Welcome to DIY MFA Radio, where I do a deep dive into the writing life as well as the craft and business of writing. Today’s episode continues our series: Ten Lessons from Ten Years of Podcasting. This is Lesson 3 – Embrace the Power of Iteration Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet?… Read more »
Writing—and reading—dialogue is one of my favorite things. I love how it allows the story to zip along, plus it makes me feel extra-smart because I read it so much faster than regular prose. I love how I can hear the characters’ voices in my head as though they are real people. I love how… Read more »
Welcome to DIY MFA Radio, where I do a deep dive into the writing life as well as the craft and business of writing. Today’s episode continues our series: Ten Lessons from Ten Years of Podcasting. This is Lesson 2 – Act “As If” Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet? This is… Read more »
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about writing-life balance, and what it looks like to live an author life. This topic has been on my mind because I’ve been secretly working on a new project for DIY MFA. This project is a free event that we’re planning for this Fall where I’m interviewing a bunch… Read more »
Welcome to DIY MFA Radio, where I do a deep dive into the writing life as well as the craft and business of writing. Today’s episode kicks off our series: Ten Lessons from Ten Years of Podcasting. This is Lesson 1 – Jump First, Build After. Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet?… Read more »
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about endings, in particular the denouement. The denouement is that “sigh of relief” that happens after the climax, that extra scene or two (or many) that allows the story to wrap up and come to a satisfying conclusion. It got me wondering why we even need a denouement. After… Read more »
About a month ago, I wrote a Writer Fuel on creative burnout and wow did that hit a nerve! I got a bunch of emails from folks sharing how much the newsletter resonated with them and telling me about their own experiences with burnout. One of the patterns I noticed as I read some of… Read more »
Sometimes we lose our writing mojo and, try as we might, we struggle with building momentum around our writing. No matter what we do, we can’t seem to get in a writing mood. This state of creative paralysis can happen for any number of reasons, including: In the last Writer Fuel, I talked about creative… Read more »
If you’ve ever taken a writing class, you’ve probably heard the adage “show, don’t tell.” But what does that even mean? What “show, don’t tell” really boils down to is a question of scene versus exposition. “Show” puts readers right in the middle of the action so they can see the scene unfold almost as… Read more »
Writing a book is like making a contract with our readers. We agree to craft a great story and our readers in turn agree to suspend their disbelief and keep turning pages. Furthermore, I believe that at the start of every book, we must make five promises to our readers. These promises are not hard-and-fast… Read more »
