The Writing Life
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…
Read MoreTakeaways from AWP 2023
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:…
Read MoreHow to Set SMART Writing Goals for 2023
Happy 2023! 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.…
Read MoreCreative Writing Feedback: 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?…
Read MoreRemembering 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…
Read MoreThe Best Online Writing Workshops: How to Succeed in Creative Writing Workshops
Creative writing workshops can take your writing to the next level. The chance to experiment with your writing in a community is invaluable, and getting live feedback on your work will propel you through your writing career. That said, there are plenty of writing workshops where writers get less than what they bargained for. Finding…
Read More“Show, Don’t Tell” in Creative 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…
Read MoreBecoming 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…
Read MoreLearn to Write! 8 Tips on Learning How to Write
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…
Read MoreDiscourse and Dial-Up: The History of Writers.com
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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