Writing

22 Powerful Journal Prompts to Increase Your Motivation, and Discover Your Unique Purpose

A Guide to Making New Friends

I came home one night to find a dog by the vending machine in front of my apartment building. It was a…

The First Step in the Writing Process is Prewriting

I have a very long pre-writing process where I’m jotting down ideas in a notebook and ripping out relevant newspaper articles — a long fact-finding…

For Parents Who Force Their Children To Study

A story that stays with me as a cautionary tale on missed perspectives.

Writer’s Block: What To Do If You’re Stuck On a Scene

Which is the correct length for an article?

Reflections about length and format of an article on Medium

What Happens When You Look At The World Through A Writer’s Lens?

Life changes drastically when you look at things through a “writer’s” lens.

4 Tips to Improve the Clarity of Your Writing

1. Make few to no assumptions about the reader’s prior…

Journaling ≠ “Dear Diary…”

{3 different ways to keep a journal}

Grammatically Correct

The notion of teaching grammar is one that is controversial among educators, and it tends to bring about polarized viewpoints. The word grammar itself is enough to invoke an anxious reaction of shaking and heavy breathing among most people, some teachers included. For others, it brings…

Create A Best-Selling Novel With Conflict

Juicy plots are where 5 star amazon reviews are born.

Did you ever wish you could fly?

Writing a character with wings

Why I Decided to Co-Write Instead of Working Alone

Two Heads Are Better At Fun

Writing Lessons — Sometimes it’s the Simplest Things

Writing for several publications for two years…

Detailed Guide

Making Of A Wannabe Writer

You can’t Afford To ‘NOT’ Read This

Writing: Creative Delusion or Chronic Disease?

Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 356th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood…

A Fear of Time.

Twice a day I get a quick reminder. It used to be a real gut punch, but time, ironically, has passed and with it that feeling too.

Security cameras show frightening paranormal activity in a school in Ireland

What 3 Years Of Daily Writing Has Done For Me As A Person

And why I’m happy to be a writer.

How Translating Can Aide Creativity and Help Break Writer’s Block

10 things about me

Here are 10 things. Take the challenge and tell the world 10 things about yourself.

Mindset First, Action Second

“If you want to teach someone to be a great hockey player, you don’t…

Screenwriting Back to Basics: 5 Part Series

Writing Scenes, The Protagonist’s Arc, Plot Emerges From Character, Character = Function, Reader Identification.

You Might Be Writing Your Book and Don’t Even Know It

I just realized I’ve been writing my book.

Black Women, Feminism, and Writing on My Mind

It’s been a different last year and a half for me as a reader. With the…

The new in the beginnings

This writing is dedicated to the beauty of unrevealed future plans and that one wishful thinking which is on the…

In Search of Us

I journeyed the world.

A quest for fulfillment. Attempting to enrich my life and eliminate this aching…

Stress vs. love: be passionate about what you do

Make the effort consistent and grant yourself grace

Pieces

I knew she was here, my muse. She has a piece called ‘Men’ brewing, and I thought that was what we were writing tonight, as I am held aloft in my ache. It wasn’t to be, not tonight, that piece honouring the men who have held me, and my long journey to embracing them.

A Place for Islam in Literary Realism

Because all unhappy families are alike.

Take the Risk of Sounding Like Other Writers to Find Your Voice

The first cut is the deepest. One simple trick to get sharper scenes in 30 seconds

There’s one edit that I always make. It’s the first thing I do to any single scene I’ve written. The first cut is the…

I’m Having One Of Those Days

But I’m Not Going To Let It Affect Me

The Serendipity of Whispers from the Past

Beginnings

Daily Dialogue — August 25, 2018

TEDDY: You know, when we found your guy and killed him. (off look) That's right, the real John G. Over a year ago. I helped you find him. He's already dead. 
LEONARD: Why do you keep lying to me? 
TEDDY: I'm not. I was the cop assigned to your wife's death. I believed…

3 Essential Questions About Your Characters You Need to Answer

2 Reasons to Embrace Days of Low Writing Productivity

Most people will never get rich in a goldrush.

Because the only thing that’s going to happen when you get down on your knees and dig for gold in the dirt is that you’re going to get really, really, really dirty…

Here’s why you don’t need to have it all figured out!

Like any other typical Indian teen, I was vehemently pushed into pursuing engineering. My adamant parents and futile circumstances just didn’t give me a choice! Coming from the great Indian middle class, anything that wouldn’t fetch me a…

I give you permission to “not write”.

Sometimes.

Are College Essays Really That Important?

College application season can be stressful, and so it’s natural to want to know if there are places you can cut corners. Can I drop that AP course I hate? Will a dip in my GPA hurt my application? Do I really need to retake the SAT in my senior year?

