#diymfa

[writingquestionsanswered]

Is it okay to use generators to help you start writing or to give ideas? I see a lot of writers on other platforms bashing them and saying that by using them you are not a real writer.

I use them because I personally feel like I'm not that creative, and it gives me a vague start to go on.

Thank you, and I really love your blog!

Using Random Generators for Inspiration

It depends on what you actually mean when you say "generators." Random Generators - Random generators have existed on the internet for years and years and years. Some popular ones are Fantasy Names .com and Seventh Sanctum .com. These use predefined options that were created by someone who is offering them up for the express purpose of writers using them as prompts, inspiration, and ideas. These are absolutely fine to use, are used by even seasoned writers, and in no way undermine your validity as a writer.

Generative AI - Generative AI is relatively new on the scene and includes things like ChatGPT and Notion AI. These use data that is scraped from other sources without permission from the creators. In other words, the ideas and text isn't generated by a person who specifically put it there for your use, but is instead stolen from other writers who did not give anyone permission to use it.

To be more clear, it's the difference between someone saying "here are some ideas you can use" versus someone saying "here are other people's stolen ideas you can use."

Needless to say, the use of generative AI is extremely controversial, as it should be. We're not talking about robbing from the rich to feed the poor. We're talking about robbing from the poor to feed the poor. Many MANY creatives work around (and sometimes overcome) challenges to their work without resorting to theft from other creatives. And when creativity is something that even creatives struggle with at times, lacking creativity is not a good excuse for stealing someone else's hard work.

So... if you're using random generators for plot ideas, setting ideas, character names, etc., that's fine, and many writers use them. But, if you're using generative AI, you need to really think about what you're doing and why you feel entitled to using ideas stolen from other creatives.

In the meantime, here are some resources that can help you boost your own creativity:

Guide: Filling Your Creative Well Guide: How to Rekindle Your Motivation to Write Getting Unstuck: Motivation Beyond Mood Boards & Playlists Character Development Exercises Writing Exercises to Help You Become a Better Writer Want to Write, Can't Come Up with a Plot

Also, some great random generators:

Fantasy Name Generators Seventh Sanctum Chaotic Shiny RanGen DIYMFA WriterIgniter Plot Generator Writing Exercises.uk

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[wordlywriter]

WRITER GEM:

Two weeks ago, at the Half Priced Bookstore in my area (one of my greatest loves :)), I wandered into the clearance section and found a book called DIY MFA. When I pulled it off the shelf—randomly, I might add—my immediate reaction was visceral. I gasped and clutched it close to my chest. Because as writers, we’re often told that graduate school is a must-do for publishing, right? We see it written on the backs of novels in author blurbs all the time. We hear it from our undergrad schools and professors. To “make it” is to burn through academia according to a certain timeframe and by a specific age. Such are the expectations, anyway.

But what if this isn’t practical? Whether its finances, time constraints, or another completely valid and reasonable explanation, that envied master’s degree can pose a problem. As a rising junior in college, these problems have been on my mind for many months already. And as someone who is constantly searching for writing advice to share with others, I thought this would be a great feature for the page.

DIY MFA is a book, and general model of learning, with three core principles, all of which can be found on the website: http://www.diymfa.com. These principles are: writing with focus, reading with purpose, and building community. The “about” section states that “the beauty of DIY MFA is that while it covers most of what you’d get in a traditional MFA, you get to decide how to structure your writing, reading and community so you can reach your goals.” Pretty cool, right? I thought so! And while I haven’t immersed myself just yet, on account of wanting to structure my newest WIP before jumping in, both the book and website have given me a lot to reconsider.

Other notable exploratory sections on diymfa.com include the “writer igniter,” which is a prompt generator, in addition to free starter kits, podcast episodes, articles, and speaker videos.

As far as I can tell from Amazon and Goodreads reviews, this might not be the greatest option for those seeking advice for less traditional writing forms such as comics, graphic novels, and children’s books, to name a few, but the concepts and tools will work well for any genre and aspiring writer, provided you are dedicated to see your project through. I actually think that this could be an avenue of exploration for the project in the future. It was published in 2016 though, so I’m excited for whatever might be in store in the next few years!

Have you tried this book or learning model out? What did you think?

Follow @diymfa for more information ✏️

[gtunesmiff]

How Writing Is Like Playing the Violin

Gabriela Pereira || DIYMFA

I have played the violin since I was four years old, and my son and daughter play piano and violin respectively. They both go to a Suzuki music school—the same school I attended from ages 4-18. In fact, my daughter’s violin teacher was my orchestra conductor and chamber music coach when I was a teen.

All of this means that I have a tendency to view the world through a Suzuki lens, an outlook that centers on incremental practice over progress made by leaps and bounds. This perspective is also especially useful when it comes to writing.

