The Human Side of the Publishing Industry

Last week, I was inspired. Truly inspired. After several days of chaos and anxiety–worrying about and tracking down friends, family and colleagues–I finally ventured out into New York City to attend the Backspace Agent-Author Seminar. By some miracle, the hotel hosting the conference still had power (the blackout area started just a few blocks south)…. Read more »

What Are Your Writing Fears?

This week, I want to talk about fear. Originally, I had planned this week’s articles to talk about fear as it relates to the spooky, trick-or-treat, Halloween spirit. Yet now, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and given some events that I recently learned about in the writing community last week, the fear I want… Read more »

Boost Your Creativity: Ideation Techniques for Writers

Welcome back to our two-part Q&A on creativity with Bryan Mattimore author of Idea Stormers: How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs. After hearing Bryan share his general insights on his approach to creativity I got really interested in finding out how writers might apply the techniques. So, mentioned a few different scenarios that writers… Read more »

Idea Stormers: Creativity Q&A with Bryan Mattimore

As many of you know, I’ve been on a major reading kick, consuming as many books about creativity and entrepreneurship as I can find. So, when a colleague sent me a copy of Idea Stormers: How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs by Bryan Mattimore a few weeks ago, it didn’t take long to get… Read more »

Agents Share Conference Tips

In less than two weeks, I will be attending the Backspace Agent-Author Seminar (Nov. 1 & 2) in New York City. I attended a Backspace conference once before–it’s actually where I first met my agent–and loved it. A newbie writer at the time, I appreciated the practical, no-nonsense advice I got on how to navigate… Read more »

Writer Igniter: The Story Behind the Web App

The Writer Igniter is a writing prompt generator with literally millions of possible story prompts. It currently exists as a web app right here at DIY MFA, but it hasn’t always been this high-tech. Read on to learn about the process behind how the DIY MFA Team and I developed this new feature. It all… Read more »

New Features at DIY MFA

DIY MFA has a whole new look, complete with new site, new logo, new FREE eBook and even a shiny new web app designed to help you come up with story ideas. With this new look, it means that we’ve made lots of changes to the format at DIY MFA. Read on for details about… Read more »

Creative Power Tool #3: Humility (and Hope)

Every writer needs a healthy dose of humility. Having a humble outlook is what lets us realize that we still need to work on our craft. That we should never rest on our laurels because our writing is never as good as it could be. That there’s always room for improvement. Humility is what makes… Read more »

Creative Power Tool #2: Silence

Last week we talked about the power of words and how we must use them with precision, and today we consider the counterpart of those words, the silence. After all, it’s not just what we choose to say, but what we choose not to say, that matters. To illustrate my point, I would like to… Read more »