So You’re Writing an Essay. But What Is It Really About?
To get from a pile of ideas to one essay, I ask myself three questions: What is this essay about? What’s it really about? What is it really, really about?
To get from a pile of ideas to one essay, I ask myself three questions: What is this essay about? What’s it really about? What is it really, really about?
Sometimes you just need to claw out a few paragraphs on the page and hit publish. A newsletter can teach you how.
This guide is meant for writers who are dreaming of getting away to write—and addresses the anxiety many of us feel when we finally get that treasured chunk of time.
This year, rather than making resolutions about how or when you write, consider focusing on the skills and habits that will help you maintain a career in the ever-changing world of publishing.
I call my instincts to organize and categorize a project that feels out of control the Religion of Office Supplies.
Throughout my writing journey, I’ve been working hard to cope with the inevitability of rejection in ways that work for me. I hope that what I’ve learned can help others.
The self-interview is a way to ask myself real questions about whatever I’m working on without it feeling like work.
Query smarter, not harder, to find the right agent for you.
When you’re ready to pitch or publish your work, a good question to ask yourself is: Why does this need to be an essay rather than a story you tell to friends over the dinner table?
Not all feedback, even from a reader you hold in high esteem, will be appropriate for the story you’re trying to tell.
Instead of fighting myself tooth and nail to subscribe to a neurotypical writing lifestyle, I’m choosing to expand upon my weird brain’s strengths and abilities.
“Write about the terrifying by writing about the alluring.”
Approaching your book as a reader rather than the author helps separate you from the emotional experience of putting your work on the page.
How does one translate life into poetry, especially in seasons of total depletion?
The fear that I might never write a book led me to develop a practical system of writing by numbers.
When a writing project has a good title, everyone can feel it. But getting there can be a struggle—for both the author and the publishing team, if your project happens to be a book.
For our Application Week series, MFA directors and professors discuss common misconceptions, how they support students, and answer that ubiquitous question: Is getting an MFA worth it?
In this exercise, classes instructor Chaya Bhuvaneswar asks you to consider your impatience with not yet being where you want to be in your writing career and helps you use that as momentum.
If you’ve written short stories and are figuring how to get started on a novel, Erin Flanagan has some tips to help you get started.
You might surprise yourself at how much you’re able to accomplish in short, focused periods of twenty-five minutes.