I was just thinking about some of my favorite opening lines in novels, and one of the first that comes to mind is Vladimir Nobokov's Lol...

It means "in the middle of things." If you're looking for a way to engage your reader quickly, it helps to start in the middle...

Readers want to see not just contemplation, but action. This is true even in poems. Readers want to know what did the speaker/narrartor do...

Be back Sunday!

They say letter-writing is a lost art. Yet Sue Walker, Poet Laureate of Alabama, has written an entire book-section of poems in the form of ...

Sometimes you can save a piece of writing just by changing point of view. When you want to build a climax and compress time, use an omniscie...

One of my favorite poets, Jerri Beck, has given me permission to share two lines she has never been able to find the poem for: Come and list...

I just received my SCBWI Bulletin yesterday, and at the top of the page that lists all the members' recent writing accomplishments, ther...

This one's for Anna: If you write, you are a writer. It's that simple.

Editors complain that sometimes we writers don't know when to start a story -- we give too much background information. Editors call th...

Good stories involve making choices. Sometimes these are clear right/wrong issues, but real life is often more complicated. Rumi wrote ...

When I was in high school, I co-wrote an article with the above title for our school newspaper. The article was about all the kids in our gr...

Like many kids, I was brought up on Dr. Seuss. Horton Hatches the Egg has always been my favorite story. But Dr. Seuss isn't just for k...

I read somewhere that the holy trinity for writers is Write, Network, and Promote. Most of us do okay with the Write part but have more diff...

Today, write something that involves an elevator. This could mean anything: ups and downs, feeling stuck, trying to get somewhere, or it cou...

As I have been struggling through a ms revision, I have been reminded of how many of us have this idea that when we become successful writer...

Ever heard the difference between story and plot? I heard it explained like this: In a story, you get "The king died. Then the queen...

A master storyteller, Stephen King has also written a great non-genre-specific book for writers entitled On Writing . One of my favorite qu...

If only it were as simple as reading a recipe to know when our stories or poems are done! Sometimes we undercook, sometimes we revise so agg...

Friday the 13th seems the appropriate day to address the lottery-like nature of getting published. Published authors will tell you that get...

Think back to a time in your life when you were at a crossroads. (Or think of the last scene in the movie Cast Away when Tom Hanks is looki...

Ever worry that your "style" is merely an imitation of your current favorite writer? Well, don't despair. Reading work that yo...

A friend of mine confessed recently that when she is out of town, she sends herself postcards with inspiring photographs on one side and on ...

As writers we all need feedback. And not just from our spouses, children, or best friends, who of course love our work simply because they l...

That's the way I heard it, but the actual quote from English critic Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in a 1914 essay On the Art of Writing is ...

Don't you hate it when you read a book that seems all along to have been one long set-up for the sequel? Or worse, an ending that comes ...

Remember what Mama told you about men and their "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free"? The same wisdom applies for...

There seems to be a lot of material out there that is a mere re-telling of actual events. There's nothing wrong with that, except, who ...

Frank McCourt is one of my favorite storytellers, and he has just written a new book entitled Teacher Man. I haven't read the book yet,...

We all love to laugh. And many of us write (or try to write) things that make people laugh. Today, think about your favorite jokes. Figur...

Who would I choose to be stuck on a deserted island with? A writer who has learned how to survive failure. Continuous rejection tends to w...

Write more. Write better. Be honest. Take risks. Happy New Year to all my writer-friends!

If I had to choose one poetry anthology to recommend to both poets and non-poets alike, it would be Good Poems edited by Garrison Keillor. ...

One of the things I love about being a writer is the excuse it gives me to travel. I mean, writers need material, right? Writers need to res...

I recently had the opportunity to judge a poetry contest for an organization that wanted to make the contest more objective, so they attache...

Have you ever had the experience of sitting down to write one thing but then wound up writing something entirely different than you had expe...

I've been reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Early on in the book, the entire village falls victim to a...

The day after a big event, whether it be Christmas, a death, a diagnosis, a birth, the day after you left or he left, the day after you got ...

My favorite part of the New York Sun 's response to Virginia O'Hanlon's question about Santa Claus is this: "Nobody can con...

Don't feel bad if during this busy season you are not getting words down on paper. The writer's brain is always writing. When you do...

Most writers start out writing about their own lives -- straightforward, narrative, autobiographical, "confessional" writing. Thi...

It all comes down to word choice, and as writers we have often been admonished to "Show, Don't Tell." Did you know that in th...

