Brian Klems’ The Writer’s Dig

A few months ago, my wife picked up an audiobook from the library (it was Rob Lowe’s Stories I Only Tell My Friends, in case you were wondering). I had never listened to an audiobook before, so I thought I’d give it a go. And I fell in love with it. It’s the perfect way to spend my solo time in the car, beating the other well-known car pastime of complaining about traffic. So now I read in the car … Or do I? Read more

As many of you know, I’ve spent the past few months working on a New Year’s Resolution list that’s difficult, yet achievable (well, I’m not yet convinced that getting a photo of me and my kids with all of our eyes open at the same time is achievable, as they usually turn out like this). But one of the major goals was to develop a book proposal and land a literary agent. Today I can officially say: Mission accomplished! I’m thrilled to announce that … Read more

I know Friday the 13th is supposed to be an unlucky day, but I prefer to take the day and look at what can make me better—a better person, a better dad, a better writer. There are a lot of great WD tools that have helped me with the latter. And I’m not alone. Bestselling authors like Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer have credited some of their early success to Writer’s Digest and Writer’s Market. Even John Grisham has said that this article that originally appear in WD gave him the tools to write The Firm. What item has helped you? Read more

Flashbacks can play pivotal roles in any story, whether it be fiction, nonfiction or a script. So what is flashback in a story (and how is it different than backstory)? Find out here. Read more

First off, thanks to everyone who participated. I had a great time (and I hope you did too). Creative exercises like this are a wonderful way to inspire us–and an easy way to have a little fun. While the winners were selected randomly, it is worth noting that all five had pretty clever contributions, so I’m sharing them here. Read more

April Fools Day is upon us and it’s time to have some fun. Create entertaining, clever and witty headlines that would appear in an Onion-style newspaper for writers and post it in any of the ways mentioned below. That’s it! That’s all you have to do. To make it extra special, I’ll up the ante: Enter this competition in any of the four ways below and spread the word of it by mentioning this blog post and I’ll enter you into a drawing for a free copy of the 2012 Writer’s Yearbook, which features The Top 100 Markets for Book & Magazine Writers. In fact, I’ll give away 5 of them so we can have 5 winners. Details here. Read more

Hey everyone, I have a pretty big freebie for you. Google+ is growing at a rapid pace, which is why I’m beefing up our G+ page—and I want you to join us! Add Writer’s Digest to one of your circles and, as a thank you, at the end of the month I’ll send you a valuable freebie through Google+. It’s that easy. Put us in one of your circles, get something free. I wanted to kick things off with a bang, so I’m starting with a really good one … Read more

All the editors on Writer’s Digest staff aren’t just 9-5 editors, we are also writers and storytellers—which is why we are so passionate about writing and publishing. “WD Editors Are Writers Too” is a feature on this blog to give you a sneak peek at the folks who lead the WD community—including their quirks, what inspires them and what they are writing outside of the Writer’s Digest world. Today’s pick is Writer’s Market Senior Content Editor Robert Lee Brewer, who loves writing, social media, connecting with others and the Cincinnati Reds as much as I do. He was also once named Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere and can grow a monster beard in like a week. Read more

While rolling through my typical stable of writing blogs this morning, I stumbled upon this great article by Writer’s Market editor Robert Lee Brewer (if you don’t follow @robertleebrewer on Twitter, you should). Anyway, he put together a great list of 39 Great Writing Blogs that he believes are most worthy of your precious time. Here’s what he says. Read more