Writing Help
Looking for a few extra tips and tricks or craft hints? You’ve found YeahWrite’s Writing Help archive. Below, you’ll see a collection of the posts we think you’ll find helpful. Besides our monthly Nonfiction Know-How and Poetry Slams, we’ve included posts from past workshops, guest authors, classes, and the times one or another of our editors added some in-depth knowledge during a routine weekly post. Be sure to check out our favorite post: the one that defines the “so what.” Whether you write fiction, nonfiction, or correspondence, your reader should never be left asking… so what? We’ve also collected our best of the best posts about constructive criticism in one place, because writing help is also about helping each other write. Good luck, and happy writing!
One good turn
Have you ever read a story, certain you know where it's going, only to have the author take a sharp turn at the end? It's like walking through the forest and suddenly coming upon a pristine mountain lake. A turn like this can open your eyes to an entirely different...
20/20 Hindsight – Ninth Variation
Everyone's a poet Or at least, that's true this month! At its heart, a poem is often a story using emotion rather than narrative structure to draw the reader in. One of the ways we prove the humanity of our characters - fiction or non- is by helping the reader connect...
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
I have a pretty good visual memory... for reading. In fact, not only can I tell you what I read, I can tell you where on the page it was. And the shapes of the letters line up in my brain and make sense to me. So much sense that I was the state spelling champion. Five...
It’s Personal
Imagine me and you, and you and me... One of the standard exercises for fiction writers is to write a story from the point of view of an inanimate object. It's rather hard to do well, honestly, largely because so many new writers can't resist the temptation to hide...
20/20 Hindsight – Eighth Variation
It was a dark and stormy night ... the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the...
20/20 Hindsight – Seventh Variation
Tap tap, is this thing on? Think about this: you're at a party. You're telling your favorite anecdote about the time you hid a bunch of frogs under a basket in the garage, and what happened when they got loose (spoilers: they scared your mom half to death and you got...
Pros and Consonance
It all hangs together When I was a kid, my dad would take us down to the river, or the lake, and he'd go fishing. In the days when I was still too little to hold even my own downsized pole (the one that sits in a corner here now, in case my niece is ever...
20/20 Hindsight – Sixth Variation
Out of time No, not you: you've still got plenty of time to join us! That's the joy of the Hindsight 2020 series: you can hop in at any point along the way. No, this month we're talking about chronology—the order of events in your story. Sometimes it makes sense to...
A Place and Time for Everything
Anchors When you think of an anchor, what does that mean to you? Is it an object that holds you back, or one that keeps you grounded and safe? Can it be both? In this month's technique-focused poetry slam we're going to explore how time and place are used as anchors...
20/20 Hindsight – Fifth Variation
Bigger is better? We've been pretty stingy with words over the last few months. This month, we're feeling a little more generous! Like, so generous! And it's not just because our sample story originally came in at 2,700 words, at least 2,100 of which are "darlings."...
The World (of) Series
I'm counting on you. Okay, I didn't pick this month's poetry slam for all the puns, but I sure could have. I could use a little humor these days, don't know about you. Anyway. So about June. I've been thinking a lot these days about relations, and connections, and the...
20/20 Hindsight – Fourth Variation
Where do you stand? In April we took away a lot of ways to add information to your story. In May, we're giving them back... and then some, with a shift in your point of view.Ready? May's assignment is: rewrite your story from a different point of view. (Maximum...
Echo chambers
Roger. Copy that. Let's talk tech. Technique, that is. Technique is about more than just copying a poem's form, although we've been having a lot of fun doing that and building muscle memory while we're at it. Technique is the building blocks to make your own poetry,...
13 Ways of Looking at National Poetry Month
I remembered! Y'all, I have forgotten National Poetry month for like... mumble of the mumblemumble years I've worked with YeahWrite. You have no idea how excited I am that I remembered this year. I thought about making this month a poetry free-for-all but then I...
20/20 Hindsight – Third Variation
Talk to me Did you make it through March? April's requirements are more relaxed. Well, sort of. We're taking away all your expositional dialogue and you're going to show, not tell, us your story.Ready? April's assignment is: rewrite your story in only...