Writing Tips | Writing Forward

Writing Tips: Every Word Matters

Have you ever seen the movie Throw Momma From the Train (aff link)? It’s a classic 80s comedy about the hilarious misadventures of a writing instructor (Billy Crystal) and one of his students (Danny Devito). When the film opens, Billy Crystal’s character is suffering from an extreme case of writer’s block. In fact, he can’t complete…Read More

Writing Tips For Staying on Your Game

Believe it or not, there are a few writing tips that we writers can steal from athletes, strategies that show us how to stay in shape and on top of our game. Athletes work hard even when they’re off the field. They spend hours practicing with their teams. They run miles around the track when…Read More

Tips for Crafting Language

Have you ever stopped to think about how many different types of writers there are? Novelists, biographers, bloggers, copywriters, poets, screenwriters, and playwrights — just to name a few. Within each type of writing we can find areas of specialization. Some biographers write about celebrities; others focus on politicians. Copywriters can specialize in ad copy…Read More

Writing Tips: Kill Your Darlings

Kill your darlings. It’s a common piece of writing advice, but what does it mean? I once thought that “kill your darlings” was strictly for storytellers removing unnecessary or problematic characters. But this piece of wisdom has broader applications. It can be used by poets, nonfiction writers, and anyone who puts words on the page…Read More

Writing Tips: Be Yourself

As writers, we strive to connect with a reading audience. After all, writing is all about communication. Whether we’re sharing our personal experiences, imparting ideas and information, or creating rich, compelling stories, we want our words to ring true. We want our work to be authentic. And there’s only one way to achieve authenticity: be…Read More

How to Write a Book

Almost every writer on the planet wants to write a book. Some have finished a manuscript and others are already published, but many more dream, talk, and think about completing a full draft and seeing their name on a book cover. Some already have a book in the works while others have several half-finished drafts…Read More

36 Tips for Writing Just About Anything

There’s a lot more to writing than typing words. Writing well takes years of study, practice, and experience. It requires diligence, attention to detail, and dedication to the craft. Each project has a unique set of requirements and different types of writing have different rules. For example, when we’re writing fiction, we have one set…Read More

Using Metaphors to Enhance Your Writing

A while back, I wrote a piece that had nothing to do with food, but food became a running metaphor while I was revising. The food metaphor was so delicious (or maybe I was so hungry) that I rewrote the entire post with food on the brain. The blog posts I write with metaphors get…Read More

Writing Tips: Know Your Audience

It’s an old adage for writers: know your audience. But what does that mean? How well must we know the audience? And does knowing the audience increase our chances of getting published or selling our books? Some writers insist that the best way to write is to just write for yourself. Sit down and let…Read More

Writing Tips: Writing is Rewriting

Those of us who spend a lot of time studying the craft of writing inevitably come across bits of writing advice that we hear over and over again: show don’t tell, write what you know, and kill your darlings. These writing tips can be a bit cryptic, but the one about revisions is crystal clear:…Read More