What can often happen in creative nonfiction is that we feel we must be interesting individuals at all times. At first glance, that wouldn’t seem to be an unreasonable request. If we’re going to write about our lives, might as well highlight the most intense and real moments, right? That actually happens to be pretty… Read more »
If you frequently visit DIY MFA, then you’re likely serious about your writing. You probably also have a day job, a family, and other day-to-day responsibilities that compete with your creative pursuits. Yet both sides of a writer’s life – the creative and the real – can’t be ignored. Each deserves time, respect, and attention,… Read more »
Some writers strike lightning on their first books—landing an agent, a book deal, even the Times list on the very first manuscript they’ve ever written. This article is not for those writers (though I tip my hat to them). This is for the rest of us—the writers with a novel, or two, or ten, in… Read more »
If you are a multi-passionate artist, you may have several ways in which you create. Maybe you write, but have several projects happening at once. Or you have multiple projects in different genres. Perhaps your passions live not just in a pen, but a pencil or paintbrush, and your creations want to be born in a… Read more »
It’s common knowledge that the beginning of a novel is crucial to gaining the reader’s interest and this is especially true in manuscript submissions. If the acquiring editor is hooked, they’ll want to read more and it could lead to a contract. Alternately, if the story fails to grab them, they’ll likely reject the book…. Read more »
We’ve covered two plot points so far in Developing Themes In Your Stories: the inciting incident, which thrusts the protagonist into a story’s external conflict; and the Act I choice, where the protagonist takes the first step to achieving his goal. Now he’s in the thick of that goal pursuit, but not everything has been… Read more »
Beginning with a parachute drop in the night skies of 1980’s Afghanistan and ending in the recent Paris terrorist attacks, Assassins is a contemporary historical novel of last thirty years of conflict between Islam and the West. Based largely on my own experiences and those of others I know, Assassins lives this unending war through… Read more »
The writing life is a constant rollercoaster of ups and downs. One day you’re struck with inspiration and don’t dare to pry your hands away from the keyboard even if the house is on fire. Other days, you doubt every single word you wrote the day before. Whether it’s the inspiration to create, the confidence… Read more »
I recently watch a documentary on Netflix called “Minimalism.” It’s a concept I’d already heard of—having read Marie Kondo’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up last year. In that book, Kondo advocates a sort of personal minimalism, wherein you only keep possessions that “Spark Joy.” The documentary, “Minimalism” follows Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan… Read more »
I’m a self-described builder, a maker of things. I’ve been working on a tool to help my writing, it’s a notebook fused with workbook combined with productivity hack. I call it INDITE and it’s currently funding on Indiegogo. I’d love it if you could check it out right here. While working on this special writers… Read more »
