Thanks so much for listening to DIY MFA Radio! This weekly show offers tips and techniques that you can apply to your writing practice right now. In today’s episode, I’ll show you a simple three-step process to help you pump up your writing with prompts. When I first started writing in earnest, I didn’t know what to… Read more »
Inspiration is for sissies. If you have to wait for inspiration to write, you’re in trouble. This is because you’re at the mercy of your muse, who may or may not choose to take the occasional day (or month) off. To combat this problem, you need to build your writing practice and learn to write even… Read more »
Welcome to the first episode of DIY MFA Radio, our new podcast! I’m so happy to share this creative adventure with you. This weekly show will offer tips and techniques that you can apply to your writing practice right now. My goal is to help you get those words on the page and finish that book… Read more »
DIY MFA is launching a podcast! OMG, right? Here at DIY MFA we are so excited to share this with you because it’s been secretly in the works for the last six months at least. Honestly, I don’t know if I could have kept the secret much longer. We’re scheduled to launch our first episode next… Read more »
Conquer the Craft in 29 Days (#CTC29) is off to a fantastic start! Already we have over 500 writers participating in this DIY MFA writing challenge, and Twitter is a-buzz with people sharing updates and progress. I’ve had a few people email me with questions and I’ve noticed a few that have come up again… Read more »
Our new writing challenge Conquer the Craft in 29 Days (#CTC29) starts today. During this challenge, writers do one prompt per day for 29 days. I’ve handpicked the prompts so that they cover all the important topics in the craft of fiction and structured the challenge so that by the end of 29 days, writers will… Read more »
This is the fourth post in my series on the benefits of writing with an outline. In my first post, I listed three reasons why most writers need an outline. In the second, I discussed three things to keep in mind when creating an outline. In the third, I talked about how to use one while drafting. In this… Read more »
“I just got a book of character archetypes, but it seems so limiting. Do I really have to categorize all of my characters into these types?” –Confused & Characterless To answer your question, Confused & Characterless, I give you another quote: “They’re more like guidelines than actual rules.” –Captain Barbossa I highly approve of character… Read more »
Over the past few weeks, you may have noticed we’ve had a bit of a recurring theme on the DIY MFA site — Writing Challenges. Becca gave us 29 reasons to do a writing challenge, Melinda talked about what a writing challenge is (and isn’t!), and I wrote about how a writing challenge can help you. Just in case we… Read more »
I am so excited to announce that I will be speaking at the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference. This is one of my favorite conferences, and an incredible opportunity to meet other writers, learn more about craft and the industry, and pitch your book to agents. I’ve attended the Writer’s Digest Conference since 2011. For past few years… Read more »
