Hey Word Nerds! OMG do I have some awesome news to share today. I’m beyond excited to announce that we are adding not one, not two, but three new columns to our regular DIY MFA schedule. One of my favorite parts of DIY MFA is building our community by bringing you more word nerd wisdom… Read more »
Ever wonder where an author got the idea for that fantastic character you love? Psst, I’ll let you in on a secret. Want to know how I find my characters? I collect them. OK it might sound strange, but really, how different is that from collecting stamps or seashells or bottle caps or baseball cards?… Read more »
Through fresh use of the very language we speak every day, poetry creates intrigue, and builds a connection between the author and the reader. But you don’t need to be a poet to use and benefit from poetic tools! Here are 5 tangible suggestions for learning to incorporate poetic tools into your prose. 1) Find… Read more »
Having previously outlined my Thirteen Rules of Successful Critique for those critiquing a piece, it’s only fair to now turn the spotlight on the writer. It takes incredible bravery for an author to bring his or her baby to a group of people for the specific purpose of having it sliced and diced while sitting… Read more »
Hey there word nerds! Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Ann Kidd Taylor to the show! Ann first broke onto the literary scene in 2009 with the New York Times bestselling memoir Traveling with Pomegranates, co-written with her mother, Sue Monk Kidd. She returns this summer with her debut novel, The Shark Club, which… Read more »
Early this year, I read a book called The Kite and the String: How To Write With Spontaneity and Control –and Live to Tell the Tale. It’s a fiction craft book featuring some of the requisite advice you’d expect from a writer with several novels under her belt and loads of short stories in The… Read more »
Web Editor’s Note: Please join me in welcoming Terri Frank to the DIY MFA team! In addition to being a writer, Terri is a professional librarian, and her column, “Your Personal Librarian” will give you tips and tricks to get more reading done, expand your knowledge of genres and authors and, of course, to read with… Read more »
I love writing characters. Creating new people from inside my head is my favorite part of writing stories. Then I’m not encumbered by that pesky thing called reality, and can let my writer brain run wild. My current work in progress has a large cast of characters aside from my protagonist. Each one has a… Read more »
As the leader of two writers groups and having led/attended over a hundred critique sessions, I have a lot of experience on which to draw. While many critique sessions go as intended, I’ve seen some go very, very wrong. More times than not, the miss stems from a single reason: readers going into critique to… Read more »
Hey there word nerds! Today I am so excited to have bestselling author of contemporary YA, Sarah Dessen on the show! Sarah has twelve previous novels to her name,several of which have hit the New York Times bestseller list, and discusses with us here her latest teen read Once And For All. Listen in as… Read more »
