writing

Hello everyone! I recently rejoined Litopia after a twenty-year break. I first became a member in 2005 and was active until 2009. No, I didn't go to prison; I got married, had a child, and became very focused on work and life in general. Writing has always been my passion, and now that I've...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/12/chatgpt-firm-reveals-ai-model-that-is-good-at-creative-writing-sam-altman

As for my writing process, there is one truth I have discovered after writing some twenty-plus books: Not every book is the same, but the middle of every book is where I really begin to question my choice of vocations. The beginning and end is usually fairly clear to me, but that middle just...

So, I've been reading a lot of Indie books recently... And by 'reading a lot of indie books' I mean reading the free samples on Amazon, and I am somewhat perturbed. Now, i am not the most confident of people. I lack a self confidence in my writing and general life that many seem to have in...

https://stockholmwritersfestival.com/enter-first-5-pages-prize-2025

Deciding to write a book, it never feels like a great idea. It’s always like knowingly entering a bad marriage. If you had any sense, you wouldn’t do it, but you know you’re going to do it. Percival Everett

https://www.craftliterary.com/craft-novelette-print-prize-2025/

What do you guys think of Writer's of the Future? Did anyone submit here and get anywhere? I'm thinking of writing a short story for the next cycle....

VAL MCDERMID JUDGES THE 2ND "CRIMEBITS" PRIZE FOR BEST OPENING TO A CRIME BOOK Ends on Thu, Mar 13, 2025 11:59 PM MAKE YOUR FIRST PAGE COUNT... Building on the successful book CRIMEBITS selected and introduced and judged by LEE CHILD, published as a paperback in the UK and USA November 1...

New blog post by Katie-Ellen Hazeldine The Stories in Our Stars: The Zodiac for Writers We are now in Pisces Season. But what are its stars, what’s the ancient story behind it all, and what does it mean for writers? Time to go fishing with Pisces. Traditional Associations...

I am not a poet, but I had a thought. So, if I may: What passes as presence is really clicks, neverending. What passes as content is merely echoes, reorganized. What passes as writing is merely content, masquerading.

New blog post by Claire G What Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? Bear With Me! Okay, this is probably a weird analogy but this is how my (bird-brained!) mind works. So, in terms of the title question, I’ve thought long and hard about this and, with my limited scientific knowledge, I’ve...

I really connected with this teaching of writing:

New blog post by Jake E Dems the rulez Once again, I find myself writing about an argument I stumbled upon on X (Can’t they agree on anything over there?) and I just had to offer my thoughts on it in case anyone was interested. The argument in question? Writing rules, do they have a point...

Our monthly micro-writing contest One Perfect Sentence kicks off this Friday, and I’m looking for prompt ideas… if you’d like to make any suggestions, please list them below! :) p.

New blog post by mickleinapickle One Perfect Sentence Posted on behalf of Peter Cox… The prompt this month was to complete “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” in a novel way. In this, you manifestly succeeded In fact, this was arguably the best OPS contest we’ve run so...

Writing is always full of self-doubt, but the first book [Torch] is really full of self-doubt, and it was much more of a struggle to keep the faith. By the time I wrote Wild, I was familiar with that feeling of doubt and self-loathing, so I just thought “Okay, this is how it feels to write a...

Writing is so difficult, that I often feel that writers, having had their hell on earth, will escape all punishment hereafter. Jessamyn West

“If you show someone something you’ve written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, ‘When you’re ready’”. David Mitchell

New blog post by Claire G More Haste, Less Speed? What Do We Mean by ‘Pace’ And Why Is It Important? We often hear that books are fast-paced, slow burn or ‘saggy in the middle’. In a nutshell, pace is the speed at which a story unfolds (note that this is not the same as the speed at which a...