Step AWAY from the Keyboard and Writing

And rise to the life that you were meant to live

The Writer’s Notebook

And Why You Need One

When Writing Brings Women Together

In a gracious demonstration of support for another woman writer, Shabnam Samuel interviewed me…

In Defense of Whining

Fear of being whiny, self-indulgent, or TMI can become a roadblock on the writer’s search for truth.

YALL GON’ MAKE ME LOSE MY MIND

“And I’d just like to say from the bottom of my heart, I’d like to take this chance to apologise… to absolutely nobody.”-Conor McGregor.

I find myself biting my tongue far more than lashing people who are more than deserving of it. I think I am heading into that…

Why you should stop reading blogs this year

Look. Here’s the thing. We all read hundreds of blog posts every year. Some of us maybe even every month. And let’s be honest for a second…

On how many of those things did you ever take action? How many things did you implement…

Do You Need Chaos To Be Able To Write?

After his initial surge of creativity at the end of the Seventies, Elvis Costello, as he…

Here Is What I Learned After Blogging For 30 Days

It can be done.

Is There a Life Hack for Being Hack?

I’m good enough… aren’t I?

TWO SONNETS ON SEX & DEATH

By Kristin Garth

Dangerous

Ideal conditions

The weather is perfect right now. It’s 77 degrees. The sun is still up, but it’s late afternoon on a summer day. The most perfect…

Writers Are Not Their Writing

One day, I realized that my readers noticed a pattern. I was the negative guy.

Two Poems:

By Erin Emily Ann Vance

Crossing the Wires

To writers: The 10 things you can do to make me read your story.

What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Writing

They think it’s just a talent showcase or a way to pass the time. But there are darker sides to it.

103 Days of Creativity — Week Seven

All Content by Dennett

Day 5 | Saturday Motivation

Writing is rewarding. You may not reap the rewards right away. But, if you stick with it and get over your fears, then you can see the benefits. I think that fear of not being ‘good enough’ is something that can be a show stopper.

I remember being told by one of my university professors that my writing was the worst she saw…

How I Wrote My Second Novel Faster Than the First

It took me nearly a decade to write my first novel. The second took six months.

‘silence fini’

FYI, even though I’m notorious for not answering and responding to texts (99% of the time because I’m travelling or I’m asleep), a…

To Be A Great Writer And Entrepreneur, You Need To Do This

The Daily Grind #55

writing recklessly

I’ve been trying to figure it all out. 
Where to show up and when. 
and how.

Good Morning, Mr. Mandela

My book review of this terrific inspirational book about the life of Nelson Mandela.

About books and passions and my new Instagram account

Everybody tells you that you should work your passion. Fight for it! make a living out of it!. We truly believe in that, but we don’t listen to ourselves as much as we listen to others.

Releasing fear and walking passionately in your purpose.

What happens when you release your…

How To Write Business Articles When You Have Imposter Syndrome

The Writer’s Dilemma

I enjoy writing. I have around eleven essays that I had written through childhood and adolescence. The topics covered random domains, right from hugs and eunuchs to science and technology. They were both written and read by me. I used to not write for an audience.

The Bus Stop

Her wristwatch struck 11:00 pm and she was waiting at the bus stop. Darkness and mist surrounded the place, the only sound was the chirping from crickets.

Two pairs of filthy eyes were constantly looking at her from a distance.

Paralysis of Choice

Can having too many choices be a bad thing?

Paralysis of Choice

We are inundated with choices every day of our lives. From which organic grass fed brands we buy in the grocery store to technology, restaurants, dating apps and so on. Is it…

The Verb, Write

Why Tayzau Decided to Start Writing a Blog

Written to Published

Donna Williams asked me to describe the long collaboration process with Janice Miller, my editor, and the hurdles we had…

One In A Million Curses (Part 1)

At a local high school, a light brown skin male of average height, exits the building with many other…

Aphorisms — Part 2

People learn how to be responsible from the once-empty pages others have filled while a writer becomes responsible for the empty page he has to fill

One is unable to control the things that one does get to know; knowledge, quite apart from being good or bad, is…

Priorities Change

And so does life

It has been over two years since my last post here. A sudden shortage of activity on…

Teacher Teacher

Unfinished work,

Now I got a problem, maybe 1 maybe 2,

I’ve got some unfinished business, and half of that is because of you,

I’ve tried to grow, and let my knowledge explore,

It’s a coincidence that I’m reading Origin by Dan Brown and I also stumbled upon this article. One thing I can say is this is a very sensitive and difficult subject. For me, I want to be self aware and reach the state where I can find some enlightenment. I think currently there are multiple paths to attain that. Religion has been one of the paths but…

Shadow Song

You follow
me around
I’d be lost
without you
or sun
You remind me
to stay honest
You make me
accountable for
my existence
I’m reporting…

Pushing the Reset Button in Your 30’s

Thoughts on Turning New Passions into Habits

Through a Glass of Champagne …

What do you see through a glass of champagne……

As a fiction writer, this is the crux of the matter to me. If I write a character whose life and reality I have no familiarity with, I should welcome input and feedback from people who LIVE that reality. Otherwise I’m just building cardboard stereotypes.

