Juggling Act: How I Work on Multiple Manuscripts at Once
While curating the Breaking In debut authors column for the July/August issue of Writer’s Digest, WD editors were impressed to hear that Next Girl to Die author [Read More]
Writing
How To Encourage Young Writers
When I was a child my fondness for writing was often met with smiles and praise, but rarely with helpful or genuine encouragement. In fact, [Read More]
How To Write (And Edit) Nonfiction That People Want To Read
Katie Lawrence Many a writer has sat down, written a fairly decent piece, and was left without a clue of what to do next. This [Read More]
9 Weird Ways to Beat Writer’s Block
To beat writer’s block, a typical problem among writers, let’s tackle it with atypical solutions. Nine of them, because, well, nine is an atypical number. [Read More]
The Science of Story Ideas: How to Awaken Your Brain’s Creative Superpowers
The brain is not only designed to think, it loves to think—and there are specific ways you can summon and maximize your brain’s ingenuity to [Read More]
Why Writers Need To Be Readers
“You have to read widely, constantly refining (and redefining) your own work as you do so. It’s hard for me to believe that people who [Read More]
4 Tips for Freelance Writing Success
With the first ever Writer’s Digest Freelance Virtual Conference just around the corner, I want to share a few tips for freelance writing success from [Read More]
4 Writing Techniques to Borrow from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
Since its publication in 1843, Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol has become one of the most iconic holiday stories—perhaps even the most iconic—in Western literature. Not only has [Read More]
3 Good Reasons to Write a Sequel
Author Deanna Cabinian offers three compelling reasons you might want to try writing a sequel to a book you’ve published, even if you hadn’t planned [Read More]
30 Things I’ve Learned About the Writing Life
On Thanksgiving, I celebrated 30 years since the sale of my first book. It’s a crazy milestone and made me consider this writing and publishing [Read More]
8 Wonderful New Literary Journals
The following is a list of 8 new literary journals. All of these journals have been around for less than six months. In my experience, [Read More]
It’s That Time Again
As the end of the year looms large, we writers should be thinking about strategic planning. I know—it sounds like work. Boring work. But, honestly, [Read More]
Stupid Writing Rules: Why One Size Fits All Advice Doesn’t Work
Ruth Harris and I have both written about how there are no rigid rules for writing good fiction, only guidelines. Even guidelines don’t apply to [Read More]
How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book: Writing about People You Know: Do You Need to Get Permission?
A reader from Connecticut is finishing up her new novel this month, getting ready to send it out to agents. She sent me a good [Read More]
The 9-Minute Novelist: How to Write a Novel in Just Minutes a Day
Writing a novel is a complicated equation involving a lot of variables and moving parts—not the least of which are the authors themselves. In fact, [Read More]
How to Improve Your Writing Practice with Composting
By John Dorroh Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones, a book that all writers need to own and use, convincingly suggests to develop [Read More]
5 Steps to Nailing Your Query Letter, from Literary Agent Britt Siess
by Britt Siess, Martin Literary & Media Management Querying can be rough. In fact, I know it’s rough. I read dozens of queries every day and [Read More]
The 7 Deadly Sins of Novelists (According to Editors)
A healthy relationship between author and editor can send your story to heavenly heights, but a poor partnership deserves its own special circle of hell. [Read More]
How to Nail the First Three Pages
Let’s face it, talking about writing the first pages of a novel is stressful. It can strike terror into the heart of even the most [Read More]
NaNoWriMo (and NaNonFiWriMo) Prep: Your 30-Day Writing Challenge Preparation Checklist
NaNoWriMo prep requires a great strategy. Here, Nina Amir offers a comprehensive checklist to help you get ready to take on NaNoWriMo or NaNonFiWriMo. When [Read More]
19 Themed Calls for Submissions
There are themed submission calls for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Some of the themes are urban crime, American gothic, breaking with tradition, winter holidays, coffee [Read More]