[Can you impress us in 1500 words or fewer? Enter the Short Short Story Competition today! Deadline January 15, 2018] Last month, we called for our readers to share the motivations behind their wondrous words and reasons behind their lov...
This is an update of a blog post that I published about 16 months ago. The concepts are the same, but some of the resources have been updated. Creating book trailer videos is a great alternative to a traditional written book report as...
In high school, I struggled to write clear, concise prose. My command of structure was minimal, and I didn’t make effective use of sources to inform my analysis. I also had difficulty differentiating between summary and analysis, much to ...
My background is in social work but I do not work in child welfare. I can only give you general answers to your questions. One of the reasons I want to write this book and have a “new” interpretation of finding child abuse is th...
In order to do the research for a section of her book Our Symphony With Animals (Pegasus Books, May 2019), Dr. Aysha Akhtar, MD, MPH, had to talk to a serial killer. Here, she reveals the planning that went into her interviews and how she s...
Don’t “create” characters; get to know them instead. John Jamison has used the power of story in various roles—from pastor to brand development consultant—and he has some unique methods for getting to know his characters. During...
Many MFA programs require students to submit an electronic thesis into their library’s digital repository, where it’s available online. How can these students protect their work? Like many graduate students in creative writing, Carlee...
Interested in crowdfunding a novel? Susan K. Hamilton, who has crowdfunded two novels, shares the joys and frustrations authors can expect when publishing via this 21st century route. In the “good old days” getting published was a labor...
“There is no more fiction or nonfiction, only narrative.”—E. L. Doctorow Jon Franklin’s “Mrs. Kelly’s Monster” An inventive and enterprising writer, Jon Franklin won the inaugural Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing for his arti...
He Wants to Dance on My Grave (3,021 words) It was a nice bar, in midtown Manhattan. Brass fixtures gleamed. Beer taps swan-necked over a varnished counter, oaken. The bartender, an old-school man with slicked-back hair as white as dove fea...