• Writing With Spring Colors!

    Spring is here and it brings with it the trend of beautiful bright and pastel colors. For this month’s writing challenge, we’ll be using spring colors to evoke thoughts or stories we can use to practice creative writing. We’ve listed some of our favorite spring colors below, but feel free to keep this exercise going with more colors! Pastel Yellow Think about this color for a moment. What does yellow remind you of? If it’s the sun, write about a sunny day. If it’s a drink, write about the last time you had it. Just make sure the topic you…

  • Writing Prompts for Female Protagonist

    In March, we highlighted some amazing books that featured strong females throughout history as a way to celebrate Women’s History Month. From queens to women at the forefront of science and discovery, these women made remarkable history and also paved the way for more women to come behind them and be empowered and successful in their reach for more. But it seems we may have forgotten to include some writing prompts! So now, we turn the pen (or keyboard) over to you! Craft a story that highlights a powerful female lead character. You can make this a nonfiction story and…

  • The First Draft: Skeleton Draft or Bulging Draft

    Just like there are two different types of plotting styles—plotting and pantsing—there are also two different camps writers fall into when it comes to how much writing goes into the first draft. There are writers who choose a skeleton draft, meaning they put the bones of their stories down during the first draft and then use subsequent drafts and rounds of revisions to continue to grow and fill out their manuscript until it’s complete. Other writers aim to put anything and everything down on paper during the first round, which is typically a bulging draft and way over word count.…

  • 6 Bad Habits to Give Up This Month as a Writer

    If you participate in Lent, you’re accustomed to giving up certain things—chocolate, social media, soda—in your life during the 40-day period. As a writer, however, there are also some negative habits you should give up, too. So, with the last few weeks left of Lent, refocus on these six habits you can remove from your writing life.  1. Comparison. We all get caught in the comparison game at some point or another, and as a writer, it can be hard not to compare your current writing status with someone else’s status, especially with access to other writers’ lives on social…