Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
BY LAURA AMANN Ending a professional relationship that is also a personal relationship can be tricky. Sometimes the end comes naturally—time is up or the goal is accomplished. But sometimes, a professional relationship ends because styles or expectations don’t mesh. You may like your coach or mentor, but find that you’re...
My Writing Wife: The Unusual Writing Partnership of Dylan Landis and Heather Sellers
In this guess post, authors Heather Sellers and Dylan Landis offer an inside look at their unique collaborative writing partnership through a conversation about their roles, routines and writing process. Do you have a writing partner? How does your process compare and contrast to Landis and Sellers’? Share your stories in the comments!...
7 Things I’ve Learned So Far, by Jill Kelly
BY JILL KELLY Over the last 15 years, I’ve become a prolific writer. I started my writing career in 2002 when I took a first workshop and began writing narrative memoir essays. In 2007 I published my memoir, Sober Truths: The Making of an Honest Woman, which was a finalist for...
7 Things I’ve Learned So Far, by Ann Weisgarber
BY ANN WEISGARBER 1. Know the trends, then ignore them. I’m a believer we must write the stories that haunt us and won’t leave us alone until we’ve put words to paper. Our writing will be better, the voices stronger, and the emotions will ring true if we follow our hearts rather...
7 Things I’ve Learned So Far, by Lisa Freeman
BY LISA FREEMAN In “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” writers at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at...
Tips for the Writer With No Routine
BY ERIN ENTRADA KELLY To enter to win a copy of BLACKBIRD FLY, leave a comment—share your best tip for finding or keeping a writing routine, tell your “how I got organized” story, or just say hi to Erin Entrada Kelly. All comments count as an entry, but each commenter will be considered...
12 Workplace Skills to Apply to Your Writing Career
BY LISA TENER Katherine quit her pharmaceutical sales job in Colorado and moved back east to write her book. She hunkered down in a snug condo and imagined writing in her light-filled sunroom. Despite more time on her hands than ever, she went days without writing. Within six months she took...
Call for Submissions: Reject a Hit
In each issue of Writer’s Digest magazine, we ask one reader to step into the role of the unconvinced, perhaps even curmudgeonly or fool-hearted editor. What harsh rejection letters might the authors of some of our favorite hit books have had to endure? We need more of those 300-word, short-sighted rejection letters!...
In Defense of the Flibbertigibbet: The Questions That Made Me a Writer
BY MEGAN KRUSE I was eighteen when I met my friend Katie at a summer camp in Washington. I must have been doing some work then, but even now it seems that my main occupation was trying to romance the other counselors, to grow friends and loves like wildflowers around me....
Dorothy Parker’s Lessons in Self-Doubt
BY ELLEN MEISTER When my adult writing students confess their struggles with self-doubt, they usually look panicked. I can’t possibly be a real writer, their eyes seem to say. I’m just never sure what I’m doing is right. That’s when I explain that self-doubt is the fuel that drives us forward....
Your Story 65: Winner!
Prompt: Love gets him into more trouble than hate ever could. Once again, you’ve made the Your Story competition a success! Thanks to everyone who participated in competition #65 (either by entering, reading or voting). Out of more than 300 entries, readers helped us pick “Cold Turkey” by Cindy Lam as...
How to Research Your Crime Novel
BY MICHAEL KARDOS I recently interviewed fellow crime novelist Gregg Hurwitz about his new thriller, Don’t Look Back. It’s an action-packed story set in the jungles of Oaxaca, Mexico, and I was interested in how much on-the-ground research he did. It felt like he’d done a lot. Turns out, I was...
7 Things I’ve Learned So Far, by Eric Smith
This is a recurring column called “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their careers can talk about writing advice and instruction — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journeys that they wish they knew at the beginning. This is installment is from...
Your Story 64: Winners!
Prompt: Write the opening sentence (25 words or fewer) to a story based on the photo to the left. Thanks to everyone who entered and/or voted in WD’s Your Story #64! Here are the results. The winners, in ranking order, are as follows: 1. As the winter wind whipped against the worn cedar...
Help for Goodreads Authors
In the February 2015 Writer’s Digest feature article, “Get in Good With Goodreads,” fan favorite Goodreads Author Michael J. Sullivan shows you how to make the most of this popular online reader hub. For authors needing even more detailed technical assistance setting up their profiles, he’s created a free PDF download....
Your Website Made Easy
In the February 2015 Writer’s Digest, digital media expert Jane Friedman lays out the best website options for different writers and their needs in “Your Author Website 101.” If you choose the self-hosted route, don’t miss her free 10-minute video tutorial. You might also like:No Related Posts
Writing the Unlikable Character (and Why You Should)
We talk a lot about the importance of writing characters that readers like or can relate to—and by “we” I mean anyone who feels strongly about books, regardless of profession. It’s nice to know when the good guy is good and when the bad guy is bad. That’s what you expect...
Go There: Lessons In Writing From Dear Old Dad
BY ANDREW MARANISS People assume that when your father is a Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author, he must have helped you a lot with your first book. For a while, I thought he might, too. I’d email first drafts of my chapters for “Strong Inside” to my mom and dad, and I...
Interview: Joe Hill on HORNS, NOS4A2 and Stephen King
BY DREW TURNEY Author Joe Hill worked as a writer for nearly a decade before revealing his relationship to legendary horror author Stephen King. (For the uninitiated, Hill is King’s son.) Hill has stated that he wanted to prove himself on his own terms, and so chose to work under a semi-pseudonym....
Your Story 63: Winners
Prompt: Write a short story, of 750 words or fewer, based on the photo on the left.
Throw a Revision Party
In the “Revising Out Loud” Inkwell article in the January 2015 Writer’s Digest, author and playwright Joe Stollenwerk offers an interesting alternative to quietly revising your work alone—by having friends and colleagues read your work aloud over food, drink and good company. Here, he shares another method of testing your writing’s mettle....
Series Author Roundtable: Setting As Character
What are real secrets to writing successful series novels? We brought together four bestsellers across a spectrum of genres to find out. The idea of writing a series is tempting. After all, it seems as though half the bestsellers on today’s bookshelves are new installments in popular series—books that are all...
A Book in 30 Days: What Writers Can Learn From Rapid Publishing
BY AMANDA L. BARBARA The Internet has brought about a new age of experimentation in publishing, and stepping into the literary laboratory is the prolific storytelling duo, Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant. The authors’ recent project, “Fiction Unboxed,” was a crowdfunded experiment in writing and publishing a book live in...
Cats, Wives and Videotape: Survey Reveals What Really Distracts NaNoWriMo Participants
BY WILL LITTLE The starting gun is set to go off for the race to 50,000 words. At an average of 1,667 words a day, NaNoWriMo participants don’t have time to waste if they’re to reach the finish line. Yet many writers do just that—waste time, and plenty of it. Distraction derails...