Web Editor’s Note: Please join me in welcoming Abigail K. Perry to the DIY MFA team! In her column, Let’s Talk Books, she’ll be dissecting passages from great writers, breaking down why what they do works, and how you can apply it to your own writing. Have you ever walked into a park and people watched? How… Read more »
When you hear the term “break out of your comfort zone” you probably think about something drastic like sky diving or quitting your job to live on the road. These are completely valid ways to break out of your comfort zone, but you don’t have to do anything nearly so drastic to find the perfect… Read more »
When I made my first attempt at NaNoWriMo, I was living in Florence and was quite literally inspired every time I turned a corner. As I walked down the quaint streets, beautiful sentences would write themselves in my head. One might assume, then, that my writing reflected the splendor of the city; elegant as the… Read more »
Hey there word nerds! Thanks for being here with me today. I’m so excited to share this interview with you. It’s a little bit different from what I usually do. Instead of being the one hosting the interview, in this episode I’m sharing an interview that I gave for my friend Joanna Penn on The… Read more »
I knew I was a devotee of Gabriela’s DIY MFA philosophy, but I didn’t know by how much until I read her book. I joined the team and started writing columns for the site a year and a half ago. My writing has gone a wild ride since then. When I started, I was a lowly… Read more »
Hey there Word Nerd! Today I’m thrilled to interview Megan Dowd Lambert, author of Reading Picture Books with Children and children’s literature expert. Megan is a senior lecturer at Simmons College, where she earned her master’s degree in children’s literature after completing a B.A. at Smith College. She writes for Horn Book Magazine, served on… Read more »
Stephen King says, “If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” Most of us know that if we really want to improve our writing we need to read, a lot. But most of us also have day jobs, families, and adult responsibilities on top of… 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 »
Hello hello Word Nerds and welcome back to DIY MFA Radio. Today I’m interviewing Lorin Stein, editor of The Paris Review, and we’ll be talking about literature, reading, and what makes stories great. We’ll also be discussing a book he recently edited titled The Unprofessionals: New American Writing from The Paris Review. But first, here’s a little bit… Read more »
Some people imagine writing for kids and immediately picture Dr. Suess or baby board books. But the good news is you don’t have to use simple words to write for elementary kids if that’s not your style. Go ahead and use rich, succulent vocabulary and varied sentence structure—please! There are plenty of kids who are… Read more »
