Catapult | Don't Write Alone

Cover Photo: This photograph shows a row of students in a classroom, all masked, all rapt with attention.

So You Want to Apply for an MFA

For our Application Week series, MFA directors and professors discuss common misconceptions, how they support students, and answer that ubiquitous question: Is getting an MFA worth it?

The Editors

Aug 15, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: This photograph is of a flower that is just beginning to blossom from a tight bud. Its petals are white, streaked with pink, and it has a few dew drops decorating them like small crystals.

Using Impatience to Help Your Writing

In this exercise, classes instructor Chaya Bhuvaneswar asks you to consider your impatience with not yet being where you want to be in your writing career and helps you use that as momentum.

Chaya Bhuvaneswar

Jul 25, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: Photograph by Timothy Dykes/Unsplash

How to Pivot from Writing Short Stories to Novels

If you’ve written short stories and are figuring how to get started on a novel, Erin Flanagan has some tips to help you get started.

Erin Flanagan

May 23, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: Photograph by gerlos/Flicker

In Praise of the Pomodoro, or Finding Writing Freedom Through Constraints

You might surprise yourself at how much you’re able to accomplish in short, focused periods of twenty-five minutes.

Jill Witty

May 09, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: This photograph is taken from the level of the forest floor, looking at mushrooms that are sprouting from an old log. The sun shines through their caps and illuminates the green woods behind them.

On Writing (When I’m Not Inspired)

I know I’m the kind of writer who has to trick himself into writing, into making the effort to find something to write about.

Richard Mirabella

Mar 28, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: This photograph shows a lightning strike coming down from the clouds all the way to purplish mountains in the distance. The colors of the photograph (purples sky, red sand, green brush) are vivid and electric, the desert alive with the promise of rain that has not yet arrived.

When Flash Nonfiction Strikes You

After contact, you may feel exposed, raw, tingly. Learn about flash nonfiction forms and what to do if you want to write flash of your own.

Michael Todd Cohen

Mar 16, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: This photograph has the words "You said tomorrow yesterday" spelled out in Scrabble tiles against a white background.

Is Procrastination Good for Your Writing?

There is no real, direct “cure” for procrastination, but there might be ways of better understanding it so that we can all use procrastination to our benefit in the long-run.

Alyse Campbell

Feb 24, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: The header image for this piece is a painting that Swan completed while reading THE ARTIST'S WAY. A yellow sky with a bright orange sun hangs above green hills. At the bottom of the painting, a bright orange ball floats in a pool's blue water.

‘The Artist’s Way’ is Better Than My Way

Is my singular definition of myself as a novelist useful to me?

Swan Huntley

Feb 07, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: This photograph shows a wooden sign nailed onto a tree. The sign has an arrow pointing forward and reads "Dead End." The sign is the only part of the photograph in-focus; we can see leaves and spots of light around the sign, as if light is being filtered through a forest.

How to Write an Ending

Why is it so hard to land the ending of a story? We want the endings of our stories to feel surprising yet inevitable—which is easier said than done.

Jenny Shank

Dec 08, 2021

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: This header's background is the nonbinary pride flag with the covers of 'The Black Tides of Heaven' by Neon Yang, 'Felix Ever After' by Kacen Callender, 'Freshwater' by Akwaeke Emezi, and 'Once & Future' by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy on top of it

Writing Nonbinary Characters

As a nonbinary queer writer, fictional characters helped me understand myself. I encourage authors to include nonbinary characters in their work.

Rey Katz

Dec 06, 2021

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: This photograph shows an old film reel spooled out against a white background.

Fiction Writing and Screenwriting: What’s the Difference?

For the fiction writer who is looking to dive into the deep end of writing their first film script, here are some things to keep in mind.

Lauren Harkawik

Aug 23, 2021

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: This photograph shows a typewriter with a screenplay page sticking out of it.

Learning the Elements of a Screenplay

If you’re interested in writing screenplays, it’s important to get to know the nearly identical format all screenplays and film scripts follow.

Lauren Harkawik

Jul 21, 2021

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: This photograph looks down at a pile of clocks. Most of them have old wood around their faces and white faces with roman numerals and fancy hands. The pile feels a little unwieldy and overwhelming.

The Mathematics of Writing a Novel

Writing a novel is a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. A bucket-list item. And like so many other bucket-list items, you have to find a way to make it happen.

Jill Witty

May 13, 2021

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: In this photograph, we see a dense pine forest from above. A road curves through the center of the photograph and the left side of the photograph is darker than the other, as if closer to a mountain.

Five Exercises to Clarify What You’re Writing About

If you’re having trouble seeing the forest through the trees, these exercises will help you pinpoint what kind of story you’re trying to tell—and who your audience might be.

Courtney Maum

May 03, 2021

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Cover Photo: This image includes a blue background with a drawing of a stack of papers. On the top piece of paper are scribbles that look like writing being edited with a red pen.

Editing and Publishing Lingo You Should Know

If it’s your first time taking a workshop or working with an editor, here are some terms you might come across.

The Editors

Apr 05, 2021

Don’t Write Alone | Toolkit

Don’t Write Alone: Toolkit