Over a decade ago, in one of my first college writing workshops, I commented that a story’s eclectic vocabulary jarred me out of its narrative. The author’s suave, privately-schooled best friend was in our class, and he volleyed my critique back: “It would’ve taken seconds to look up aquiline on your iPhone.” I had a… Read more »
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Rachel Beanland. Rachel Beanland writes fiction and essays, and has recently released her debut novel. Her essays have appeared in Creative Nonfiction and Broad Street, among other places, and she has an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. With bachelor’s degrees in art history and journalism,… Read more »
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Diane Zinna. Originally from Long Island, Diane received her MFA from the University of Florida and went on to teach creative writing for ten years. She formerly worked at AWP—the Association of Writers & Writing Programs—which hosts the largest literary conference in North America each year. In 2014,… Read more »
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Sara Schaff. Sara Schaff is the author of two short story collections The Invention of Love and Say Something Nice About Me. She is a CLMP Firecracker Award Finalist in fiction and a finalist for the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Award for short fiction. Her writing has… Read more »
Deciding to attend a writer’s conference for the first time is like deciding to visit a foreign country. You Google, do your research, and learn a new language (words like “pitch,” “logline,” “platform” and “query”). By the time you get to the conference you’re competent that your knowledge of genres and age groups is enough… Read more »
Today’s episode is part two in our series, An Insider’s Guide to Critique Groups and we’re talking about techniques you can use to give helpful critique to your fellow writers. Giving critique that is helpful and direct is something you have to practice. Whether you’re working with one critique partner or with a group of writers,… Read more »
One week ago, I head the pleasure of attending the Writer’s Digest Conference East (WDCE) in NYC. This is one of my favorite writing conferences of the year and it’s a great event writers in all stages of their careers. Novice writers can enjoy the inspirational keynote speakers and great lectures on writing craft and… Read more »
A few weeks ago we ran an online workshop called 7 Techniques to Boost Your Writing. We were so thrilled with how it went that we’ve decided to host another one. This workshop is designed to help you boost your writing and get your story back on track. Whether you’re stuck on how to start,… Read more »
In our last article, we talked about building your community through in-person events like conferences, author readings or other such gatherings. Today we’ll address the issue of using writing classes and workshops as a way to meet and connect with other writers. Wait, what? You read that right. I’m suggesting that one great way to… Read more »
Few writers can thrive in isolation. Sooner or later, we all need a little boost in our writing, some external structure to help us make the jump to the next level. And a writing workshop can be a great way to do that. When I use the term “writing workshop” I’m talking about a group… Read more »
