Tag Archives: online editor blog

For those of you who are curious about the craft of historical fiction writing, let us part the curtain a little and let you have a peek. Read more

What’s the difference between autobiography vs. memoir? Here’s the answer. Read more

Want to be featured in an upcoming issue of Writer’s Digest? Here’s your chance. We’re busy putting together an issue about how to “Take Control of Your Career,” and we want to hear from you about how you’ve successfully done just that. So The Q for you is … Read more

Recently at the Writing 3.0 Conference, a panel of editors surprised attendees when they said that while plot and character development are important, the key to getting their attention—and a book contract—is excellent penmanship. “Perfect handwriting is what sets the best writers apart from the rookies,” says popular novel editor … Read more

Even stories that start with brilliant strokes of inspiration too often fizzle out before we reach The End. Use this four-step method to develop your best ideas to their fullest. Read more

Every story, like every sequence of memorable events in life, has its own chronology; that is, significant happenings with a beginning, middle, and end. As we have said, they may not however be told in that order, which only makes matters more interesting. Embedded in the task of designing a plot sequence is the fundamental question—how will I handle time? Cinema has considerable temporal elasticity. The time element of a story can be greatly manipulated within the film’s actual duration. So where to begin? Read more

If you’ve never tried a writing boot camp, you’re missing out: three days of instruction, deadlines and discipline all wrapped into one weekend that will force you to forward your writing career. And the best part? You can do it in your underwear. Here’s how. Read more

Getting published isn’t easy—it’s hard. The key is to put your energy in the right places in order to give yourself the best shot at landing a book deal. But where to begin? Let us help. Read more

Avoid these tempting traps, and save yourself from the kind of painful revision that can lead your manuscript to eternal damnation. Read more

As much as you’d probably like to burn your rejection letters or mold them into little voodoo dolls of the editors who sent them, don’t. There’s a lot to be learned from the responses (yes, even those that arrive with nothing more than a standard checkbox of reasons the piece wasn’t accepted). Read more

It’s easy to write about what you know, but writing about things you don’t know much about is way more challenging. It’s also more exciting. Here’s why. Read more