Whether you're thinking of an idea or just improving a story already written, Writing Fantastic Fiction has several tips to help you along the way.

In six chapters you will learn how to find story ideas, create characters and how to create a writing map! There's also really cool sidebars of information throughout the book. "Writers on Writing" offers inspirational quotes from well-known writers and "Learn from the Masters" shares tips from acclaimed authors on how they created their famous stories. In addition to famous writers giving their tips, there's also fun writing exercises to try!

Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction, edited by Sabrina Chapadjiev, is one of my favorites. It’s the book I turn to whenever I am in need of inspiration, reassurance, or just a push in the right direction. I’ve given copies of this book to more friends than I can count and now I want you to read it!

Live Through This contains a group of essays, poems, cartoons, and photographs by a diverse pool of artists and thinkers including bell hooks, Patricia Smith, Eileen Myles, and Kate Bornstein. The pieces are mostly personal, and detail how the artists worked through difficult times in their lives. Creativity is both a helpful tool and a destructive impulse in the book, and the artists and writers don't hold anything back in detailing their experiences.

I have a hard time summing up how much I love this book, or listing all of the reasons that you should read it, but just believe me, you should! It will push you out of complacency, move you to work harder, and create, create, create. It will set you on fire.

Writers in grades 6-12 still have 12 hours to enter the "It's All Write!" Teen Short Story Contest! The online submission form will close at MIDNIGHT tonight!

Still don't know what to write about? It's ok, procrastinators, we're not judging! Check out these cool writing topics for ideas. Alternatively, you could upgrade a story that you've already written, as long as it hasn't been published or sent to this contest before. For more details check out the contest guidelines!

Good luck, writers! We'll see you in June for the Final Celebration, when we'll give winners fantastic prizes!

Questions? Feel free to email Kayla at allwrite@aadl.org

HAPPY WRITING!

Cammie McGovern, our second Judge for the 2016 “It’s All Write!” Teen Short Story Contest is the author of the much-acclaimed YA novels Say What You Will and A Step Toward Falling . Cammie is one of the proud founders of Whole Children, a resource center for children and young adults with disabilities and their families. She lives in Amherst, MA, with her husband and three sons, the oldest of whom is autistic. To learn more about Cammie McGovern and her books, check out her website.

Stay tuned for more information about the “It’s All Write!” Teen Short Story Contest of 2016 Judges, and don't forget, you have until Midnight on March 4th to submit stories for this year's contest!

The “It’s All Write!” Teen Short Story Contest of 2016 is wrapping up, and it’s time to introduce the judges! If you're still working on your story, don't worry. Submissions will be accepted until midnight on March 4th! Check out the contest guidelines for more information.

Amy Ewing, author of the young adult novels The Jewel and The White Rose, grew up in a small town outside Boston, where her librarian mother instilled a deep love of reading at a young age.

Amy attended New York University to study theater, but when her acting career didn’t take off, the lack of creativity in her life drove her to begin writing. Amy received her MFA in Creative Writing for Children from The New School, where she was lucky enough to meet a fabulous community of YA writers who keep her sane on a daily basis.

Stay tuned for more information about the “It’s All Write!” Teen Short Story Contest of 2016 Judges!

Are you a writer in 6-12th grade? You still have time to send a short story to the "It's All Write!" Teen Short Story Contest! If the idea of 1 week seems too soon, you can think of it as 7 days, or maybe 168 hours, or even 10,080 minutes. See? That's plenty of time to jazz up a story you wrote for class or even write something entirely new!

Plus, in addition to writing because it's FUN, the top three writers in each category win cash prizes!

For more information, check out the contest page, where you'll find the guidelines, writing resources, previous story entries, and -most importantly - the online submission form.

So what are you waiting for? Get started on your story- you have a whopping 604,800 seconds.