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Writers.com

The first writing school on the Internet

Ode Poetry: How to Write an Ode Poem

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The ode poem is an ages-old poetry form that praises and celebrates people, places, things, and ideas. Poets have written odes to Grecian urns, the west wind, the hymen, and to childhood intimations of immortality. If you’re looking to write a poem in praise of something, you might want to learn how to write an […]

How to Write Flash Fiction Stories

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Like a lightning strike, flash fiction stories can be over in an instant—radically altering the terrain of the reader’s imagination. These bite-sized stories take a lot of style, skill, and effective word choice to pull off. Many writers try to conquer the flash fiction form in their writing careers, but the short-short story requires lots […]

Satire Definition: How to Write Satire

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If there’s any genre of literature designed to make fun of humankind, it’s satire. In both prose and poetry, writers have employed satirical techniques as far back as Ancient Egypt, utilizing the conventions and elements of satire to write about our follies. Satire writing has become more popular in recent years. This is partially due […]

Sonnet Poems: How to Write a Sonnet

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The sonnet is a poetry form that poets have wielded for centuries—from Petrarch and Shakespeare to Marilyn Nelson and Terrance Hayes. These 14-line poems use restrictions of length and rhythm to deliver lyrical, captivating musings on themes like love and death. Poets interested in short-form work can gain a lot from learning how to write […]

Word Play: Examples of a Play on Words

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It goes without saying that writers are drawn to language, but because we love words so much, the English language is filled with word play. By interrogating the complexities of language—homophones, homographs, words with multiple meanings, sentence structures, etc.—writers can explore new possibilities in their work through a play on words. It’s easiest to employ […]

Braided Essays and How to Write Them

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When I first started reading and writing creative nonfiction, I was particularly struck by the “braided essay”—its poeticism, its interlacing movements, its endless possibilities. The beauty of a braid lies in the way it weaves distinct strands into a coherent whole, the way individual strands intermittently appear and disappear. If you’ve ever felt like your […]

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

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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, […]

Protagonist Definition: How to Create the Perfect Protagonist

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If you’re writing any kind of fiction, from a short story to a screenplay, your story has a protagonist. This is the character or characters around whom the story centers. Without a well crafted protagonist, the rest of the story falls short, so careful consideration of a story’s protagonist(s) is crucial to effective storytelling. In […]

Irony Definition: Different Types of Irony in Literature

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What is irony? Well, it’s like rain on your wedding day. It’s a free ride, when you’ve already paid. ’90s radio is helpful here. Okay; but what is irony? It can often be easier to point to specific ironies than to find a definition of irony itself that hits home. Irony involves contradiction of our […]

Haiku Poems: How to Write a Haiku

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Combining the restraint of short-form poetry with centuries of tradition, haiku poems are a popular form for poets both classic and contemporary, both Western and Eastern. The haiku poetry tradition is rich with history, and while many poets know about the 5-7-5 rule, they don’t know all the requirements of the haiku format—much less how […]
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