Creative Writing Resources

This week, I wanted to share one of my favorite Internet resources with you. I recently did a post on editing resources, but this time it's a little bit different. If you’ve been reading our blog, you’re probably interested in writing or grammar in some respect. The online website for the Writer’s Digest magazine is one of my favorite places because it’s useful for creative writing, but also has helpful information for editing and publishing. This post will highlight my favorite things about the website, and I hope they’re interesting and useful for you as well.

Weekly Writing Prompts

The weekly writing prompts at Writer’s Digest are short prompts for a creative writer looking for inspiration. Writers can post their creative response to the prompt in the comment section below the post, as well as comment on each other’s responses. I’ve found the community on Writer’s Digest to be helpful and kind whenever I’ve posted, and I always enjoy reading other people’s take on the prompts. If you want to check it out, you can find this week’s prompt here, and the complete collection of prompts here.

Wednesday Poetry Prompts

The Wednesday poetry prompts are based on the same premise as the weekly writing prompt—it’s a weekly exercise to practice poetry. I’ve used it less often than I have the writing prompts, but I still find it enormously helpful. I think one of the best aspects about either of the prompt sections is that you’re not required to share what you write; you can if you’d like to, but you’re equally free to use the prompt as inspiration for writing you want to keep personal or keep working on. The most recent Wednesday prompt required poets to use at least three words out of a predetermined word list.

Competitions

Writer’s Digest has a specific tab for competitions on their website, and it’s a great place to go if you’re interested in getting your work out to more people, or obviously, if you want to win competitions. I prefer the Your Story competition because it focuses on shorter stories and occurs more frequently than other contests, but there are certainly contests that focus on longer stories or poetry.

Grammar

Writer’s Digest isn’t a website for grammar specifically, but it has a post I thought was incredibly helpful for common grammar questions. This post lists the twelve most common grammar questions asked on the site, including the answers. I thought Which vs. That and Lay vs. Lie were the most helpful, since I’ve always struggled with those commonly confused words in particular, but each question listed has a corresponding post with a thoughtfully explained answer.

I hope that all of these resources are helpful for you, and do go check out the Writer’s Digest website! It’s great for a variety of things, and the community is always helpful and welcoming. Have a great week!

~K