Writing Tips
Expert advice on all aspects of writing, updated weekly. To get Writing Tips in your inbox for free, join our newsletter.
Newest Articles
Overcoming Writing Anxiety
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…
Seven Questions for Your Writing Journey in 2020
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,…
How a Memoir Writing Coach Can Help: Author Interview
In this interview, author Clyde E. Fant describes his work with Writers.com instructor Sandra Novack on his recently-published memoir, The World in Black and White. We discuss Clyde’s experience of the memoir writing process, and how Sandra’s memoir writing help affected every aspect of the manuscript, from the sentence level to the overall narrative structure….
From Our Instructors
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,…
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…
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…
Writing Tips Series
Check out our free Writing Tips on the craft, business, and life of creative writing. Interviews with our award-winning instructors, practical advice you can put to use now, and more.
How to Read Like a Writer
Literary Devices
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.