Raise your hand if you’re stressed about the COVID-19 pandemic. I’m stressed. Everyone I know is stressed. We want to stay connected to the most current information, but that leads us down depressing rabbit holes projecting inconceivable changes to the way we live our lives. Social media offers a solution to keep us connected to… Read more »
Last week, the Internet Archive (the organization responsible for the Wayback Machine) announced that it was removing all waiting lists for its Open Library, effectively making 1.4 million copyrighted works available for free without the permission of writers or publishers. News outlets like NPR, The New Yorker, and Vice have reported on this “National Emergency… Read more »
J.K. Rowling…Stephen King…Danielle Steel…What author hasn’t dreamed of reaching this level of mega-fame with their own work? What author hasn’t sighed as we remind ourselves how unattainable it is? Because, of course, these names are the exception, not the rule, and rely on the conversion of many factors, including a little luck. But I have… Read more »
Hey there Word Nerds! We’re sharing this article from the DIY MFA archives today, talking all about making our own luck. Hope you enjoy! In These Happy Golden Years, the eighth Little House book, Ma Ingalls tells Laura that people make their own luck. This is illustrated in the story when Laura is kind to a girl in her… Read more »
The digital world is constantly evolving, and big shifts occurred in the social media landscape as we head into 2020. TikTok continues to grow rapidly, Instagram decided to remove its Like counts, Twitter changed up its format–and those are only a few of the changes that took place this year. For authors hustling to make… Read more »
There are times when I need to escape my normal routine and immerse myself in another world for a little while – to re-discover my inner child and head out on a mini-adventure… or, as I lovingly refer to them, field trips. I’ve discovered attending book fairs is a great way to get my “field… Read more »
It’s time for the final installment of our series on the WHY-WHAT-HOW of your writing life. In the first post, we discovered our writing purpose. In the second post, we turned that purpose into specific goals. Today’s focus will be on creating routines and habits that bring our purpose and goals into reality. Step One:… Read more »
Creating a writing space is both incredibly important and incredibly daunting. You need a space that will encourage your creativity without making you feel overwhelmed, which can be difficult to balance. Here are some tips to make it a little bit easier to build the perfect space for you. 1) Find a Comfortable Chair Having… Read more »
The book writing process has been likened to giving birth, and while that doesn’t translate in the remotest sense physically, there’s no doubt your first draft is the product of profound mental and emotional labor. You love it! It’s perfect! There’s nothing wrong with it! And then an editor comes along and has the audacity… Read more »
As we’ve talked about on DIY MFA in the past, setting goals can be a powerful tool to helping achieve our writing dreams. But what sort of goals should we be setting? There’s the obvious ones–like writing every day, finishing a certain project, or sending out queries. But there are many other ways to improve… Read more »
