BY ROBERT B. ROBESON If I’d wanted an easy life, I could have taken up quantum physics, brain surgery or attempted to open a McDonald’s

BY SIOBHAN MURPHY Writing. It’s hard. Everyone who writes has been told this more times than the word count of The Lord of the Rings.

Spiegel im Spiegel BY PETRA HILGERS Mirror pieces have their own way of travelling into people’s hearts, as I know from Die Schneekönigin. Mine found me, fortunately

BY KRISTIN HOYT My numb, icy fingers grasp the frozen metal handle. Whoosh! A burst of warmth wraps around me like a familiar hug as

BY AMELIA RAY Don’t ask me where but once I read that Keith Richards reportedly has a unique songwriting approach. Supposedly, he writes down every

By Taryn Hochstrasser During my last year of high school, I wrote an essay picked from one of the given topics. I don’t really remember

By Helen Aitchison Our lives are riddled with self-doubt. Some more than others. We worry, analyse and focus on the negative. ‘I can’t do it!’

By Chase D. Cartwright That’s it. That’s the best advice I can give. Don’t write it, be it. Don’t live your life to become a

By Baks Wa Muthamia English is neither my first nor my second nor my third language. It comes in at a distant fourth! But I loved

By Laura Borjas There is a challenge every writer goes through – one might call it a ‘rite of passage’ – where you smear your

By Sujana Vangala For years, I lived in a space of hesitancy, in Plan B’s and safety nets. In the same way, my writing survived

By Dorotea Saputo The best writing advice I’ve ever received came from my grandfather who bragged about never having read a book in his life.

By Triyasha De ‘The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.’       

By Sufia Aleia For a story to exist, it must have characters. For characters to exist, they must be given life. After all, lifeless, inanimate

By Tarumbidzwa Chirume I was 15 when my English teacher, Mrs Williams, told me to commit murder.  It was Speech Day, and we all had

‘What’s Your Favourite Popsicle?’ By Archanaa I stared at the red circle on my calendar. I had three weeks to submit my short story. The

by Luciana Patri ‘Wanna be successful? Don’t value your time.’ – read the daring title of a video by Teal Swan, one of my favourite

By Kathleen Marple Kalb Rejection is bad, but the fear of it is worse. Too many good writers are afraid to put their work out

When I was a child, I understood grief because I’d had an elephant cookie jar on my shelf that was missing a lid. I’d watched

By KIRSTY MAC DOUGALL ‘Trust in the writing process.’ ‘Trust in your innate and untapped writing abilities.’ ‘Trust in yourself.’ Great advice. Tony Robbins would

By DAMON CROCKER He moved the bodies of the fallen soldiers to a central location. No, that’s not right, I thought as I violently hit

By CARTER LAPPIN You’re on a bus, about to head up the side of a winding mountain road. You’re trying to get comfortable in your

By ETHAN ALEXANDER    I was never the popular kid in high school. In fact, I was mostly ignored. I had just transferred to a

By AIMAN SHAHID   Take a wound as a starting point; it doesn’t need to be a dramatic blood-splattered Monty Pythonesque affair. It can even

By NEELESH RATHI You shouldn’t be afraid of writing garbage—or of other people seeing it. But, what if it’s not garbage? What if it’s not

By EWING EUGENE BALDWIN I had ruined my voice touring for three years in a bus and truck company of Jesus Christ Superstar. I had

By JAVI REDDY There is a notion held by non-artistic people that creatives sit around half-nude for most of their days, stewing in their emotions,

By SARAH DITTMORE “It’s a great story,” my teacher acquiesced. I beamed with the smile of an over-achiever receiving the much longed-for validation of a

BEST WRITING ADVICE: GET A HOBBY The lettuce wilted. The basil died as soon as it flourished, and the oregano never sprouted in the first

“Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” This piece of wisdom came from an American baseball player long deceased.

  I have always been highly susceptible to anything that promised I could become a writer. I believed in magical notebooks, charmed pens, lucky knickers,