May/June2013 Issue
May/June Issue
Writer's Digest Magazine
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How to Write a Horror Story, Writing Horror
If you want to learn how to chill the blood and raise goose bumps with a great horror story, then look no further. You’ll find methods for creating fearsome fiction and terrifying tales. Create monsters and psychos that will scare readers to death.
Steve Berry’s 8 Rules of Writing
Bestselling thriller writer Steve Berry says there are eight key rules that all writers must know and follow. Read more
Don’t Use Adverbs and Adjectives to Prettify Your Prose
Learn how adjective and adverbs create redundancy and promote lazy writing and see how you can make your writing direct, vivid, and descriptive without making your readers want to get rid of your book.
by William Noble
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Opening Scenes: An Overview
Read Chapter 2, Opening Scenes: An Overview from Hooked Read more
Fiction: Point of View
How many times have you heard this around the workshop table: “Why don’t you consider a new point of view?” (Actually, the term used more often is “POV” because it sounds a lot cooler, I suspect.) Everyone then agrees that a new POV might help matters, including the writer, who knew something was wrong and is now relieved to have a likely suspect.
by Steve Almond Read more
9 Tricks to Writing Suspense Fiction
A veteran suspense-fiction author shares nine killer tricks to help you improve a genre that can be difficult to master.
by Simon Wood Read more
Principles of Building a Story
Read "Principles of Building of a Story" from From First Draft to Finished Novel. Read more
From First Draft to Finish Novel
A Writer’s Guide to Cohesive Story Building Read more
Look at the Dead Person
Fred McGavran’s "Look at the Dead Person" took first place in the Horror category of the 2008 Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Awards. To read the grand-prize winning entry and other first-place finishers, click here. Read more
Defining and Developing Your Anti-Hero
Anti-heros are the bastards of fiction—those bad guys readers love to hate and hate to love. Find out whats makes a memorable anti-hero tick in this excerpt from Bullies, Bastards & Bitches by Jessica Page Morrell. Read more
The Four Commandments of Writing Good Sentences
If you want to write a good sentence, don’t pay any attention to your grammar. I don’t mean “a sentence this like OK is.” I mean don’t automatically think you’ve written a good sentence just because it’s grammatically correct. Lots of bad sentences are grammatically correct. Some of these bad sentences might even be yours.
by Bonnie Trenga Read more
Challenging the Limits of Memory
In this excerpt from Writing Life Stories, Bill Roorbach teaches you how to pay attention to and translate your memories and how to overcome your resistance to remembered places and events. Read more
Publish Your First Book After 50
Who says publishing is a young person’s game? Here are an agent’s tips for writing and publishing well into your golden years.
By Scott Hoffman
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Jump Off the Page
These three characteristics are essential to bringing your protagonist to life. Read more
How to Create Haunting Imagery
Shelia Bender’s use of bantus to spark your writing with imagery. Read more
Tips for Keeping Your Readers Hooked
Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet give this advice to writers trying to create delightful twists in their stories. Read more
First Success: Jim Brown’s 24/7
“Hopefully, the interest in reality television will cause people to pick up the book, and hopefully it will be the story that keeps them reading and coming back for more.” Read more
A Waking Nightmare
Scare readers with the perfect setting and characters in your horror fiction. Read more
THE WD INTERVIEW: CHRISTOPHER MOORE: A Comic Bite
Even though his name regularly appears on bestseller lists, Christopher Moore is still known as a cult writer. Find out how he lures fans by marrying the genres of humor and horror. Read more
Stepping Out of a Big Shadow
Tabitha King was writing way before
she married the master of horror, Stephen King. But her new novel, Read more
The 10 Commandments of Fiction Writing
Guide your writing ways with these 10 rules thou must not break.
by Raymond Obstfeld
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8 Basic Writing Blunders
These big-picture writing errors might make you cringe with recognition. But shake it off: Bestselling novelist Jerry B. Jenkins will help you fix them.
by Jerry B. Jenkins Read more