If family and friends know you're a writer, chances are that at some point this holiday season someone is going to ask you to share some...

People often ask me what I'm reading. This week I'm finishing up the lovely, sensual Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson and ...

"Never start a large writing project on a Monday in December." So says Anne Lamott. 'Tis the season for a thousand things to d...

There are those writers among us who enjoy an audience, then there are those (like me) whose palms sweat, heart pounds, voice quivers whenev...

One of my favorite writing organizations is Southern Breeze, my region's branch of SCBWI (Society for Children's Book Writers and Il...

Every so often I like to flex my poetry muscles and challenge myself by writing a form poem. (See today's post at Mom and Apple Pie.) I...

Perhaps the one thing all writers have in common regardless of genre is a passion for words. Which is why, I suppose, most writers are als...

My husband is fond of the saying, "99% of success is showing up." And it's true, we as writers have got to show up for our app...

'Tis the season for overeating. So today, think about food and what it means to you -- What is your favorite holiday food? Your least ...

Let's face it: for most of us writing is never going to pay the bills. But there is a way to earn a little money while you wait for yo...

Okay, I admit it: I am a little afraid of writing dialogue. And not coincidentally, one of the criticisms my fiction manuscripts have receiv...

Snow whispering down All day long, earth has vanished Leaving only sky. - Joso I read in the paper about all the snow in the more northern p...

A very good friend of mine has this plaque hanging on the wall of her laundry room: "A clean house is the sign of a dull woman." ...

So I am just back from Disney World where I made an attempt at the end of each day to salvage my adult brain cells by reading Anne Lamott...

Before I pack up the van with kids and husband and other theme park paraphenalia, I wanted to share some of the wisdom of George Orwell. Orw...

Today write something that attempts to answer an unanswerable question on a subject that matters to you. Think of Elizabeth Barrett Brownin...

The same way silence is perhaps the musician's greatest tool, the white space on the page is the writer's. It's why we revise a...

Here is a little trick that has helped me when writing longer prose pieces - wish I could remember where I picked it up! You'll like it...

She wasn't talking about writing exactly, but when a girl she knew was considering quitting college, Katharine Hepburn in her growly voi...

I wish I could remember where I first heard this one so I could give credit, especially as it has become one of my favorite writing challeng...

Ted Kooser, current US Poet Laureate, has written a helpful book entitled The Poetry Home Repair Manual . Even the title puts me at ease, a...

This one is for all you closet-writers out there: Writing just for yourself is wonderful and certainly the heart of it all, but do consider ...

First, consider this poem: A Writer and an Octopus A writer and an octopus Share more than you may think Their reach sometimes exceeds their...

In her very wise book Writing Alone and With Others, Pat Schneider claims this as one of her favorite writing exercises. Ask yourself the fo...

I read in a newspaper article that writing skills in children improved when they were told lots of stories. Not read to , but told stories,...

One of the most effective tools a poet has is the choice of word at the end of the line. This is the word that reverberates, this is the wo...

Too often writers allow the act of writing to fall off of the "Necessary" list that includes such things as Eat, Work, Sleep, Pay ...

Tonight the local high schools who have qualified will play in the quarter-finals of the state playoffs. What will the coaches say to the p...

So says Ray Bradbury in his book Zen in the Art of Writing . And it's true: writing is a matter of doing, and the thing that clogs the...

Studies indicate that the sense most attached to memory recall is the sense of smell. Today, mine your mind for memories associated with sm...

Nothing opens my mind so much as the open road. But what's to be done when a great line or character or story premise comes to you when...

I confess: I love long titles. My current favorite is by the wonderful poet Bonnie Roberts -- "El Rancho Motel Cost us $28 a Night, t...

Try this for a little variation on a list poem (works for poetry or prose): write a recipe for something today -- Recipe for a Happy Marria...

All the experts say it: aside from reading, the best thing you can do to capture the Muse is invest in a nice journal. And use it! The th...

What must life look like to a toaster, the dishwasher, an iron? Choose an inanimate object you use on a daily basis and see if you can crea...

Poems and stories are everywhere, just waiting to be written. Today, pick up a newspaper or magazine and write about something you see ther...

This is a tip I picked up at the Alabama Writers' Conclave this past July, at a workshop conducted by Sue Walker, current Poet Laureate ...

Welcome to Daytips for Writers! The purpose of this site is to share writing tips, exercises, and resources to help jumpstart the Muse that...