Melanie Marttila

Mythic Storytelling: Tarot for Writers, Part 3

Greetings, my lovely Speculators! I hope you’re keeping safe and well in these remarkable times. I also hope you’ve enjoyed this miniseries on the tarot for writers so far. To recap, in Part 1, I offered a brief introduction to the tarot, in Part 2, I reviewed five books on the tarot for writers, and… Read more »

Sarah Fraser

#5onFri: Five Signs You’re Ready to Work With an Editor

When we’re elbows-deep in outlining, drafting, redrafting and revising our manuscripts, it can be hard to imagine that our works in progress will ever be truly finished. Yet, we will inevitably get to the end—or what feels like it could be the end—of our novel-writing process. And when that happens, the question of what to… Read more »

Pamela Taylor

Conversations: Alison Weir

Mark your calendars for August 6th. That’s when Alison Weir’s newest historical fiction novel – Katheryn Howard: The Tainted Queen – will be available in bookshops and online. Better still, preorder it now and you’ll be among the first to have it. Though some describe Weir’s non-fiction as “popular” history (she even uses the term… Read more »

Leanne Sowul

The Power of Paying Attention

Well hello there, writers! How are you all doing out there? Oh, you’re struggling? Yeah, me too. At least, I’m struggling to write this post. You see, this is the first post I’ve written for DIY MFA since the pandemic started, and when it goes live, we’ll probably still be under some level of quarantine…. Read more »

Pamela Gay

#5onFri: Five Ways to Write About Something Difficult

Writing about something difficult is, well, difficult—at first. You can’t process something emotionally charged all at once any more than you can write anything from start to finish in one fell swoop. I recommend you JustWrite before you start drafting. Think of this writing as a kind of warm-up that will help you discover what… Read more »

Gabriela Pereira

Writer Fuel: Lesson #2 – Act “As If”

In the last installment of “Ten Lessons in Ten Years” I talked about the importance of building the right things. In this article, I’ll walk you through how to make that happen. The key is to act “as if.” Lesson #2: Act “As If” Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We write books because we… Read more »