Writing Exercise: Judge a Book By its Cover
Everyone knows the old adage that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. However, imagining what a book might be about based on what you see on the cover can be a useful writing exercise.
Superhero Sauce: Blending Pop Culture & Academic Disciplines in Nonfiction (+ a Quiz!)
In his book 'Superhero Ethics,' Travis Smith blended his knowledge of political philosophy with superhero mythos. By outlining his writing process and what he learned, he demonstrates how combining pop culture topics with academic disciplines can make for fun and accessible nonfiction books.
Day Job Jumble Quiz: Can You Guess the Day Jobs of These Famous Authors?
The Potpourri for the Pen column in the September 2018 issue of Writer’s Digest featured a game in which you had to match the famous authors to their unexpected day jobs. Take the quiz here (and find the answers from the magazine).
Top Websites for Writers: 7 Websites to Fuel Your Creativity
For the last two decades, we’ve scoured the web for our annual 101 Best Websites for Writers, a comprehensive collection of online resources for writers. This selection represents this year's creativity-centric websites for writers. These websites fuel out-of-the-box thinking and help writers awaken their imaginations.
Imitating the Masters: How to Use Setting to Test Your Character's Voice
Practicing this type of imitation is useful because displacing characters and putting them in new settings and situations helps clarify how character voice affects a story as much as (or more than) plot.
Literary Lunacy: Vote in a March Madness Bracket for Book Lovers (Championship Round!)
Welcome to Writer’s Digest Literary Lunacy — a March Madness bracket for lovers of classic fiction. We want to know: Which of these classic books is the greatest? That’s up to you. Vote here until March 28 at noon. The book with the most cumulative votes will be crowned champion.
Literary Lunacy: Vote in a March Madness Bracket for Book Lovers (Round 3)
Welcome to Writer’s Digest Literary Lunacy — a March Madness bracket for lovers of classic fiction. We want to know: Which of these classic books is the greatest? That’s up to you. Vote here until March 24 at noon. The book with the most cumulative votes will be crowned champion.
Literary Lunacy: Vote in a March Madness Bracket for Book Lovers (Round 2)
Welcome to Writer’s Digest Literary Lunacy — a March Madness bracket for lovers of classic fiction. We want to know: Which of these classic books is the greatest? That’s up to you. Vote here until March 27 at noon. The book with the most cumulative votes will be crowned champion.
Literary Lunacy: Vote in a March Madness Bracket for Book Lovers (Round 1)
Welcome to Writer’s Digest Literary Lunacy — a March Madness bracket for lovers of classic fiction. We want to know: Which of these classic books is the greatest? That’s up to you. Voting starts today here on the blog and lasts until on March 27 at noon. The book with the most cumulative votes will be crowned champion.
Imitating the Masters: How to Develop Character and Tone Through Imitation
Writing imitations of work that you admire is a great way to stretch your writing skills and improve your mastery of writing techniques. Here's an example of how it's done using Tana French's In the Woods.
Writing Exercise: 3 Reasons to Write Imitations of Your Favorite Authors
Many artists have encountered the advice to "imitate the masters." Aspiring composers generally study, practice and perform pieces by others before attempting to write their own concertos, for example, and visual artists often attempt to recreate museum pieces in their own sketchbooks. This practice of imitation makes a great writing exercise for strengthening your technical skills.
For the Love of Writing: 25 Wordsmiths Explain Why They Write
Last month, we called for our readers to share the motivations behind their wondrous words and reasons behind their love of writing.
20 Best Songs for Writers and About Writing: The Ultimate Writing Mixtape
Here's editor Robert Lee Brewer's list (or ultimate mixtape) of the 20 best songs for writers and about writing. Compare his list to yours and share your feedback.
They’re So Good, It’s Scary: 13 Quotes From Horror, Thriller and Suspense Writers
“When I write, I try to think back to what I was afraid of or what was scary to me, and try to put those feelings into books.”
