Write a Novel This November! Happy (almost) National Novel Writing Month! NaNoWriMo may have shut down, but we can still write 50,000 words this November (or 30,000 words, or 60 pages—I just take it as a challenge to write every day, so do whatever you have time for). If you’re looking for a structured writing experience, check out Chill Subs’ First Draft November newsletter; they’ll be sending out prompts and providing a space for discussion and accountability throughout November.

Is everyone ready to write a novel this November? NaNoWriMo may have shut down, but we can still write 50,000 words! Here's a list of writing resources for inspiration and assistance with writing your novel!

An alert fawn, still with spotted coat, looks up from the bank of a pond to see if danger is near.

#photos #nature_photography #urban_wildlife #fawn #deer

August Writing Prompt Roundup Here's a list of all the writing prompts posted on Read as a Writer in August 2025! You can also find these prompts, plus all the prompts ever posted on Read as a Writer, on the writing prompts page. And check out my new page of writing resources here. Character Write a piece where the protagonist is keeping a secret from the reader, the people around them, and, to an extent, themself.

#Writing #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity

Here's my monthly writing prompt roundup, a post containing all the writing prompts posted on Read as a Writer in August. Happy writing!

#Writing #WritingCommunity #WritingResources

Looking for some writing and publishing resources? Check out this list of my top ten writing resources! I also have a whole writing resources page on my blog if you're looking for more tips (link in blog post).

Craft Analysis: Anxious Characters and Magical Creatures in S. A. Maclean’s The Phoenix Keeper In The Phoenix Keeper, Aila Macbhairan, the head phoenix keeper at San Tamculo Zoo, has to figure out how to relaunch the zoo’s dormant phoenix breeding program while arguing with the phoenix program’s new PR director, Luciana Reyes, and navigating her relationship with Connor, the diamondback dragon keeper. Two of the craft elements I thought were well done in this book were Aila’s characterization and the descriptions of magical creatures.

#Books #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #Writing

Do you want to learn how to write realistic characters with social anxiety? Or how to develop amazing magical animals for your worlds? Check out my craft analysis of The Phoenix Keeper for some tips and writing prompts!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books With a High Page Count This post contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org. If you purchase a book through those links, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt was “Books With a High Page Count,” which, for purposes of this post, I’m defining as books with more than 500 pages.

#Books #Reading

Are you looking for a book that will keep you busy for a while? Check out my list of the top ten fantasy books with high page counts!

Book Review: The Phoenix Keeper by S. A. Maclean This post contains an affiliate link to Bookshop.org. If you purchase a book through that link, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I loved this book. Socially anxious protagoni…

#Books #Reading #Fantasy #WritingPrompts

I loved this book. Socially anxious protagonist? Check. Important message about endangered species conservation? Check. Amazing side characters? Absolutely. If you have anxiety, read this book!
readasawriter.wordpress.com/2025/08/14/b...

Top Ten Tuesday — Books Guaranteed to End Your Reading Slump Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt was "Books Guaranteed to End Your Reading Slump," so here's my list of books that I think are guaranteed to pull you in and inspire you to keep reading, in no particular order. Hope you enjoy!

#Books #Reading

Are you in a reading slump and looking for a way to get out of it? Check out these attention-grabbing books to find your next read!

Overlaying a forest background is a gold box with the text: "Writing Prompts Based on Creating a Sense of Mystery or Secrecy Around the Protagonist". The writing prompts are: 1. Write a piece where the protagonist is keeping a secret from the reader, the people around them, and, to an extent, themself. As a bonus, they might use unhealthy coping mechanisms to keep their mind off the secret 2. Write a piece where one character forces another to divulge a secret they’ve been keeping for years. This has ramifications for these two characters’ relationship 3. Write a piece where something strange starts happening to the protagonist (this could be the result of a curse or something else), and they have to figure out why

#WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #Writing

Writing prompt time! Here's a set of writing prompts to help you create a sense of mystery around your protagonist. What are your characters hiding? See a more in-depth discussion of character secrets here:
readasawriter.wordpress.com/2025/08/04/c...

Craft Analysis: Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy I'm going to try a new type of post today. While thinking about how reading benefits my writing, I realized I might find it helpful to analyze specific craft elements more closely, especially those that a particular book does well. Thus, in this post, I'm going to be discussing two specific craft elements that Sorcery and Small Magics does well. After the discussion, I'll provide a summary of how I think writers might apply these craft elements to their own work and offer some writing prompts to help you get started.

#Writing #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #Books

New type of post today: a craft analysis of Maiga Doocy's Sorcery and Small Magics. Writers can learn about character dynamics and characters keeping secrets; readers get to read a deep dive into those elements. There's something for everyone!

Review of Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven [Skip to writing prompts] In Our Infinite Fates, Evelyn and Arden are reincarnated every lifetime and kill each other in every one before they turn eighteen. Evelyn does not remember why they need …

Review of Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven
readasawriter.wordpress.com/2025/06/23/r...

#Books #Fantasy #Fiction #WritingPrompts

Two people are cursed to reincarnate again and again, and each time, they kill each other before they turn eighteen. Will this be the life where they escape their fate?

Happy August, everyone!

