Word for Words Blog for Writers

We have a tradition on my mother’s central Italian side of the family that says whatever happens in the first twelve days of the New Year is...

Remember when you said of a story, “Wow, that sounds like it really happened”? In this instance, we’re not talking about verisimilitude — ...

We’ve talked about the importance of a character's voice matching her age, but we also need to make sure the character’s wisdom matches ...

Preparing for and attending a writers’ conference require time and energy. These tips for before, during and after the Ridgefield Writers Co...

What do you love about writing? Is it time for yourself, discovery, reading or hearing your words? Maybe it’s the chance to listen to yo...

Among the joys of writing is “flow”, when we’re so immersed in creating the story’s world that we forget we’re writing. But we can’t afford ...

Part 1 of this post gave an example of the importance of stories, based on an ESL class that was reading about author Amy Tan. When the clas...

A teacher asked students in an ESL class reading about author Amy Tan what would they ask Tan if they could. One student said, “I would ask ...