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
Writer’s Block: What Causes Writer’s Block, and How to Overcome It
Writer’s block—having difficulty producing new writing—affects almost every writer at some point, and it can be debilitating for our creativity. If you’ve explored creative writing, I probably don’t have to tell you how painful and challenging writer’s block can be. In this article, we’ll look at writer’s block more deeply, asking “What is writer’s block?”—beyond…
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,…
What is Free Indirect Discourse? Writing the “Intimate 3rd Person”
Free indirect discourse is a narrative technique in which writers employ the third person POV with the intimacy of 1st person perspective. While this technique became popularized in the 20th century, it has been used for generations of storytellers, as writers have experimented with exploring their characters’ interiorities. Also known as free indirect speech or…
From Our Instructors
Interview: Jack Smith Talks Writing, Publication Process, and His New Book “If Winter Comes”
When Fanny Kemble, an acclaimed nineteenth-century British actress, marries Pierce Butler, a Philadelphia aristocrat, she is yoked to a philanderer, a liar, and, as she soon learns, a slaver. She must deal with a husband who expects her absolute obedience, as though she were one of his slaves. As an abolitionist, she feels compelled to…
How to Write About Yourself and People You Know: Interview with Margo Perin
In this wide-ranging and honest interview, Writers.com instructor Margo Perin explores navigating writing about our own lives, and about the people we know. Below is a selected interview transcript: What are the first things people should know about navigating writing their own stories? Often people are motivated to write because they want to write about…
Character Development Advice: 5 Tips for Creating Characters that Breathe and Move and Can’t Stop Talking
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….
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.