Welcome to our first official installment of #5onFri or “Five on Friday.” This is a weekly column by members of the DIY MFA community, showcasing books (and other writerly things) that we love. Got an idea for a #5onFri? Submit it as a guest post pitch. To kick off our #5onFri series, first I thought I’d share… Read more »
At some point in your career as a writer, you’re going to have to ask for help. Whether it’s asking readers to buy your book, or asking a mentor for advice, asking someone to help you promote your project… etc. Asking for help means swallowing our pride and admitting that we can’t do it all… Read more »
Today’s interview is all about writing and the magic of poetry. I’m so thrilled to introduce Marilyn Singer, who I first met at Book Expo America many years ago and whose work I both love and admire. A New Yorker born and raised, Marilyn has published more than a hundred books for children and young… Read more »
Point of view is tricky and a lot of writers struggle to make sense of it. We often think of writing purely as an art but when it comes to point of view (POV), there’s definitely a science to it. When I first started writing I had no idea what POV was all about so… Read more »
Here’s a quick sneak peek of our flagship course DIY MFA 101. We have a private, members-only website for the class, with exciting features to make accessing the course materials easy. The workshops unlock sequentially on different weeks of the class. Each workshop contains three video lessons with companion worksheets. We also include an audio-only version and… Read more »
Welcome to our very first podcast interview. My goal with these interviews is for you to hear directly from top authors, agents, editors and book industry experts. It is such a pleasure to be interviewing the fabulous author, and a good friend, Karen Dionne, for our first interview. Karen is the internationally published author of Freezing… Read more »
“Write beautifully, with a strong, distinctive voice, and have a premise worthy of such great writing.” These words–from my own agent (Jeff Kleinman at Folio Literary Management)–are probably the best advice I’ve ever received as a writer. After all, the #1 way to improve your odds of getting published is to write a great book so… Read more »
The first five pages of your manuscript are SO important. Not only do they set the tone for your entire story, but when you submit your novel to an agent, the first five pages are the first thing (aside from your query) that the agent is going to see. This means that you have to… Read more »
Today’s episode is all about what happens when your characters start getting ideas and do something completely unexpected. Scary as it may seem, these moments are gold, and you’ve got to run with them. By allowing your character to act in a manner exactly opposite of what is expected, you give a new dimension to… Read more »
People think creativity exists only when options are endless. The truth is that infinite possibilities can be paralyzing. There’s research to support this: that when people have too many options, they’re much less likely to take decisive action. But setting limits for your writing can be a good thing. It’s only in limiting your choices… Read more »