We all know full well that no one can write a book in a day. It takes time and continuous persistence. There’s no glamorous solution.

Rather, we just have to show up at the page on a regular basis and clock in the hours. It’s that simple.

And yet, there are a lot of sources out there that glamorize the “overnight success” approach to writing. This attitude is best summed up by an episode that happened in my traditional MFA program. One time in workshop, a writer whose story was on deck for critique said to the class: “I wanted to apologize in advance for any typos. I just threw this piece together on my phone, while standing in line at a movie theater last weekend.”

I’ll be honest, the possibility of typos was not the thing that concerned me about this writer’s statement. What bothered me most was the attitude, as though this writer was bragging about how little time they had spent on their submission. It was as if their goal wasn’t to write something good, but rather to write something with as little effort as possible.

This kind of attitude is dangerous because it lulls us into believing that writing should be “easy,” and if it’s not, then there must be something wrong with us. Let me make one thing very clear: the problem is not with us.

Now, don’t confuse writing fast with writing easily. Personally, I happen to be a naturally fast writer. Once I get an idea of what I want to say, it tends to pour out of me fairly quickly. Similar to other writers, I know many individuals who are like this with their fiction and can crank out multiple books a year at a furious pace.

Build speed and stamina through practice.

The speed at which we write has nothing to do with the ease with which we write. Just because I tend to write fast doesn’t mean that the process is “easy” for me. People who see me crank out words so quickly might think that all writing should be a snap.

What they don’t see are the years of practice that got me to the point where I write at this pace, the countless hours before I put pen to page, or when the ideas needed to incubate and take shape in my mind.

Speed and ease are two very different things. The speed at which we write and the quality of the words we produce, these things come with practice. Ease, on the other hand, is a fickle beast. Some days it might feel like words just flow out of you, while on other days, each syllable can be a slog.

This is where persistent, incremental practice can be a game changer. We have to train ourselves to produce words—whether we “feel like it” or not. We have to practice showing up to the page, regardless of whether the writing comes easily.

This reminds me of something I learned practicing the violin with my daughter. I’m not going to lie, the past five years of violin have been brutal. Lady Bug is a strong-willed girl and when she decides she’s not going to practice, no amount of cajoling, begging, arguing, or even threatening will get her to do it. If she weren’t so darn talented, we probably would have let her quit ages ago, but when she picks up the instrument, it’s like it was made for her.

The trick, of course, is getting her to pick up the instrument in the first place.

In the beginning, when she would blatantly refuse to practice, the teacher suggested a strategy. “Just have her open the box. Don’t make her pick up the violin or the bow. Just open the box and leave it there on the floor.” The idea was not to attach any expectations to the practice, but to get her used to the idea of opening the box. Eventually, curiosity would win out and she would pick up the violin and try to practice. (I wish I could say this strategy worked every time. It didn’t. But it worked enough that we kept at it.)

Normalize the practice.

We can use a similar strategy with our writing, especially when the writing feels like a challenge. Boot up the computer or pull out the notebook and pen, then just sit and wait. Don’t attach any expectations as to whether it will be a productive writing day or not.

Just show up and see what happens.

When we practice showing up, we lower the barrier to entry. We normalize the process and the practice. For example, at this stage, my kids practice their instruments because it’s just something we do in our family. Everyone plays an instrument.

Everyone practices. It’s our version of normal. As writers, we need to do the same thing: we need to normalize the practice of writing, and make it “just something we do” rather than turning it into a big deal.

Right now, many writers are gearing up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a challenge where you try to write 50,000 words of a novel in the month of November. What I love about this challenge is that it forces you to show up and write, whether you feel like it or not. With such a tight timeline, there’s no room for dawdling or taking the day off. You have to pour those words onto the page one way or another. For many writers, this challenge is the spark that lights the fire under their backsides and gets them to write that book once and for all.

My one small concern with challenges like this is that there is no room for granting ourselves grace and showing up without expectation. Yes, you have to show up with these challenges, but you also have to produce something and sometimes that’s not in the cards. Just like some days you open the box and don’t pick up the violin, sometimes the writing is just plain hard and no matter what you try, nothing comes out. This is why I myself have never done this challenge in earnest. The few times I tried, I buckled under the pressure to produce and gave up within a few days.

If you are diving into the challenge, I tip my hat to you. While I myself have never gotten past the first few days, I have tremendous admiration for folks who are able to get to the finish line. It is an impressive feat, to be sure.

If you aren’t doing the challenge, I want to propose a low-impact alternative. For the month of November, practice opening the box. Show up at the computer and give yourself ten minutes. If no words come, then consider your time clocked in and go about the rest of your day. Chances are, though, after a few days of showing up, the words will eventually start to flow.

Remember, practice is not about rote repetition.

When I think of practice, I think of a meditation practice or a yoga practice, where 90% of the work is showing up and being present. Let’s make this November the month where we show up for ourselves and for our writing.

