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How To Get Back into Writing after a Long Break (Accidental or Otherwise)
It’s inevitable, really. You get your writing routine down. You’re writing strong for days, weeks, months. Then something happens. You take a day off. Then two. And before you know it, you’re cringing...
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This is Cause for Celebration! (Bloggiversary Giveaway)
Hey, writer. Guess what happened this time last year? Cue the fanfare! Dun-dah-dah! I wrote the very first article for what became the blog reboot at mandywallace.com. And I want to give you a gift to...
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This Is What It Feels Like to Be So Over Your Story
What can I tell you? I tell myself: just write something short and simple. Because it’s been fourteen days. Two weeks. A fortnight. Since I shared something with you on the blog. A blog post doesn’t...
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Recharge Between Writing Projects in 5 Steps
I did it. Somehow through the tight deadline, the impossibly long list of to-dos, revisions, beta reader feedback, and endless edits, I finally finished my Writers of the Future contest story. After I...
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Write Better with This No-Cost Writing Course from University of Iowa’s...
As much as we writers would love it, writing classes aren’t always accessible. Unless you’re talking about the massive open online course (MOOC for short) that the University of Iowa’s Writers’...
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Is the Creative Writing MFA Right for You?
I’ll be honest. I didn’t expect the writing course I talked about last week through University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop to be this rigorous. I mean, the course is zero dollars. How phenomenal could...
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Beginner’s Guide: The MFA in Writing
This may be your ticket to a fully-funded two years of nothing but writing. So grab a steaming cup of tea, and settle in for a few. You’re gonna want to know this. Last week I talked about how the How...
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How to Trust Your Writing: 3 Helpful Tips from 3 Renowned Novelists
You’ve heard this one before, I bet. Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. -E.L. Doctorow But if this quote...
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5 Hard-Hitting Plot Tools To Get Your Story Unstuck
Admit it. Plotting a novel can be a bitch. You start down the path all plucky and excited to translate your beautiful novel onto the page, and what happens? Characters fall flat. Tension fizzles out....
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The 5 Stages of Rejection (for Writers)
If you’ve been with me long, you know my main writing mission is to break into publishing through the back door that so many science fiction and fantasy writing greats broke in through: the Writers of...
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Zola & The Story That Took Twitter by Storm | Lessons for Writers
Have you heard of the Zola Story? It’s the tale of sex, betrayal, and murder that became a viral phenomenon in October when it hijacked Twitter feeds everywhere, and it packs a few powerful lessons...
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The Real Difference Between Literary and Popular Fiction
How much description and setting is too much? Detail and setting may be what transports readers into your story, and yet when it comes to best selling novels these days, more wax light on setting...
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Your Post-NaNoWriMo Hangover Cure: The 24 Editing Resources Your Story Needs
So you wake up from your NaNoWriMo binge covered in a sheen of sweat and flush from success—or not—and rocking a dull headache that may or may not have something to do with all the greasy fast food...
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Writers: How to Protect Your Artist Self from Negative People
This happens to new writers way too often. I was at a writing event the other night where my husband and I sat next to an older married couple, a husband and wife, that broke my heart. They’d driven a...
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Finding Balance as a Beginning Writer
If nothing is perfect the first time we do it, why should writing be any different? I see the Writing as Talent myth at work in too many places. We writers love that myth for so many reasons, even...
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This Formula Solves The ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ Writing Dilemma Once And For All
So I’m working on this short story I started for some Glimmer Train contest or other. But it grew like a weed all unwieldy, and now it’s burst through its word count limit and its deadline. And I wish...
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7 Ways to Build Writing Confidence as a New Writer (Reader Question!)
Got a burning question about writing or blogging? Ask me! This writing question is from @NinaGPineda who asks: Hi Mandy! I see writers on these sites I want to post my writing on be carefree about...
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For Your Inspiration: 5 Curated Writing Goodies
Need a little writerly inspiration? I’ve got you covered. On Artists Who Pretend Not to Work Hard on Their Art (i.e. Assholes) Let’s call these fakers what they are: assholes. Those artists and writers...
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Here’s What Happens When You Take Your Own Advice
The husband asked me to help him make macaroons and lemon curd for a Doctor Who marathon. He wanted to make it a special event because he spent the last three and a half weeks persuading me to catch...
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When Your Writer Brain Is Fried
I was going to write a post today about critique groups. But my brain is on overdrive, so it couldn’t decide on just one aspect of critique groups. Which meant I ended up writing down a billion ideas...
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