7 Heart-Wrenching Chinese Family Sagas
When I first decided to write my novel, “Their Divine Fires,” I knew I wanted to draw on and honor the stories of my grandmother and mother. In the early 1900s, my grandmother’s uncles joined the Communist Party and fought to protect their country against warlords and Japanese soldiers. Decades later, my mother witnessed the […]
We know there are many benefits to writing by hand – in a digital world we risk losing them
Knowing that someone held a pen to write the words in a letter elevates the correspondence far beyond something sent via phone or computer. Handwriting makes us better writers, free of the suggestions of spelling and grammar apps, and it represents something of our personalities Recently, I found a letter my mum had written me […]
“Debris”
The following is a story from Uche Okonkwo’s collection A Kind of Madness . Okonkwo’s stories have been published in A Public Space, One Story, the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019 , and Lagos Noir . She is a recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy, a Steinbeck […]
6 Stages of Building a Story Within an Intricately Designed World
Crafting a fantasy or science fiction world requires both creativity and structure, with a prerequisite care in its conception required if one wishes to succeed in suspending their readers’ disbelief. The essence of world-building lies not just in avoiding excessive exposition or sparse detail but in the foundational design itself. This is essential, for the […]
IALA announces its 2024 annual grants for creative writing and translation
The Armenian Weekly The International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA) is pleased to announce its three new annual grants for one writer and two translators whose works-in-progress show exceptional literary and creative ability. Applications open on September 1 until September 30, 2024, and winners will be announced in December 2024. The International Armenian Literary Alliance’s Creative […]
Using Claude 3 to improve your creative writing, prompt writing, brainstorming and more
using Claude 3 to improve your prompt writing Anthropic recently launched its latest large language model in the form of Claude 3 which is capable of outperforming ChatGPT in a number of areas. This quick guide will provide some more insight on how you can use Claude 3 to improve your prompt writing process as […]
Ask the Author | ‘Martyr!’ author Kaveh Akbar needs writing just as much as it needs him
The Iowa Writers’ Workshop professor and recent New York Times bestselling author of “Martyr!” spoke with the DI about his recovery from addiction and his subsequent necessity of writing. Avi Lapchick , Arts Editor Ethan McLaughlin Kaveh Akbar speaks during a panel on Leslie Jamison’s newest novel, Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story, at Prairie […]
Almost half of Texas fourth graders scored a zero on the STAAR writing composition last year
Erika De La Rosa was excited when she heard about the sweeping changes to the STAAR exam . “When they initially announced it, as an English teacher, it sounded like a fantastic idea because writing should be incorporated everywhere,” De La Rosa said. She teaches seventh grade in Houston ISD. Before last year, writing was […]
Improve your creative writing using Story Bibles and Novelcrafter
Improve your creative writing using Story Bibles Crafting a book series that captures the imagination of readers is a complex task and Authors must weave intricate plots and create believable characters , all while maintaining a consistent and richly detailed universe. if you would like to improve your writing skills and harness the power of […]
Want to Write Better? Consider Building Your Own Writing Desk
My writing desk, which I loved so much and had been with me through a decade of writing and teaching, was built into the wall. We were moving—more space—so I lay under that desk, looking at it to see if I could pry it loose to bring it with us. The basic construction looked simple […]