Writing Tips
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Write into the Week: January 27, 2025
“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” –Fred Rogers Dear Writer, I hope you’re having a good start to your week. In this newsletter: A writing prompt to inspire your creativity. Reading and listening recommendations in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Publishing, residency, and retreat opportunities…
The Importance of Word Choice in Writing
All strong writers have something in common: they understand the value of word choice in writing. Strong word choice uses vocabulary and language to maximum effect, creating clear moods and images and making your stories and poems more powerful and vivid. The meaning of “word choice” may seem simple, but learning to choose the right…
What is the Oxford Comma? Examples and How to Use It
Anyone who’s been on the internet or listened to Vampire Weekend has heard of the oxford comma. This small, specific punctuation mark has received outsized attention and a meme-like status, despite simply being an optional tool of written communication. Although grammarians and internet pundits alike have large opinions about the little mark, let’s get one…
From Our Instructors
Writing About Real People
Sneak Peek: This essay is excerpted from some of the materials I’ll be sharing in my class, “The Body and Soul of Your Memoir: Shape, Focus, and Write Your Memoir” at Writers.com starting October 21st. When my memoir, The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community and Coming Home to the Body,…
Learn to Write! 8 Tips on Learning How to Write
If you’re here, you want to learn to write—whether that’s poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or something in-between. Learning to write is a process, and it is something that writers learn and relearn throughout their lives. To quote Ernest Hemingway, “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” But anyone can…
How to Become a Poet
If you’re here, you’re wondering how to become a poet. The good news is, anyone can learn to write poetry—and if you’ve ever written a poem before, you can already call yourself a poet. Even so, sitting down to put feelings to stanzas can seem impossible. With so many possibilities to tinker with language, where…
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Writing Prompts
Jump-start your creativity with our writing prompts. Check back regularly for new prompts!
Show and Tell
Write a story or poem about an object with a lot of nostalgic value for you/the narrator. Do not, at any point, tell the reader explicitly what this object is.
Forgive and Forget
Write a story or poem about a time when you had to forget something to maintain a friendship or relationship.
Trash Day
Collect pieces of “junk writing”—spam emails, credit card advertisements, roadside billboards, bumper stickers, etc. Then, write a story or poem that uses all of the junk writing you collected.