May/June2013 Issue
May/June Issue
Writer's Digest Magazine
Preview the Issue
Buy It Here
Give a Gift SubscriptionSave 58%!
Website of the Week
Writing for Children & Young Adults
Young Adult and Children’s books are hot! Here you’ll learn about trends in the marketplace, what’s working and what’s not, plus how to write for this very special group of readers without dumbing things down.
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
Bulllies, Bastards & Bitches
With Jessica Page Morrell’s Bullies, Bastards & Bitches, you’ll be able to tap into your story’s dark side by creating realistic and memorable anti-heroes, villains, antagonists, and difficult protagonists. 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
Read more
Finding Strong Ideas for Teen Fiction
How can you find and write convincingly about ideas that teenagers will enjoy? Find out from award-winning YA novelist K.L. Going how to succeed at writing for this burgeoning genre. Read more
Writing for Kids: Create Believable Characters
Thinking Like a Kid Read more
Postscript: Finding my Way
This debut YA author contemplates her so-called “lucky break.” Read more
5 Tips for Writing for Children
"Dialogue not only keeps young readers engrossed in the action, but also makes the page appear less formidable by breaking up the text." That’s one of the tips from Tracey Dils, author of You Can Write Children’s Books. Read more tips here. Read more
It’s a Kid’s World
To write a convincing setting for your children’s story, just kick off your shoes and jump into a child’s world. Read more
Crafting an Effective Plot for Children’s Books
Excerpted from The Children’s Writer’s Reference, Berthe Amoss and Eric Suben talk about the most important ingredient in a book — plot. Read more
Intensive Research Is Important for Children”s Nonfiction
Author Robie Harris” books It”s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health and It”s So Amazing!: A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families focus on sexual health for kids. Here, Harris talks about the process of doing extensive research as she prepared her manuscripts. Read more
7 Questions: Richard Paul Evans
Richard Paul Evans answers Writer’s Digest’s 7 questions. Read more
3 Tips for Writing for Kids
Marcia T. Jones and Debbie Dadey, who have written more than 80 children’s books together, including Sea Monsters Don’t Ride Motorcycles, discuss the basics of developing an attention-grabbing plot when writing for children Read more
Five Tips for Writing Children’s Literature
If you are interested in writing stories for very small children, here are five tips that can help get you started. Read more
J.K. Rowling: On Setting Priorities
J.K Rowling discusses her influences, secrets about Harry Potter, and how she makes writing a priority. Read more
The 10 Commandments of Fiction Writing
Guide your writing ways with these 10 rules thou must not break.
by Raymond Obstfeld
Read more
Picture book author Dori Chaconas writes what she knows
reprinted from 2002 Children”s Writer”s & Illustrator”s Market Read more
Picture Book Writing—Make Every Word Sing
Picture Book Writing—Make Every Word Sing Read more
10 Great Writing Ideas For Kids
Learn how to introduce the idea of journaling to your child. Read more
Francesca Lia Block on Handling Challenging YA Subject Matter
Fairies, witches and genies-sounds like the makings of a child”s fairy tale, right? But what about a boy-crazy fairy who smokes? Or a witch who is a member of a Jane Mansfield cult? Or a genie who grants a wish so a teenage girl can live with her gay best friend and his lover? While books with such fantastical characters wouldn”t be targeted at young children, deciding whether to market them to an adult or a young adult audience poses a problem for their writer Francesca Lia Block an Read more
A Picture Book History of a House: Author/Illustrator Jennifer Thermes” When I Was Built (Henry Holt and Company)
reprinted from 2002 Children”s Writer”s & Illustrator”s Market Read more
