| Writing Forward

What’s The Difference Between Dashes and Hyphens?

To the passive reader, it’s a short horizontal line that appears somewhere in a text, usually joining two words together. To a writer, it’s something else entirely, but what? Is it a dash, a hyphen, or a minus sign? More than once, I’ve been pecking away at my keyboard and stopped suddenly when confronted with…Read More

A Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction

Here at Writing Forward, we’re primarily interested in three types of creative writing: poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. With poetry and fiction, there are techniques and best practices that we can use to inform and shape our writing, but there aren’t many rules beyond the standards of style, grammar, and good writing. We can let…Read More

From 10 Core Practices for Better Writing: Revising Your Writing

I’d like to share a few excerpts from my book 10 Core Practices for Better Writing. “Chapter Three: Revision” explores the importance of revising your work and includes tips and ideas for editing and proofreading. Enjoy! “The best writing is rewriting.” – E.B. White We use the terms first draft or rough draft when we…Read More

15 Quick and Dirty Writing Tips

The first time someone told me, “show, don’t tell,” I had no idea what they were talking about. Show what? Isn’t writing, by its very nature, telling? I was a young writer and didn’t yet understand the many elements of good writing. But I kept hearing that advice over and over: show, don’t tell. Then,…Read More

Journal Prompts to Tickle Your Funny Bone

Have you ever tried to write comedy? It’s not easy. Comics form the ranks of some of the most talented artists in the world. The gift of laughter is a rich one, and writing funny material can enrich your work. After all, art must reflect life and life is a balance of highs and lows….Read More

Storytelling Exercise: Three Acts

Today’s storytelling exercise is an excerpt from my book, Story Drills, which is filled with fiction-writing exercises that impart basic techniques of storytelling. Today’s exercise is from chapter forty-five. It’s called “Three Acts.” Enjoy! The three-act structure is one of the simplest and most effective ways to outline or analyze a story and its structure….Read More

How to Develop Your Best Novel Writing Ideas

Writing a novel is no small task. In fact, it’s a momentous task. Some writers spend years eking out a first draft, followed by years of revisions. And that’s before they even think about the grueling publishing process. In other words, you’re going to spend a lot of time with your novel. So you better…Read More

Breaking Grammar Rules in Poetry Writing

Accomplished writers respect the rules of grammar the way an acrobat respects the tightrope — grammar might be intimidating and complicated, but we need it in order to perform. Yet sometimes, an acrobat takes her foot off the tightrope. She does a flip or some other trick of physical prowess that seems to defy the…Read More

Homophones: They’re, There, and Their

Homophones are words that sound the same when pronounced out loud but have different meanings. Homophones such as they’re, there, and there confuse kids, slip past spell check, and pop up all over the place as typos and misspellings. To make things worse, many homophones have different spellings, which means spell check ignores them, since alternative spellings…Read More

The Power of Narrative Writing

The secret is out: narrative is powerful. A narrative can entertain, inform, and persuade — but most importantly, it can forge deep, meaningful, and lasting connections. What is Narrative Writing? A narrative is a spoken or written account of events. The word narrative is often used interchangeably with story, because a narrative is structured like a story: it…Read More