Honoring Your Writer Identity

For some writers the very act of calling themselves a writer feels like an accomplishment. For others it feels like an act of defiance. Others still can’t bring themselves to acknowledge their talent and how far their hard work has gotten them. I recently watched an episode of The Comedians (it’s not a new show,… Read more »

#5onFri: Five Tips for Creating Your Villain

Somehow bad guys and gals are in many ways more challenging to create than our so-called heroes or heroines. This is an area of your writing that invites you to stretch yourself, to play with multiple violations, remembering that you will fall in love with this character, and you will have to manage, at the… Read more »

DIY Writing: Are you giving yourself a chance?

I have wanted to write for as long as I could remember. … No, that’s not really the truth. I’ve wanted to express myself for as long as I can remember. … No, that’s not it either. I’ve wanted. Now we’re getting somewhere. I want. Yeah, right there. Writing is another form of digging all… Read more »

Sweet Writing is Made of Dreams

During this strange state of the world that we’re living in right now, I’ve noticed that my creativity and motivation in some areas has completely and utterly taken a nosedive. At the beginning of the year, I usually came up with story or writing ideas fairly regularly — pulling together a part of a universe… Read more »

Writer Fuel: Lesson #6 – Honor Your Reality

I need to confess something: this newsletter has been a real struggle for me to write. For the past several months my team and I had gotten into a good rhythm. We had mapped out the newsletter topics for the “10 Lessons in 10 Years” series. We had figured out a streamlined workflow. We had… Read more »

#5onFri: Five Books To Propel Your Memoir Writing

Writing a memoir is not easy. Like any genre, we need a compelling narrative arc driven by good scenes full of sensory details and great dialog. But we also need to create meaning from experience and offer takeaways for our readers. We need to claim our own emotional truth.  Negative critics jabber away in our… Read more »

Email 102: Building Your Author Newsletter List

Don’t Do What I Did: Mistakes in Indie Publishing When I started my indie career, I made a lot of mistakes with my email list. I knew I needed a mailing list, but I didn’t know the best way to get addresses legally and ethically or what to do with them once I had them…. Read more »

#5onFri: Five Common Traits of Successful Authors

Since the onset of the 21st century, writing has undoubtedly evolved in a lot of remarkable ways. Now, more than ever, writers from all niches have access to more resources to help them create genuinely outstanding literature. While the scope of available writing tools might have expanded and access to resources increased, the fundamental principles… Read more »

Sara Farmer

Interview with Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Editor’s Note: Columnist, Sara Farmer, is writing a limited series for DIY MFA in which she interviews authors of color who write thrillers. She is kicking off the series with Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic, Gods of Jade and Shadow, Certain Dark Things, Untamed Shore, and more. Check back in two weeks for the next installment!… Read more »