Reedsy

What if you knew every secret in the room? 👀 Join our weekly writing competition for the chance to win $250 — and a 20,000-word developmental read (typically worth $500) for your work-in-progress from a Reedsy professional! This week's Reedsy Prompts contest — a special collaboration with Rozi Doci — invites you to gather your characters in one place and see what (or who) cracks first. What secrets will you spill? 📅 Deadline: May 22 at 11:59 PM EST 🔗 Enter here: https://lnkd.in/etZHn6zr

How far would you go to find yourself? 🌌 Join our weekly writing competition for the chance to win $250! This week's Reedsy Prompts contest invites you to explore joy, loneliness, and everything else that outer space can make us feel. Set your story among the stars, in another galaxy, or somewhere on this planet we call home. Where will your story take us? 📅 Deadline: May 15 at 11:59 PM EST 🔗 Enter here: https://lnkd.in/eJA4RSwP

Less than 1 month ⏳ That’s how much time you have left to submit to the inaugural Reedsy Literary Prize. Get that first draft down and give it the final polish it deserves before the deadline! Don’t miss out on the chance to receive $1,500, publication in our literary magazine Prompted, and personalized feedback from our guest judge, Aevitas literary agent Jon Michael Darga. 🗓️ Deadline: May 31 at 11:59 PM EST 🔗 Enter here: https://lnkd.in/d9CEH_xs

Can you write a story where the line between myth and reality begins to blur? 👀 Join our weekly writing competition for the chance to win $250! This week's Reedsy Prompts contest invites you to explore that intersection where climate science meets ancient wisdom, and where the solutions to our future might lie in reimagining our relationship with the past... 📅 Deadline: May 8 at 11:59 PM EST 🔗 Enter here: https://lnkd.in/dSVk4pqC

Can you write a story where color says what words can't? 🌈 Join our weekly writing competition for the chance to win $250! This week's Reedsy Prompts contest considers the role that color plays in our writing. Can the shade of a certain object mean more than your reader would ever expect? Can an abundance (or absence) of color make us rethink how we see the world and the people around us? Show us how color can go beyond just a simple description! 📅 Deadline: May 1 at 11:59 PM EST 🔗 Enter here: https://lnkd.in/dahesrmM

☎️ Last call If you’re curious about querying, revising, or what it actually takes to get a Big 5 publishing deal, this AMA is for you. Fiza Saeed McLynn is answering questions for a few more hours — don’t miss it (link in comments)

Most writing advice says show, don't tell. The best authors know when to break that rule. Direct characterization (explicitly stating a character's traits) is one of fiction's most underused tools. Used well, it sets the stage for everything that follows. Here are 5 tips for getting the balance right.

The plot is what you remember for a week. The theme is what you carry for years. Here are 7 of literature's most enduring ones — and the question each one poses.

What do you reach for when it's time to create? ✍️ Join our weekly writing competition for the chance to win $250! This week's Reedsy Prompts contest explores the the idea of creation itself, and the tools behind the work — not the pens and keyboards, but the invisible instruments: attention, time, memory, instinct. The things we rely on, and sometimes lose. (Bonus: Everyone who joins will receive a 20% discount on their ticket to our upcoming "How to Write a Winning Short Story" workshop!) 📅 Deadline: April 24 at 11:59 PM EST 🔗 Enter here: https://lnkd.in/eG84DbHZ

Self-publishing or traditional? Most authors choose based on instinct — but the real answer is more nuanced. Here are five trade-offs you should think through carefully.