Write Better Fiction / 115 posts found
2022 February Flash Fiction Challenge: Day 21
One more week! We are in the home stretch—how are you feeling? It’s always really nerve-wracking for me to share my work—call it leftover stage frights from workshop roundtables—but as we’re facing down our last week of this year’s flash challenge, I’m super proud of all of us who have been writing and sharing together here on the site and elsewhere! For today’s prompt, write about someone facing a fear. Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are just starting points; you have the freedom to go wherever your flash of inspiration takes you. (Note: If you happen to run into […]
2022 February Flash Fiction Challenge: Day 20
For today’s prompt, let’s focus on something that needs to be found. Is it a lost object? Person? Something more intangible, like a memory? It’s up to you! Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are just starting points; you have the freedom to go wherever your flash of inspiration takes you. (Note: If you happen to run into any issues posting, please just send me an e-mail at mrichard@aimmedia.com with the subject line: Flash Fiction Challenge Commenting Issue.) Here’s my attempt at writing about something being lost: Untitled They were standing in a line, hands clasped, backs against the bobbing […]
21 Popular Horror Tropes for Writers
One fun thing about writing horror fiction is that the genre is loaded with several popular tropes that are acceptable for writers to use. In fact, readers expect at least a few of these elements to appear in every story. (Playing With Common Horror Tropes for Comedic Effect.) The main reason for this, I expect, is that tropes help set expectation and expectation (in horror anyway) starts building suspense. When are bad things going to happen? How will they happen? Who will make it through to the end? Will I be able to fall asleep tonight? (OK, that last one […]
Parody vs. Pastiche (Grammar Rules)
If you’ve heard the terms parody and pastiche tossed around, but you’re not sure how they’re different (or how they’re related), you’re in the right place. Because we’re about to look at what each word means and how these two similar terms differ. (Grammar Rules for Writers.) Learn when you’re using parody vs. pastiche in your writing with Grammar Rules from the Writer’s Digest editors, including a few examples of each. Parody vs. Pastiche Parody is a noun that refers to a work of art or literature that is an exaggerated imitation of another piece of art or literature with […]
2022 February Flash Fiction Challenge: Day 19
For today’s prompt, let’s take a popular horror trope and come at it from a different angle. Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are just starting points; you have the freedom to go wherever your flash of inspiration takes you. (Note: If you happen to run into any issues posting, please just send me an e-mail at mrichard@aimmedia.com with the subject line: Flash Fiction Challenge Commenting Issue.) Here’s my attempt at playing with a horror trope: Pack Evan reaches into the bag and aims the most unimpressed expression across the table. It’s met with raucous laughter. “Very funny,” he huffs, […]
Alternatives to a Professional Edit
So far in our series about hiring a professional editor, we’ve looked at determining whether you need an edit and if so what kind, explored where to find good editors and what questions to ask to winnow down your options, and how to evaluate the sample edit to determine whether an editor is the right fit for you. But what if the often several-thousand-dollar price tag simply isn’t in your budget right now? Does that mean you’re dead in the water, your writing career frozen until you can fund it? It doesn’t have to. (When Is My Novel Ready to […]
The WD Interview: Elizabeth Acevedo
A poet, an aspiring chef, a healer, and a chess player: Elizabeth Acevedo writes about creative teen girls making their own way in a world that isn’t always kind. It didn’t come as too much of a surprise that Acevedo herself took up a creative hobby during the pandemic lockdown. But the way she brought it back to writing, however, was the revelation. While discussing having patience during the revision process, Acevedo noted that she had started making candles, and she learned that each candle has a curing time during which it sits untouched before it can be burned. This […]
2022 February Flash Fiction Challenge: Day 18
As always, if you’re on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram (or anywhere else), don’t forget to use the #FlashFictionFeb hashtag. There are a lot of ways to write about time. Is it running out? Stretching out? Suspended? Is it being represented by a clock or a time machine? Is your character trying to get it back or are they trying to extend it? For today’s prompt, let’s write about time. Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are just starting points; you have the freedom to go wherever your flash of inspiration takes you. (Note: If you happen to run into any […]
Writer’s Digest March/April 2022 Cover Reveal
Exploring Point of View Point of view is one of the first things writers learn about creative writing, yet it’s also one of the hardest things to master. It involves at a minimum: choosing the right POV for your story, making sure you don’t break the guidelines of that POV and inadvertently take readers out of the narrative, but also experimenting with POV to better serve your story … It’s a lot to consider and in this issue, we explore it all. [Subscribe to Writer’s Digest now for this to be your first issue.] Articles include: + All About Omniscience: […]
2022 February Flash Fiction Challenge: Day 17
In my very first creative writing class in college, I remember my professor ripping pages out of a book of photos, crumpling them, and putting them in a bag. We would reach into the bag and pick out a page, uncrumple it, and then whatever object was pictured was what we had to use as inspiration to write. Instead of a book of photos, here’s a list of just a few objects: Hammer Key Fishing pole Lamp Book Bottle For today’s prompt, use one or more of these objects to inspire your story! Remember: As mentioned yesterday, these prompts are […]