Over the past few weeks as we anxiously awaited the review copy of the DIY MFA book, the Street Team has been hard at work, contemplating their weekly prompts and tackling big questions about their writing lives. We waded in deep this month with some heavy questions. It’s not easy to admit fear, weakness, and… Read more »
The notion that one should not understand too much about how to write is very common in writing workshops across the country. The refrain is that one should only write. I don’t think that attitude is helpful. We value experiment in science; we respect practice and rehearsal in theater and music; yet many fiction writers… 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 »
Conquer the Craft in 29 Days (#CTC29) is off to a fantastic start! Already we have over 500 writers participating in this DIY MFA writing challenge, and Twitter is a-buzz with people sharing updates and progress. I’ve had a few people email me with questions and I’ve noticed a few that have come up again… Read more »
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 »
Over the past few weeks, you may have noticed we’ve had a bit of a recurring theme on the DIY MFA site — Writing Challenges. Becca gave us 29 reasons to do a writing challenge, Melinda talked about what a writing challenge is (and isn’t!), and I wrote about how a writing challenge can help you. Just in case we… Read more »
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 »
“I only like to write when the muse moves me, but I’m having trouble getting the motivation to finish something. Help!” –Bemused You know what you need? A good ol’ fashioned dunk in an icy lake! Just kidding. But it’s 95 degrees here and I’m a little delirious with the heat. Writing challenges are popular in… Read more »
