Conquer the Craft Starts Today!

Our new writing challenge Conquer the Craft in 29 Days (#CTC29) starts today. During this challenge, writers do one prompt per day for 29 days. I’ve handpicked the prompts so that they cover all the important topics in the craft of fiction and structured the challenge so that by the end of 29 days, writers will… Read more »

How a Writing Challenge Can Help YOU

We’ve been talking a lot about writing challenges here at DIY MFA lately. Last week Becca shared 29 reasons why you should do them and earlier this week Melinda talked about what results you can get from a challenge. Not sold on the concept? Here’s how a writing challenge can help you write more, write better, and write smarter. 1) Write More Most writing challenges… Read more »

DIY MFA Weekend Writing Sprint — May 2014

Have you been talking about finishing that draft but never seem to find the time to do it? Is there a story you’ve been dying to write but somehow life always gets in the way? Don’t worry, we’ve been there and we totally get how you feel. This is why DIY MFA is hosting another Writing… Read more »

April Weekend Writing Sprint Recap

Two weekends ago we hosted our second DIY MFA Weekend Writing Sprint, a weekend writing extravaganza! Around 200 writers joined this virtual writing retreat from around the globe. It was EPIC, though I’ll admit by the end of the weekend I felt a bit like the sea lions pictured on the right. What impressed me… Read more »

DIY MFA Will Be at WANACon

I am so excited to share that I’ll be representing DIY MFA at a fabulous online conference later this month. WANACon is an awesome conference and–get this–you can attend in your jammies! Seriously, it doesn’t get much better than that when you can hear from top industry experts and connect with other likeminded writers all… Read more »

DIY MFA Is on the Radio!

Let me tell you a little secret: I’ve always dreamed of being on the radio. As a kid, I’d listen to radio shows and was always fascinated by this idea that what I had to say could be transported to listeners across the country or even the globe. The truth is, radio and I seem… Read more »

#1 Tool to Make You a More Productive Writer

Productivity has been on my mind a lot these past weeks. The new year always makes me want to reevaluate my creative process and push myself to become a more productive writer. This year in particular this topic has felt very relevant to me. Between launching DIY MFA 101 and getting ready for a new baby,… Read more »

Writers Need a Team: Meet the Team at DIY MFA

Writers are solitary creatures. We choose to isolate ourselves in imaginary worlds of our own creation for hours, months, years at a time. We often feel protective or possessive of our projects, hoarding our words away like Gollum with his “precioussss.” These are survival skills we learn as writers. We have to seclude ourselves and… Read more »

Turning Your Writing Resolutions into Reality

This is the last installment from the DIY MFA holiday archive (first published in December 2011). In this article, learn three easy steps to help you turn those writing resolutions into reality. Let’s start 2014 off with a bang! When it comes to actually reaching our goals, we have to remember one thing: no matter… Read more »