WD Presents: #StartWrite, Virtual Conference, and New Courses
This week, we’re excited to announce free resources to start your writing year off well, our Novel Writing Virtual Conference, and more!
There's always so much happening in the Writer's Digest universe that even staff members have trouble keeping up. As a result, we decided to start collecting what's on the horizon to make it easier for everyone to know what's happening and when.
This week, we’re excited to announce free resources to start your writing year off well, our Novel Writing Virtual Conference, and more.
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Free Resources for Writers
Are you feeling stumped or lost when it comes to your latest work-in-progress? Be sure to check out the free offerings here on the Writer’s Digest website! Here, we have everything from avoiding legal issues with your memoir to beating writer’s block and beyond.
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Novel Writing Virtual Conference
Writer's Digest is pleased to present an exclusive virtual conference for novel writers! On January 22-24, our Novel Writing Virtual Conference will provide expert insights from SEVEN award-winning and best-selling authors on the finer points of how to write a novel. Spend the weekend learning techniques for honing your craft skills, refining your characters, exploring the future of publishing, and getting the tools you need to advance your career as a writer from seven different published authors, then (if you choose) pitch your novel via query letter to a literary agent. The agent will provide you with a personalized critique of your query—and maybe ask to see more.
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Eight Online Writing Courses Start This Week
Eight new online writing courses start this week, including Form and Composition, Read Like a Writer, and more. Click here to check out the Writer's Digest University calendar.
Writing Historical Fiction
Whether history is a backdrop to your story or the focus of the story itself, this workshop will provide you with the tools to find the facts you need, organize the data in a functional manner, and merge that data seamlessly into your novel.
The Art of Storytelling 101: Story Mapping and Pacing
By understanding the engineering and design of a story, and using Larry Brooks’ Story Engineering and Nancy Dodd’s The Writer’s Compass, you’ll learn how to quickly and effectively get your story out of your head and onto the page.
Writing the Middle Grade Book
Any middle-grade book author will tell you that writing an effective book is more challenging than reading one! Take this online workshop and learn the essential elements of writing for kids and how to break into children’s publishing. Throughout this 8-week course, you can expect to read lectures and complete weekly writing assignments. Plus, you will read The Writer’s Guide to Crafting Stories for Children by Nancy Lamb and learn how to write a middle-grader’s book. Once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll be able to write the book for the middle-grader you’ve always wanted.
Marketing Your Magazine Articles
Do you have a great idea for an article but don’t know what publication would be the best fit? Develop the skills you need to market your writing through this online writing workshop for experienced writers. Gain insight into marketing magazine articles and learn how to sell your writing. Plus, learn what to expect when an editor accepts your proposal and how to negotiate a contract. Take a chance and pitch your writing to editors—you might just see your work in print and get paid too!
Form and Composition
Proper grammar, punctuation, and mechanics make your writing correct. In order to truly write well, you must also master the art of form and composition. From sentence structure to polishing your prose, this workshop will enhance your writing, no matter what type of writing you do.
Build Your Novel Scene by Scene
If you want to learn how to write a story, but aren’t quite ready yet to hunker down and write 10,000 words or so a week, this is the course for you. Build Your Novel Scene by Scene will offer you the impetus, the guidance, the support, and the deadline you need to finally stop talking, start writing, and, ultimately, complete that novel you always said you wanted to write.
Read Like a Writer: Learn from the Masters
Regardless of your genre (mystery, romance, horror, science fiction, fantasy, mainstream, or literary), you will hone your writing skills as a result of this class’ examination of the ways masters of the art and craft created intellectually and emotionally rich and compelling stories that became classics.
Literary Agent Boot Camp: Perfecting Submission Materials
In this boot camp from Fuse Literary Agency, attendees will learn how to put together a short yet effective query letter and a one- to two-page book synopsis (fiction). They’ll also learn some best practices for submitting their query, pages, and synopsis to agents.
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January/February Issue of Writer’s Digest Out Now!
As Writer’s Digest moves beyond the 100th anniversary celebrated in 2020, we begin a new year and a new century by looking at writing from a New Perspective. In this issue, we’ll peel back the curtain on important publishing topics that are overlooked all too often, including foreign publication rights, the art of translations, how to look at your own writing with fresh eyes, and much more.
