A critique group can make or break your writing. Choose the wrong one and their bad advice can ruin everything you did right in your story. Or worse, a bad critique can kill your confidence and make you want to quit writing altogether. More than a few critique groups have killed a promising writer’s confidence […]
Writing Prompt #122: Memory Lapse?
Writing Prompt #122 I hit play and watched myself in the recording. But what I saw isn’t what I remembered. 3 Steps to Your Story Consider the prompt for five minutes. Who is speaking? What is the recording of? What exactly is different between the character’s memory of the events versus the recorded events? What […]
Novelists and Reporters: 6 Trust-Building Ways To Get Your Subjects Talking
This is part four of the five-part Sonia Nazario Series for Writers. Read the rest of the series for writing insights from this Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and author. Mandy: You’ve said that Enrique wasn’t always forthcoming with his story because it was emotionally traumatic. Do you have any tips for future reporters? How do you persuade interviewees […]
Writing for an Online Audience: 3 Resources To Help You Nail The Style
You know how every type of writing has its own style? Like academic writing is logical and devoid of emotion. Technical writing is about numbers and steps. Fiction is emotion, sensation, experience. Online writing has its own style too. That’s why blog posts feel so different from fiction. But you can learn a lot about fiction […]
Writing Prompt #121: Duty-Bound
Writing Prompt #121 It wasn’t my idea to destroy it. But it was my job to get it done. Find Your Story in These 3 Steps Take 5 minutes to think about the prompt. Who is speaking? What’s the job? Why is it this character’s job and why does s/he feel obligated to do it? Write […]