I just returned from a week at SleuthFest, the Mystery Writer’s of America Florida chapter’s annual conference. A self-confessed ThrillerFest fan, I was skeptical how this conference would compare. ThrillerFest has nearly one-thousand attendees and almost forty editors/agents who participate. You can get lost in the ThrillerFest’s endless sea of workshops and author panels. At around two-hundred… Read more »
We all get in funks while writing. When we hit one it’s like a fire slowly dying, deprived of oxygen. When we sit at the same location day after day, it can close in and suffocate the fresh air that tickles our brains and revives our senses. One of the best ways to recharge your… Read more »
One of the most common questions writers get asked is: “How do you come up with your ideas?” Creativity is the backbone of storytelling because without creative ideas there are no stories. You want to have as many ideas, or “sparks” as I call them, as possible. But how do you come up with those… Read more »
Imagine this. You wake up one dewy Saturday morning, sit down with your laptop and a hot cup of Earl Grey to check your email, and you find this: a green light for that story you pitched the editor last week, fan emails full of questions and enthusiastic thank yous, and an invitation to interview for… Read more »
Happy Friday Word Nerds! Today I want to talk about one of my personal obsessions: planners. In high school and college, one of my favorite yearly purchases was the perfect planner, always bought in August, in time for school. The options were basically what the bookstore had to offer. But now, there are so many options for planners…. Read more »
Happy Friday, Word Nerds! Today I want to talk about guest posts. One of my favorite parts about my job as Web Editor is hosting other writers on DIY MFA. Over the years, we’ve had many guest posts that have been a benefit to our community and the guest poster. In some cases, guest posters… Read more »
I’m always on the lookout for writing apps that will boost my productivity and make all my creative troubles disappear. You know what I’m talking about: that perfect app that combines the power of a PC with the form-meets-function beauty of a Mac. Oh, and it writes your book for you too. Yeah, right. The… Read more »
Happy New Year Word Nerds! We’re saying farewell to 2015 and ringing in 2016 in a big way here at DIY MFA. 2015 brought all kinds of awesome, including our first conference and Gabriela turning in the DIY MFA book! 2016 promises to be even more amazing as we gear up for the publication and a… Read more »
It’s hard to believe 2015 is almost over! One of the things we encourage here at DIY MFA is reading with purpose. Every reader may not be a writer but I think it’s safe to say every writer is a reader. We asked five members of the DIY MFA team to tell us what their… Read more »
We’ve all been there. You’re sipping eggnog and listening to your aunt bragging about your baby cousin’s latest football victory. You’re wrapping gifts with your sisters. Gathering to watch the ball drop on New Year’s Eve. And just when you think you’ve made it through the holidays unscathed, someone turns and asks the five most terrifying… Read more »
