How to Set SMART Writing Goals for 2024

smart writing goals

Happy 2024! We hope this year will be full of writing for you—and if you’re like us, you’ve even got writing goals among your New Year’s Resolutions. One thing to consider is that not all goals are created equal. Goals can be fuzzy (“I want to write more”), over-ambitious, or have lots of other issues.…

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How to Write a Novel

how to write a novel

The novel form is a large, unwieldy, towering project, and if you find yourself wondering how to write a novel, you might already be daunted by the project’s size and complexity. Good. How you’re feeling is how every great novelist has ever felt before approaching the blank page; you have already put yourself in the…

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Takeaways from AWP 2023

AWP 2023 open your mind book

Our staff just got back from AWP 2023, a huge annual literary conference that was held in Seattle this year. To start with, here are the equivalent of 9,000 words in pictures from AWP itself, especially the book fair and offsite events which we were most involved in: Three of us were able to go:…

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Creative Writing Feedback: How to Workshop Creative Writing

how to workshop creative writing

Writing workshops are a wonderful way to grow and expand your writing skills—provided you know how to workshop creative writing. There are different writing workshop models, both online and in person, each with their own particular ways of benefiting your writing journey. What are those models, and how do you engage in proper critique writing?…

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Remembering Instructor Shelley Singer

Longtime Writers.com instructor Shelley Singer passed away on Thursday, November 10, 2022. Below, Writers.com founder Mark Dahlby reflects on a work relationship that spans the age of the internet itself. When Writers.com sent out an email in 1995, listing its first classes to be offered, Shelley Singer was one of the teachers. She continued teaching…

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“Show, Don’t Tell” in Creative Writing

show dont tell the golden rule of writing

“Show, don’t tell” is one of the simplest guidelines in creative writing, and one of the most helpful. In short, it encourages writers to transmit experiences to the reader, rather than just information. “Show, don’t tell” encourages writers to transmit experiences to the reader, rather than just information. “Show, don’t tell” is not just a…

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Becoming a Poet: Learn to Write Poetry!

Becoming a Poet: Learn to Write Poetry!

Becoming a poet is no simple task, but with careful attention to language and the world around us, anyone can learn to write poetry. Even so, sitting down to put feelings to stanzas can seem impossible. With so many possibilities to tinker with language, where does the poet even begin? Whether you’ve just begun your…

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Learn to Write! 8 Tips on Learning How to Write

How to learn to write professionally

Learning to write is a process, one that requires consistent hard work and determination—and perhaps some magic! But, as with any other skill, it’s important to work hard on the right thing. Instead of providing a list of pointers on how to learn to write for general purposes, this guide will offer eight key tips…

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Discourse and Dial-Up: The History of Writers.com

writers.com wayback machine

This is an interview with Mark Dahlby, the founder of Writers.com. Mark started Writers.com in 1995 as the first website for online writing education—and one of the first websites, period. He operated the site through all the changes that led to the modern internet, until retiring to an emeritus role in 2019. In this interview,…

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