Get Smart: How to Tell Good Publishing Contracts From Bad
Publishing contracts are as varied as book genres. It’s easy for an author hungry to be published to be blinded by any contract’s lure, to the potential detriment of their career and their hard-fought creative work. Here are three things to look out for.
Shifting Gears: Publishing a Book Outside Your Usual Genre
No matter how varied we try to make a career, how much we try to think outside the box, the marketplace will seek to pigeonhole us. Here, Tim Wendel offers tips for publishing outside your usual genre.
3 Writing Tips From Bestseller Sloane Crosley
Sloane Crosley can coax humor from the unlikeliest of depths, whether it’s a good line from your locksmith or avenging a childhood slight during a pride parade.
The 3 Questions That Will Solve Every “Plot Problem” You’ll Ever Have
Whether you're an outliner or an organic writer (a plotter or a pantser), the solution to almost every plot problem can be found by answering three simple questions.
13 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Sign That Book Contract or Take That Freelance Writing Job
In a competitive industry, it’s easy to feel like publishers hold all the power. But the truth is they need good content—and writers have a right to not be fleeced. Here are some situations when the best option just might be to walk away from that book contract or that freelance...
What to Do When You’re a Memoirist and Memory Fails
For writers—particularly those who write memoirs—memory can be the medium and ultimately also the message when a story, event or feeling emerges from the darkness into the light of conscious knowing. But what happens when a memoirist can't remember?
Bodies, Blind Spots and Quirks: 5 Key Questions to Ask When Developing Characters
When developing characters, we must learn everything we can about the external world in which they live, and what circumstances, just or unjust, are wrought upon them. Equally, or more so, we have to know how they react, or fail to, in conjunction with events.
Script Classics: Life In The Movie Industry – How To Sell A Pitch In Only 10 Years
While working the front desk at Miramax, Dave Pullano created the fictional exec, Jay Flannick, to field unwanted and overly persistent pitches. Ironically enough, through a series of adventures, Pullano found himself in Hong Kong, sitting on an old mattress ... and pitching his own script to Jackie Chan.
Establishing a Successful Relationship With Your Muse
Some call it The Muse; others their imagination. Some call it their spirit guides or God or Source Energy. The word’s not important. What is important is to understand your role in the creative relationship with whatever joins you at the desk.
Writing Great Historical Fiction: Lessons Learned 300 Years After Blackbeard’s Death
This year marks the 300th anniversary of the death of Edward Thache, the notorious privateer-turned-pirate known as Blackbeard. Here, historical fiction author Samuel Marquis, great-grandson of Captain William Kidd and author of a new book on Blackbeard, offers his best advice for writing great historical fiction.
Literary Agent Interview: Mark Gottlieb of Trident Media Group
Mark Gottlieb grew up surrounded by literary genius. He is now a top selling literary agent who is actively building his client list at Trident Media Group. Here Mark offers publishing insight and advice to aspiring authors.
Creativity Exercises: 3 Ways to Awaken Your Mind to Poetic Thinking
Guggenheim Fellow and poet Jane Hirshfield explains, “Poetry’s work is the clarification and magnification of being.” Here are some creativity exercises to help awaken your mind to poetic thinking, and to clarify and magnify your poetry writing.
5 Things to Look Out for at the London Book Fair 2018
The London Book Fair 2018 is the UK’s biggest gathering of international publishers and agents and this year runs from 10th to 12th April at the Olympia conference centre in central London. Here are 5 things to look out for at the fair this year.
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.
Lucky Day
You're making your way down a cobbled street when a stocky, red-bearded man beckons you into an alley. He reaches into his coat, produces a locket on a long gold chain, and hands it to you. Upon opening the locket, you find a four-leaf clover pressed beneath a small glass pane....
Rub Two Sticks Together to Create a Spark: A Scout’s Strategy for Starting a Story
How do you start a story when your creative spark has dimmed? Try rubbing two ideas together.
Jeff Somers and the Rough Beast, Episode 2: Plantsing!
This video series follows author Jeff Somers (Writing Without Rules, coming from WD Books in May 2018) as he discusses how to write a novel while at work on one of his own.
7 Cardinal Publishing Rules—And Why You Might Want to Break Them
As a leader and influencer in the publishing world, Skip Prichard knows all there is to know about the process of publishing a book. But when he began his own journey, he broke seven core publishing rules.
Where Do Characters Come From?
Author Mitch Silver discusses how he and other thriller masters came up with the characters who have led their greatest story ideas—and how you can create great characters too.
A Book of Chance
Writing Prompt: Go over to your bookshelf, close your eyes, and pick up the first book you touch. Open the book to a random page, read the first full sentence on that page, and use it as the inspiration for a story or scene. Please include the original line at the...
For the Love of Love: 8 Benefits of Reading & Writing Romance Novels
Readers and writers of romance novels share the positive impact the books and the romance community have had in their lives.
Nothing Wasted: Interview with Tomi Adeyemi, Author of ‘Children of Blood and Bone’
In our "Breaking In" column in Writer's Digest magazine, we talk with debut authors—such as Tomi Adeyemi, San Diego-based author of Children of Blood and Bone—about how they did it, what they learned and why you can do it, too. This is an extended interview with Adeyemi, who appeared in the February 2018...
Writers on Writing: Revitalizing the Batman Franchise with Batman Begins
David Goyer, who co-wrote Batman Begins with director Christopher Nolan, reflects on the creative choices he and Nolan made in bringing the darkest of the DC Comics’ characters to life.