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Writing Forward

September News and AnnouncementsYesterday

Summer is almost over. By the end of September, we will have stepped into autumn, that magnificent season of golden hues and rusty tones. The leaves will turn, breezes will cool, and we’ll be trading shorts and sundresses for boots and turtlenecks.

I find fall the most inspiring of all seasons. Every year when autumn comes around, my creative drive goes into overdrive. I have no idea why. I just know that for me, it’s a good time of year for writing.

Writing Forward is Three Years Old!

I can’t believe it’s been three years since I started this site. To celebrate Writing Forward’s third anniversary, I’ve revamped the design. This year, it’s a lot sleeker and slimmed down. I’ve trimmed a lot of content and design elements in favor of simplicity. Less is more!

Writing Forward

Here at Writing Forward this month, you can expect more articles on creative writing. Over the summer, posts were sparse (and I was busy watching the entire series of Lost). But with summer’s end in sight, posts will become more frequent and you can expect new articles once or twice each

Writing Exercises for Titles and HeadlinesAugust 31

Writing for newspapers, magazines, and blogs all require good, strong headlines.

The same is true for poems, short stories, and novels, except they require good, strong titles.

Today’s writing exercises ask you to compose headlines and titles that make people want to read your work.

Headlines

Magazines use enticing headlines prominently displayed on the front cover to entice customers. Newspapers use them to draw readers into a story, and bloggers, as many of you know, use them to generate buzz and link bait.

The best headlines and titles are catchy. They impart a teaser about what a reader can expect to find within the article. Therefore they tickle the curiosity of the target audience. They are also often memorable and include familiar phrases. Here are some starters for popular headlines:

• The Top Ten…
• How to…
• Fifteen Ways to…
• Everything You Need to Know About…
• The Twelve Best… Ever
• What [someone] Never Told You About…

Other common strategies that are part

7 Creative Writing Tips to Increase ProductivityAugust 26

Productivity. It’s all been said and done. In fact, you could spend more time learning how to be productive than actually being productive.

For us creative types, productivity can be a fleeting thing. We experience highs (a whole month packed with inspiration) and lows (three more months fraught with the ever-annoying writer’s block).

It can be frustrating. But creative writing doesn’t have to be a fair-weather hobby. Many successful authors have harnessed creativity, reigned it in, and turned it into a full-time profession. So, we know it can be done.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Succeeding in the arts takes a tremendous amount of drive, ambition, and dedication. It’s not the kind of job you have to show up for every day or risk being fired. Nobody cares if you get your work done except you. And maybe your characters, if you’re a fiction writer.

Creative Writing Tips for More Output

Here are seven creative writing tips to help you be more creative more often. Try them all and see which ones work for you.

1. Show up for work Set a ti

Creative Writing Prompts for Sci-Fi & Fantasy LoversAugust 24

In the world of creative writing, we’ve only begun tapping the possibilities in speculative fiction, a genre that includes science fiction, fantasy, supernatural and superhero stories, or anything that ventures beyond known reality.

Speculative fiction is an under-recognized genre: Academia and literary elitists traditionally haven’t given it much credence, although it has been gaining acclaim in recent years. But the fans are rabid. In fact, you won’t find a more dedicated group of readers in any other genre.

Plus, it’s a lot of fun to step outside of reality and see just what your imagination can do.

You can write about knights and dragons, spaceships and far-off planets, the apocalypse, ghosts, or strange islands with magical properties. In the world of speculative fiction, anything goes.

The creative writing prompts below can be used in any way you want. Use your imagination. Have fun with a freewrite, compose a poem, or draft a short story. Who knows? Maybe one of these prompts will inspire a novel idea. And if you’ve never given science fiction or fantasy a shot, this is your chance to test the

12 Ways to Build Better Writing SkillsAugust 19

Great writing requires an extensive skill set. You have to understand language, syntax, and context. A firm grasp on grammar is essential. The content you write must be organized so it reads smoothly. A vast vocabulary, a talent for puns, and a knack for storytelling are all skills that will benefit any writer.

Sure, some people are born with a talent for word craft. But nobody’s born knowing how to write. We all have to work at building and growing our writing skills, and this is especially true for anyone who wants to have a career in writing.

Better writing is not something that happens overnight. It’s a long-term commitment but the payoff is great. If you make a choice every day to improve your writing, then your work will get stronger, become more compelling, and you’ll drastically increase your chances of getting published.

How to Build Better Writing Skills

This list could keep you busy for years. There’s an endless supply of tools and resources to help writers build skills. Below, you’ll find the core activities that lead to consistently better writing over the long term