SOP寫作技巧

一份吸引審查委員的SOP應該怎麼撰寫呢?
CGE為你解密

Most of us were when we started posting on Medium! A little advice? Read and comment a lot. Follow your favorite writers. Post your work at least a few times a week. You’ll find your tribe here — those who like your writing and those you like. Soon they will look for your posts. Become a writer for some publications to get more exposure. Each has its…

what would be my dream property to write for?

As someone that writes his own comic books there are obviously some titles out there that I would love to write for. If it came down to being able to write for a popular comic book series it would either be Wolverine or Spawn. When I was younger I…

Hoe hou je je lezers aandacht vast?

Jouw boek is een druppel in een oceaan van boeken. Dus als je een lezer zover hebt gekregen jouw…

How Music Enhances Creative Writing

When two creative forces come together, magic happens.

10 PM

20–06–2018

It’s 10 PM and I want to be asleep, 6 AM is when I get up. To work on my writing which I oftentimes don’t even believe in. Instead I find myself surfing the internet, or listening to music. I could say it’s a lack of discipline but that would be undermining myself. Because as I…

Nicely done!

I can relate in some ways but not in others. I can definitely relate on the games, I still think I may go back and it will be great again, maybe this fall, but probably not.

I can’t relate on the getting involved part. I’m isolated other than family. I still want to do something to have…

Break writing stereotypes, stop using cliches

Some writing stereotypes stuck in the mindset that prevents you to make a clear and effective writing. Since most of the writing stereotypes imposed by high schools, it’s hard to completely avoid them. To be effective and enhance the writing skills…

Play With Intent

Why I Want To Start A Business Again

10 years ago, I started a new and exciting journey as a brand new adult, starting up a business. I was sick of my limited work opportunities in my little town and had no way to move to a bigger city. Thus, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I started a…

Great article!!

It reminded me of my first Amazon Royalty payment from selling Kindle eBooks. (Free Hot Writers Tip: If you wrote 10 articles on the same theme and they were connected, you may have a Kindle eBook)

My wife had a good chuckle at how much I received.

Poet and novelist Ana Castillo on feminism, writing, and a momentous education

The best fiction writing tips I’ve received (so far)

Don’t mess with my time because I’m old

Here I am, starting a new challenge: to be a developer. 
Why become a programmer is important to me?
Well, because until 2018, I was always more on the side of the humanities and literature. And to be honest, the Humanities do not make me earn money. So, I…

Hi Violeta,

I too liked your writing style and tone of the article. Going to checkout your blog… one little thing I noticed though near the top was “wining you…” which I think was meant to be “within you…”… Anyway, loved your writing and I can definitely relate to you and the things you shared!

dearest Juhi, she was fuckingly wrong, to say the least! Though I’ve not experience, first hand, I have heard of such discriminating acts from professors a whole ass lot; it was trending on Twitter a while ago, and some most powerful and the biggest names in poetry had been subjected to it. The trend came out to be women, women (& men too) of color…

Oh, yes. No hopes of help from Medium.

I think that cross-linking (when relevant!) is the key hack. Then, for example, we can feature our own content with interesting recaps (not just lists) and finding (or opening) specialized publications.

I’ve realized that an external Web site is necessary too, if only to feature our best content.

Hay algo en el cuarto conmigo aunque no lo pueda ver, cuando cierro los ojos se acerca más y más hacia mí .

Lo peor de todo ésto es que no puedo dejar de parpadear .

150,000 Men and One Woman

Since I first posted the story of our ILM version of the D-Day invasion (Space Ships and Dinosaurs), several…

Regression Questions

The building at the end of town, that corporate building, mostly empty for years, it’s attracting strange “businesses.” In one office warren on the third floor, clients are guided through visualization experiences in which each person becomes a cloud. They float around just below the ceiling…

5 reasons of why you should write to attract more readers with numbered content.

1- Because readers feel more enthusiasm to read any numbered content. Everything has to be entertaining. Loving is entertainment. (This is an irony)

This is TRUTH. I use this in my psychotherapy practice with my patients. I remember the day I decided to change the emotional, spiritual and psychological direction I was facing for consultation on my life.

I loved this for so many reasons. First, because I too love this kind of writing. Other people’s stories are relevant to me. I love books and novels — if they are about success, they are about a different definition of success. Or, better yet, a questioning of success. Here on Medium I sometimes feel at home — other times, I’ve actually seen people…