[averymorstan]

One of the things I get asked about from time to time is my decision to publish on Amazon Kindle. 

I get it, Amazon is the Bad Guys (and honestly, I don’t disagree with you), but they did streamline the process in a lot of ways that make self-publishing on Amazon very easy. 

My decision to self-publish actually started last year before NaNoWriMo. I had a job that I didn’t feel great about the longevity of, and I also live in a pretty stressful situation that I don’t make enough to move out of. My job was quiet, though, and I was able to listen to podcasts during the day. I started to devour so many writing podcasts - DIYMFA, I Wish I’d Know, Author Like a Boss, Spa Girls, Indie Fully Booked and so many others that I can’t even remember all of them. Just day after day, doing my little data entry, and listening to pods. I’d already been writing fanfic and listening to people who decided to take their publishing future into their own hands and really commit to writing their original stories was very inspiring. 

I will say, some of what I listened to was very reminiscent of Multi-Level Marketing jargon.

Do I think some people make a ton of money on Amazon? Yes. But I have my doubts about some of the advice floating around on social media and through these podcasts about the real money that can be (or can’t be) made on Amazon.

I also feel like some of the speakers can be a little bit... elitist? Classist? But that might be a different post kind of subject. 

What I DID take away, around Christmas or January of last year, was that some of these books that were being published were actually quite short. I don’t know if other autistic people struggle with this, but I know I need ‘permission’ or an example of how something is done before I realize I could have been doing it that way the whole time. Sometimes, my brain commits to rules that aren’t necessarily true. For instance, I thought all books had to be long - they had to be like, at least 50,000 to 150,000 words. This always felt like an insurmountable obstacle to me because I typically can’t stay committed to a story longer than like, 20k. I’m ready for a new part to the adventure by the time I get to that word count. 

But a lot of these indie published authors were talking about rabid releasing, writing very short books, and managing to make content every few weeks. Because of this, they were saying it was possible to start making a steady income relatively quickly by cementing your work in the Amazon algorithms. 

I didn’t think it was possible. So, using my small town romance project from last year’s NaNo, I decided to test myself. I’m a fairly quick writer and I’d been writing fanfic for a while, so I knew I could bust out a pretty okay romance story within a short time frame. I built a little world based on my town/the towns I tend to hang around in and I created four books (plus a bonus story for Christmas) set in these towns. I would release one 15,000 word ‘book’ each month from August to December and see what happened. Each book had 7 chapters, had call backs to characters that you knew from previous books so you felt like you were checking in on old friends, and the stories themselves could only take place over the period of a few days - or, in the case of Falling for Apple, a few weeks. 

I started writing in March and worked all the way through until I started releasing them in August. In that time, I changed jobs to someplace I had less free time for writing, and I’ve done a few plays. I’ve also traveled out of town, continued documenting the process on my YouTube channel, and dealt with a very sick relative/family drama. I feel really, really good about what we’ve accomplished. 

I am also burnt out as F_CK.

All in all, if you don’t count my $12.00 a month subscription to PicMonkey, which I use to make my covers but I had already because of my history with blogging/making Insta content, I’ve spent about $25 on advertising. I’ve done a few boosted posts through Instagram and the rest has been talking about the books on my channel or on my Instagram/Facebook/Tiktok accounts. I was trying to use this method of mostly relying on the Amazon algorithms to do the work for me- that was directly out of one of the podcasts. 

I have made about $100. 

That’s it. That will not help me move out of my home and it is not the second income I was hoping it would be. HOWEVER, this is a marathon, not a sprint, and I’m very much due for a water break. 

Here is what I’ve learned throughout this process:

* Amazon makes it easy because they give you free ISBNs for your Kindle e-books. ISBN numbers can be Very Expensive, so this is a nice bit of accessibility for those of us living below the poverty line. 

* Amazon also has Kindle Create which basically formats your book for you/helps you format your books, so that’s pretty accessible as well.

* Amazon also pays you for page reads. So, yes, your book is free in Kindle Unlimited but you get paid per page read and that’s really nice.

If you have more asks about this process, please let me know because I do think knowledge should be shared and not kept where others (who don’t have the income) can reach it. 

[esonetwork]

Drinking with Authors - Ep 301 - Carol Van Den Hende

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/drinking-with-authors-ep-301-carol-van-den-hende/

Drinking with Authors - Ep 301 - Carol Van Den Hende

Carol Van Den Hende is an award-winning author who pens stories of resilience and hope. Her novels “Orchid Blooming” and “Goodbye, Orchid” have been awarded more than 20 times, winning the 2020 American Fiction Award for urban fiction, 2020 Pinnacle Achievement Award for multicultural fiction, IAN Outstanding Fiction for Best New Novel, Best Book Finalist, Royal Dragonfly Award, Audiobook Reviewer Author of the Year. Plus, “Goodbye, Orchid” has been named one of the most anticipated fall reads by Buzzfeed, Parade, and Travel+Leisure, one of The Write Review’s Top Books of 2020 and has been featured in Glamour, Bookstr, Frolic, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, DIYMFA, WABC Radio among others. The Pulpwood Queens selected Goodbye Orchid as a 2022 Bonus Book-of-the-Month.

