It’s #storyfriday time on Twitter! Here’s how it works: We write the first line, then someone adds a line & so on. Starts @9:30 EST. Use #storyfriday hashtag. For more details on how #storyfriday works, click here. To join in, click here. Today’s prompt: START: “How does a cricket get into a trashcan on...
When I see books like Harry Potter fly off the bookshelves, I can't help but think, What if that were me? What if my hard work paid off and I landed a seven-figure book deal? Aside from passing out (multiple times) from excitement and throwing up (multiple times) out of nervousness, I'd want to...
You wouldn't expect a taco salad to taste good without all the proper ingredients, would you? The same can be said about a story. Without the right blend of plot, characters, emotional drive and more, your story will fall flatter than a popped birthday balloon (which, according to my eldest daughter, is one of...
The cliché "start your novel with action" has a flaw—and it's a major one: What good is the action if it isn't grounded in context that’s important to the story or draws you to the main character? It's much, much better to start your story with tension, like a character conflict or a character...
Your kids have spent years asking you to get them a dog. You finally break down and get one, only to discover that this dog talks—but only to you. More interestingly, the dog loves to gossip about your kids and their lives. Write a scene where ...
Are you writing a short story? The first short story I ever wrote was in the 6th grade. It was about a fictitious solar system of salad toppings. No joke. I remember pacing around the house, dictating ideas, plot and dialogue into my mom's hand-held tape recorder and, eventually, piecing it all together into...
Most short stories illumine a single dark corner, narrowly circumscribed. They follow the time-revered rule: Limit your short story to a specific time, place, event, interaction or character’s evolution. But the short story can be a more versatile genre than your high school English teacher sermonized. If we stick to too narrow a view,...
My daughters like to play bookstore at our house. They hide behind one of our beds, pull up a giant pile of books and ask me to buy them—and I'm happy to oblige because 1) I love books and 2) it costs me pretend money. And I'm willing to buy nearly anything with pretend...
Last fall, author and journalist John Moir redeemed part of his grand prize from WD’s 78th Annual Writing Competition when he traveled to New York City, where his escort from the WD editorial team had arranged for Moir to meet with his wish list of editors from The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Audubon and...
Two years ago on a hot Friday morning I was feeling burnout and was desperately looking for a fun boost. Scrabble just wasn't going to cut it, I was tired of losing The New Yorker Caption contest, and HR apparently frowns upon booze in the office (I know, I know, silly office rules). I...
If you're writing a picture book (or have ever considered it) you'll want to check out today's webinar from super agent Mary Kole. My daughters love pictures, so even I'm planning to listen in on this one—Mary Kole is one of the best instructors. All registrants who sign up get a critique of your...
All I've ever wanted to be one of the most clever writers in the world and, thanks to Facebook status updates, I'm not even sure I'm the most clever writer in my house. Not a day goes by where I don't read an article, short story, book or tweet and think to myself, Oh...
It stands to reason that the key elements of any publishing formula would include (but would not be limited to) ...
You’re out at restaurant and bump into a childhood bully who used to steal your lunch money. Confront the bully and give him or her a piece of your mind. Post your response (500 words or less) in the comments below.
Author and editor L. Rust Hills once said, “The sinister thing about writing is that it starts off seeming so easy and ends up being so hard.” If only this quote weren’t true. But it is. However, we picture book writers are lucky. We have seven wonderful techniques to help us organize our plots...
Writing a book is fun. Writing a query letter is stressful. In your book, you can add layers of backstory and extra pages to let your full story flow. In a query letter, you basically have four tiny paragraphs to say "PICK ME! PICK ME!" (Holy crap, I'm having grade-school playground flashbacks.) So what's...
Nothing is worse than getting in the first edition of our new issue, opening it up and finding a giant grammar mistake plain as day. This doesn't happen often, but when it does it blows my mind. "How did that happen? We read the issue 5 times each, hired an extra copy editor and...
Q: When writing a sentence that contains a series of something (e.g., a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker), do I need a comma before the “and” connecting the final two elements? I’ve seen it with and without. Please help. —Anonymous A: The reason you’ve seen it both ways is quite simple: Both...
Q: Can you use “plethora” to mean “a lot,” as in, I own a plethora of baseball hats? A: The misuse of “plethora” is a pet peeve of mine. The word “plethora” doesn’t mean “a lot,” it means “too many or an overabundance.” In the example, Many voters feel that there are a plethora...
Q: Doesn’t it seem like agents are just looking for excuses to reject work? —Anonymous A: Actually, the complete opposite is true. Agents don’t want to reject your work, they want to accept it and sell it to any publisher willing to take a chance—after all, that’s how they pay their rent. Agents may...
In this brief exercise, Douglas Preston, co-author of the bestselling Pendergast novels (Relic) and The Monster of Florence, challenges writers to really write what they know to take their thrillers to the next level. Write what you know. Sure, we’ve all heard it time and again, but many writers still swear by it in...
As anyone who’s ever tried to come up with one of those vital one-sentence pitches for their book knows, getting it right can be maddening. Here, courtesy of bestseller Jon Land, is one particularly sharp strategy to take your elevator pitch to new heights. ThrillerFest’s AgentFest pitch slam took place yesterday, and literary agents...
JOHN SCALZI is the author of several science fiction novels, including the bestselling Old Man’s War series, comprising Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, and The Last Colony. He is a winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and he won the Hugo Award for Your Hate Mail Will Be...
ZZ Packer is the author of the short-story collection Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, a PEN/Faulkner finalist that was selected for the “Today” show book club by John Updike. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Story, Ploughshares, Zoetrope: All-Story and The Best American Short Stories, and have been read on NPR’s Selected Shorts....
Donald Miller is the author of multiple New York Times Bestsellers including Blue Like Jazz and A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. He has served on the Presidential Task Force on Fatherhood and Healthy Families and is a sought after speaker regarding narrative structure as it relates to a persons life and their...
