Word for Words Blog for Writers

I recently read the draft of a novel where two-thirds of the way through, the characters were still unformed and unfamiliar. If I didn'...

I tend to scavenge writing magazines and pull the articles that are worthwhile, separating them into "read now" and "read la...

You know what it's like. You suddenly break out in a sweat because your story isn't working. You tell yourself it's your imagin...

Sometimes you wonder whether a story is fiction or whether it really happened. After hearing "The Mappist" by Barry Lopez on NPR...

Stuck for words? Who isn't at some point? One way to surmount this form of writer's block is to tell yourself (in writing) what yo...

I can feel people’s shoulders relax when they see they don’t have to edit. What a change of pace! But when is it acceptable not to edit? Wh...

Ever work on a story and know in your gut it’s not working. Of course, everybody feels that way sometime, but what if the feeling won’t go...

Variety is the spice of life, so it’s been said. And it’s true. But when writers set out to laboriously vary word choices, the real meaning ...