She’s also a speaker, strategist, Board member and Climate Reality Leader. One secret to her good fortune? Her humorous husband, fun-loving twins, and rescue cat, who prove that love really does conquer all.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Carol-Van-Den-Hende/e/B08FTLB271/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk

Discount Code: DWA10

Music by Jam Hansley

Follow Us and Buy Our Books!

Website: https://4horsemenpublications.com/

All Social Media: @DrinkingWithAuthors

This Episode is sponsored by Skunk Brothers Spirits

Website: https://skunkbrothersspirits.com/

Discount Code: DWA10

Skunk Brothers Spirits was started by a family of disabled veterans focused on locally-sourced, quality distilled spirits. The Washington-based team is building on their grandfather’s prohibition-era moonshine recipe to bring small batch spirits to the Gorge and beyond!

[niasimone]

Ain’t nobody got money for an MFA, so I’m taking matters into my own hands. See what I’ve learned from the internet at the link above. To directly support the free publication, consider buying me a coffee!

I’d appreciate if you liked and reblogged the post to share it! Thanks guys!

[thisliterarylife]

Growth. #amreading #currentlyreading #readingchallenge #mentalhealth #bpd #borderlinepersonalitydisorder #memoir #bookish #bookworm #bookstagram #diymfa https://www.instagram.com/p/B6LZp-sngX1/?igshid=v4i4g51lf8qj

[mirymom]

Favorite supporting characters with the DIY MFA book club. 

[mycommonplacesite]

5 Literature related movies, podcasts, and more!

[theremightbecupcakespodcast]

Plans for today: planner organization, read at least second chapter of @diymfa, and finish the amazing Parkland (way overdue, it’s been calling to me, illness has been getting in the damn way) @ by @davecullenwriter. Hate beyond hate when my hands hurt too much to support a large paperback. Today is not that day, Satan. In other book news...as a birthday (month) present to myself, I ordered a @clivebarkerofficial nonfiction collection. I am bookishly spoiled; books make being chronically ill bearable beyond any belief. #bookstagram #books #amreading #parkland #neveragain #ARC #arcreader #davecullen ##gabrielapereira #diymfa #amwriting #travelersnotebook #scotland #clanstuart #plannernerd #homebound #chronicillness #chronicpain #beyourownheroine #EDS #EDSiii #hypermobility #fibro #fibromyalgia #POTS #spoonielife #spoonie #zebra #zebralife #spooniestrong #zebrastrong #acolorstory #acolorstoryessentials (at Virginia) https://www.instagram.com/p/BtYnq2YH7UZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=cm0fkykmk4rb

[rhiannoneltonauthor]

Writing communities can often be the difference between obscurity and thriving. cstu.io/0e7391

[gtunesmiff]

We must take responsibility for our creative work and we must use our words.

Writing Belongs to Everyone

Writing Is a Responsibility

Gabriela Pereira || diyMFA

[cherehughes]

My article on the Key Features in No-Fear Critique landed today on a distinguished writer's website, DIYMFA. I am honored.

"Chere Hughes talks about her experiences with DIYMFA critique sessions and what makes them unique and fun."

[jwdonley]

It's day 12 of the #DIYMFAInstagramChallenge - Sources of Inspiration 1. Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti. Really, anything by Ligotti. His style is mesmerizing. I aspire to achieve even an ounce of the dark tone/mood he achieves in his fiction. 2. Plot and Structure by Joshua Bell is my go to story mechanics book, along side... 3. DIYMFA, which also helped me to prioritize my writer life. 4. Perdido Street Station by China Miéville was an eye opener of a book. Before that, I thought it was against the rules to world build at such vast amounts within a story. I also must give a shout-out to @richardgthomasiii of @storyvilleclass . His instruction has helped me to advance my story toolset, to leap forward in experience that would've taken me years of toil on my own. #amwritinghorror #amwriting https://www.instagram.com/p/B_86EsaJD1P/?igshid=p0mk7z1x3nes

[sarahtheswan]

I'm Here For/Against You

I’m Here For/Against You

I love a good main character. Nay, a GREAT main character! What makes a great main character? The supporting characters. Think about it, as soon as a “character” in your own life crosses your path, what happens? You’re challenged. Does your road twist and turn? Do you all of sudden realize you’re heading in a new direction? Or do you decide that where you’re going is exactly where you need to go?