July Writing Prompt Roundup Here's a roundup of all the writing prompts posted on Read as a Writer in July! You can also find these prompts, along with all the other ones I've posted, on the "Writing Prompts" page of the blog. In addition, I recently read an article on Authors Publish called "7 Reasons Why You Should Try Using Writing Prompts…

#Writing #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #writers

Here's a roundup of all the writing prompts posted on Read as a Writer in July! You can also find these prompts, along with all the other ones I've posted, on the "Writing Prompts" page of the blog. Also, I recently read

Please and thank you. #writinglife #booksky #writingcommunity @sylviahubbard1.bsky.social and @lisasell.bsky.social thanks for the reminder.

Review of This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone [Skip to writing prompts] This is How You Lose the Time War is an engaging, character-driven novel primarily told through letters between the two protagonists. If you like sapphic enemies-to-lovers…

Review of This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
readasawriter.wordpress.com/2025/06/09/r...

#Books #Fiction #SciFi #WritingPrompts

If you like sapphic enemies-to-lovers plotlines in an epistolary format (plus time travel, of course), this book is for you.

From Palestinian-American poet and doctor Fady Joudah's book, Alight: bookshop.org/a/862/9781556594229

#poetry #books #writing

Review of Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy [Skip to writing prompts] In Sorcery and Small Magics, Leovander Loveage and his longtime rival, Sebastian Grimm, attend the Fount, a school dedicated to training sorcerers to use Grandmagic and the less powerful magic of charms and cantrips. A mishap in one of their classes leads to Leo being cursed to follow Grimm’s commands. But that’s not all: as time passes, the curse worsens, and Leo finds himself in terrible pain if he goes more than a day without seeing Grimm.

#Books #Fantasy #Fiction #WritingPrompts

When Leovander Loveage is accidentally cursed to follow all commands from his longtime rival, Sebastian Grimm, the two must journey through a magical forest to find a legendary sorcerer to break the curse.

The old Cincinnati Library [1874-1955] was a stunning architectural marvel. It was a cultural hub until its demolition in 1955, when they built a new library 📖 📚

I could have gotten myself lost in there for weeks 📖 📚

#greenwitchtea #greenwitch #books #reading #science #fantasy #learning #truth

Review of The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson [Skip to writing prompts] The Raven Scholar is a masterfully-crafted, detail-packed roller-coaster of a book. It starts off a little slowly, but after the first few pages, I couldn’t stop reading i…

Review of The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
readasawriter.wordpress.com/2025/06/02/r...

Complex political maneuverings. Emperors with secrets. Flawed, human characters who do horrible things yet remain sympathetic. What more could you want from a book?

#fiction #fantasy #books #writingprompts

Disability Pride flag overlaid with the words “Disability Pride Month Bonanza Part Two - 20 SciFi, Fantasy, and Horror Books By Disabled Authors for Just $30 - July 25 - 30”

Banner displaying 20 scifi, fantasy, and horror book covers overlaid with the words “Disability Pride Month Bonanza Part Two - 20 SciFi, Fantasy, and Horror Books By Disabled Authors for Just $30 - July 25 - 30” Books included: What the Forest Eats by EM Anderson, The Dragon Next Door by Vanessa Ricci-Thode, The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle by Steve Westenra, Ambushed by Calling33, Mechanical Heart by Beverly Anne Michel, The Carnelian King and Other Stories by Arden Powell, Phantom and Rook by Noah Hawthorne, Song of the Wild Knight - Song of the Squire by LJ Amber, Ancient as the Stars by Maya Darjani, A Stage Over Ruthless Stars by JJ Clapton, Time Wars: Starship Tatanka - Border of Terror by Jamsheed Studios, Killer Debt by Dianna Gunn, Riyati Rebirth by Kai Zeal, Cat/Mouse: an allied space novella by Eliza Mares, Gift of Air by CL Carhart, Memories of Enaros Volume 1 by Astrid E Abell, The Impavidus Cycle Book One: Birthright by MA Vice, Pet: Book Two of the Lost Humanity Series by H.S. Kallinger, There Be Monsters: Hunter and Bait by Nikki Flynn, untimezone by MK Zariel

A Stage Over Ruthless Stars is part of the Disability Pride Month Book Bonanza, Part Two! 💙📚🌎

Grab it in a bundle with 19 other scifi, fantasy & horror books by disabled authors!
itch.io/b/3173/disab...

I know itch is a little on fire right now but disabled authors still need your support🧡💙💛

Subscribe to Clarkesworld Magazine Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast.

So apparently, if I don't keep encouraging people to subscribe to Clarkesworld, they don't.

clarkesworldmagazine.com/subscribe/

All new subscriptions go towards increasing staff pay. They deserve it, so I can't be silent.

Review of Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson [Skip to writing prompts] Wind and Truth, the fifth book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series, is an exciting, fast-paced (though, like all Stormlight Archive books, very long) fantasy …

Review of Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson
readasawriter.wordpress.com/2025/05/25/r...

Wind and Truth, the fifth book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series, is an exciting, fast-paced fantasy novel. It presents the final ten days leading up to Dalinar’s contest with Odium...

Review of The Incandescent by Emily Tesh Above all, this book is a love letter to teachers, teaching, students, and school. Walden is an amazing teacher. She’s not great with people—is, in fact, incredibly socially awkward and makes no secret of the fact that “I’m afraid I don’t have normal conversations very often” (Walden, The Incandescent, Tesh 173)—but she cares deeply for her students and, if you put her in front of a classroom, teaches a wonderful lesson.

Review of The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

Above all, this book is a love letter to teachers, teaching, students, and school. Walden is an amazing teacher. She’s not great with people—is, in fact, incredibly socially awkward and makes no secret of the fact that “I’m afraid I don’t have normal…