Story Writing Exercise: What Does Your Character Want?

writing exercise character desire

Desire—what a character wants or needs—forms the backbone of any fictional plot and the basis of conflict. Often, when writers have problems generating a story, it’s because they’re not thinking in terms of a central, concrete desire, that which motivates the main character and moves them to action. They haven’t articulated for themselves what their main…

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Creative Writing Anxiety: What It Is and How to Overcome It

overcoming writing anxiety

Editor’s Note: In this interview on writing anxiety, instructor Giulietta Nardone describes what creative writing anxiety is, what causes it, and—most importantly—how to get over writing anxiety. What is writing anxiety? There are many people who would like to start writing, or to take a writing class, but they never get started because the critical…

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Character Development Advice: 5 Tips for Creating Characters that Breathe and Move and Can’t Stop Talking

writing character development tips

Editor’s note: This is the second of two articles (first here) on the fundamentals of character development written for Writers.com by our instructor Gloria Kempton, in support of a full character development course she’s developing. In this article, Gloria answers a number of commonsense questions about character development. 1. What makes a character relatable? Vulnerability.…

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Essential Character Development Questions: 3 Questions to Ask Every Character You Write

questions for character development

Editor’s note: This is the first of two articles (second here) on the fundamentals of character development written for Writers.com by our instructor Gloria Kempton, in support of a full character development course she’s developing. In this article, Gloria covers the three essential questions you should ask each character you write. There are three questions…

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Eight Questions About the Novella, Answered

what the novella is and how to write a novella

In this interview, Writers.com instructor Jack Smith answers our top eight questions about the novella form—everything from “How many words in a novella?” to his best advice on learning the novella form, writing, and maybe even publishing your own novella. 1. What is a novella, and how many words are there in a novella? What distinguishes…

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Overcoming Writing Anxiety

writing anxiety tips

Editor’s Note: In this article, instructor Dennis Foley gives his best tips and perspectives on overcoming writing anxiety. His advice is geared toward novelists, but is equally valuable for any form of creative writing. We’ve all been there. Writer anxiety Yep, at some point in the process of writing a novel, you will suddenly be…

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Seven Questions for Your Writing Journey in 2020

2020 writing plan

In our view, writing should not be a popularity contest, a struggle for validation, or a competitive sport. Instead, writing is a personal journey: an ongoing exploration, personally meaningful in ways and for reasons that are unique to each one of us, and with destinations that we ourselves choose and venture toward. In this article,…

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