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onomatopoeia in writing

Onomatopoeia Definition and Examples

What is onomatopoeia? To describe it in a zip, an onomatopoeia is a word that smacks the reader’s ears and makes them pop. Onomatopoeia words describe sounds by copying the sound itself. Crash! Bang! Whiz! An onomatopoeia doesn’t just describe sounds, it emulates the sound itself. With this literary device, you can hear the meow…

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persona poetry: how to write a persona poem

Persona Poetry: How to Write a Persona Poem

Persona poems allow poets to inhabit the minds of other people and write from their perspectives. If you’ve ever wanted to get inside someone’s brain, crawl around in it for a while, and come to a deeper understanding of their psyche, you might want to learn how to write a persona poem. The persona poetry…

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AWP 2023 open your mind book

Takeaways from AWP 2023

Our staff just got back from AWP 2023, a huge annual literary conference that was held in Seattle this year. To start with, here are the equivalent of 9,000 words in pictures from AWP itself, especially the book fair and offsite events which we were most involved in: Three of us were able to go:…

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From Our Instructors

The body and soul of your memoir | memoir writing course

Writing About Real People

Sneak Peek: This essay is excerpted from some of the materials I’ll be sharing in my class, “The Body and Soul of Your Memoir: Shape, Focus, and Write Your Memoir” at Writers.com starting June 4. When my memoir, The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community and Coming Home to the Body,…

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best gifts for writers

The 35 Best Gifts for Writers in Your Life

Professional authors chime in on gift ideas for writers—both during the holidays and any time of year. If you’re looking for the best gifts for writers in your life, look no further. There are lots of great gifts for creative writers—you just need to get in a writer’s head. With the help of some lovely…

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the setting of a story: functions of setting in literature

What is the Setting of a Story? 5 Functions of Setting in Literature

A short story or novel without a setting is one without context—it occurs nowhere and at no particular time. But every person and everything in our everyday world occurs somewhere at some given time. As in real life, characters are connected in some way, or ways, to a given place. They’re always aware of where…

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Character Development

Writing with Confidence

Writing Prompts

Jump-start your creativity with our writing prompts. Check back regularly for new prompts!

Show and Tell

Write a story or poem about an object with a lot of nostalgic value for you/the narrator. Do not, at any point, tell the reader explicitly what this object is.

Forgive and Forget

Write a story or poem about a time when you had to forget something to maintain a friendship or relationship.

Trash Day

Collect pieces of “junk writing”—spam emails, credit card advertisements, roadside billboards, bumper stickers, etc. Then, write a story or poem that uses all of the junk writing you collected.