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Top 10 Tips on Writing a Properly Flawed Main Character

Creating a compelling main character is essential to any work of fiction, but creating a character that is perfectly good in every way can be a recipe for a dull story. That’s why it’s important to make your main character flawed. By making your main character flawed, you can create tension, conflict, and depth that […]

Living the writing life means living with failure

Writing is a hard way to make a living, which is why a whole ecosystem exists to help you feel like you’re succeeding at it. Hashtags like #amwriting provide steady pep talks for people wading through the muck of a first draft. Dubious-seeming ads on Facebook peddle frictionless methods for selling thousands of copies of […]

‘The Writing Retreat’ by Julia Bartz – Book Review

The Writing Retreat could have been a decent little thriller, and there’s definitely glimmers in here of a better book under the overwhelming amount of baggage that comes packed in the 400 or so pages this one operates with. Between the angst-filled characters, the laborious pace, and the generous helping of the ludicrously incredulous, this […]

Three Favorite Lyricists

I began listening to Wicca Phase Springs Eternal’s Full Moon Mystery Garden after I took two road trips through Death Valley, the first literal (in California) and the second figurative (in a hospital). So when I heard him say, “On a mountain under full moon / I could say goodnight and mean it” and then, […]

Writing a personal narrative: 3 things you need to know

Writing a personal narrative is probably one of the most enjoyable writing assignments. People, by nature, are very fond of talking about themselves and sharing their experiences as a part of a text, and this is what this type of writing requires of you. Whether you’re a beginner blogger and share your life story with […]

On creating something out of nothing

Kate Folk is the author of Out There, a story collection (Random House ‘22). She has written for publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, One Story, Granta, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and Zyzzyva. A recipient of a Stegner Fellowship in Fiction from Stanford University, she’s also received support from MacDowell, the Headlands […]

Humans are still better than bots at writing. Here’s why.

I was sitting poolside at a San Juan, Puerto Rico, resort bar, minding my own business, when ChatGPT settled into a barstool next to mine and ordered a pina colada. It was a bold move, considering the sun was not yet over the yardarm, as we like to say in the islands. I took another […]

The 5 Best Sites and Online Tools to Help You Write Song Lyrics

The songwriting process can be difficult, and when you’re struggling to come up with the words, you can get demotivated to carry on. Whether you’re struggling to expand your song idea or you need a fresh one, there’s always a way to deal with writer’s block. Fortunately, you don’t have to be stuck with writer’s […]

6 Accountability Tools for Writers to Keep the Words Flowing

Whether you’re freelancing, blogging, or crafting fiction, writing is often a challenging task. Coping with writer’s block–or even garden-variety procrastination–can slow the progress. Here are several accountability tools for writers to help you stay on track and keep the words flowing. 1. Use Time-Tracking Tools. Commit to writing a certain number of hours each day […]

Say goodbye to paper and pencils: Top 5 smart ‘writing’ pads you can buy

The Redmi Writing Pad costs only Rs 699 (Image credits: Xiaomi) As schools and colleges move onto digital forms of learning in an increasingly digitalising world, relying on good old pencils or pens and paper for taking notes is almost starting to feel obsolete. While typing out on PCs and tablets serves as a viable […]