The Daily Port of Call: May 23, 2014

Photo by Alexander Lvov/bigstockphoto.com

Photo by Alexander Lvov/bigstockphoto.com

In today’s Daily Port of Call, you’ll find why short stories are on the rise, the battle over internal or external motivation, and lessons learned from a creative writing workshop.

Find out why short stories are on the rise. And check out these twelve reasons to write a short story this month.

Should you write for yourself or for the reader?

The battle over external or internal motivation: “We let ourselves sit in a stagnant spot for too long sometimes. We wait for an outside force to give us that nudge in the right direction – but what if a nudge never comes?”

Make “Wow” blog images with PicMonkey. Jami Gold shows you how.

Lessons learned in a creative nonfiction workshop.

Jane Austen read reviews of her work and took notes on them.

Want to find your crutch words and phrases so that you can eliminate them? Check out the online Word Frequency Counter.

Discover the top writing tools of famous authors.