Top Stories
Stories in Writers that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.
Public Speaking - Trauma
Public speaking can be difficult, even if you take a speech class in high school. I no longer picture people in the audience in their underwear, or look at one person in the audience, or look over everyone's head, or look at the back of the room.
By Denise E Lindquist3 months ago in Writers
Maybe I still see rockets in the sky
I remember looking to the sky in my youth and thinking every plane a rocket, every bird a dragon, every wind a whistle, light and high. The trees would sway in the breeze and I would sway with them, the connection between us something I could feel in my bones, but never say aloud. I never said very much then, but I felt it all: the immensity of this world as a child within it. I remember pulling back coarse branches and parting prickly bushes; I remember how my hands felt in the mud, grass tickling against my palms, my fingers caked with dirt. I remember the feel of the smooth, cool rocks, the wriggling of worms, the smell of rain in the air. I remember my early winters, bundled in jackets and scarves, lying face first in the snow, wishing never to leave.
By angela hepworth3 months ago in Writers
My First Month on Vocal: A Unique Experience
It has officially been just over a month since I joined Vocal and I have to say that this experience has been wonderful. I’d love to share my thoughts on these first 30 days as a Vocal creator and my plans going forward.
By Krysha Thayer4 months ago in Writers
Propaganda I'm Not Falling For (As a Writer)
Being a writer is hard. It’s even harder when you’re constantly met with criticism, “hot takes,” and conflicting ideas of what a writer is. One of the downsides to social media being such a prevalent tool for writers to promote their work and connect with other writers is that you’re constantly seeing what to do or what not to do - solely based on people’s personal opinions.
By Katherine J. Zumpano4 months ago in Writers
A Good Story
Hemingway said: "The first draft of anything is shit." But for one particular screenplay that I laboured over, the second, third and fourth drafts were also going to be shit. And it would stay that way until I made some big changes. So, I had to start over, almost from scratch. I had to get back to craft. And I had to abandon proselytizing.
By Marie Wilson4 months ago in Writers
Notebook Entries
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What if? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers prompts — The Exercise: Write one page a day. Concentrate on observation and description, not feeling. For example, if you receive a letter, the ordinary reaction is to write in the diary, “I received a letter that made me happy.” (or sad). Instead, describe the size of the envelope, the quality of the paper, and what the stamps looked like. Keep your diary without using the verb to be. Forms of the verb to be don’t create any vivid images. By avoiding its use, you get into the habit of choosing more interesting verbs. You’ll also be more accurate. For example, some people will say “John Smith is a really funny guy,” when what they really mean is “John Smith makes me laugh,” or “I like John Smith’s sense of humor.” Experiment with sentence length. Keep the diary for a week in sentences of ten words or less. Then try writing each day’s account in a single sentence. Avoid use of “and” to connect the long sentence; try out other conjunctions. Switch your diary to third person for a while, so that instead of writing I, you can write about he or she. Then, try mixing the point of view. Start the day in third person and switch into first person to comment on the action. By interspersing first and third-person points of view, you can experiment with stream of consciousness and the interior monologue. Try keeping your diary in an accent — first the accent of somebody who is learning how to write English, then the accent of somebody learning to speak English. Keep it in baby talk; Baby want. Baby hurt. Baby want food. Baby want love. Baby walk. Try making lists for a diary entry — just a record of the nouns of that day: toothbrush, coffee, subway tokens, schoolbooks, gym shoes. The Objective: To enhance your powers of observation and description without having to juggle the demands of characterization and plot.
By Denise E Lindquist4 months ago in Writers
How I Accidentally Became a Poet
I have always been a storyteller. I won’t bother you with all of the anecdotes, just one: I am eight, and I don’t know how to pen the complex words for my tale about a lost girl and her pirates. During class, my daydreams are occupied with memorizing the next scene. After school, I wait, not so patiently, for my mother to come home. Then, like an orator in a great hall, I stand beside her bed and recite the fictional unfoldings. She scribes them with a swift and loyal hand. Together, we revel in the newest imaginings, manifested, and she teaches me how to read cursive. It is like this for a year, maybe less, at least until I can string together a complete sentence and have become familiar with our second-hand thesaurus.
By Sam Eliza Green4 months ago in Writers
the tree of me
Last night, my dreams were encased in a cloak of darkness, and I could not make them out. Yet when I awoke this morning, the sun gleamed beyond my window just the same, and the vicious pounding of my heart was eased by the familiarity of its glow.
By angela hepworth5 months ago in Writers
