help you along your journey as a poet. What do the best online poetry classes have…
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…
Read MoreMindful Writing: Interview with Marc Olmsted
In this interview, Writers.com instructor Marc Olmsted explores the connection between mindfulness and writing, and especially how writing mindfully can improve our poetry, fiction, and other creative writing. Below is the full video interview: Here is a text transcript (edited into sections): What mindfulness is I’m very influenced by the simple instructions of Padmasambhava, the Indian meditation…
Read MoreWhat is Good Poetry? Interview with Jonathan McClure
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt of an interview on “What is good poetry?” with Writers.com instructor Jonathan McClure, author of the recently published poetry anthology The Fire Lit and Nearing. In this excerpt, Jonathan describes what he believes is the main element of good poetry, as well as the most common issue that makes…
Read MoreWriting the Young Adult Poetry Novel: Interview with Kelly Bingham
We recently interviewed instructor Kelly Bingham on a literary form that is quickly growing in popularity: the young adult poetry novel. In this discussion, Kelly outlines the strengths and challenges of the young adult poetry novel form, describes her journey through her own poetry novels, and offers advice for anyone interested in poetry novel writing. Interview:…
Read More