Writer's Digest5 min read
Writers in Toyland
For those of us who spent our childhoods with one eye focused on our toys and trinkets, waiting for them to come to life and offer us their friendship, we know a thing or two about the disappointment in the law of diminishing returns. The older we ge
Writer's Digest3 min read
Mazey Eddings
When I hear the term method acting, I immediately think of actors like Jeremy Strong having trouble referring to his “Succession” character, Kendall Roy, in the third person or Austin Butler going literal years without seeing his family as he was pre
Writer's Digest8 min read
Turning Real People Into Characters Is an Act of Translation
It might seem like nonfiction writers get off easy when it comes to developing characters: We don’t have to create them from whole cloth, inventing layers of backstory and idiosyncrasy—the people we’re writing about already exist! But the work of tra
Writer's Digest1 min read
Writer's Digest
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Amy Jones SENIOR EDITOR Robert Lee Brewer MANAGING EDITOR Moriah Richard EDITORS Sadie Dean Michael Woodson EDITORIAL INTERN Hannah Spicer ART DIRECTOR Wendy Dunning EDITORS-AT-LARGE Tyler Moss Jessica Strawser CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ja
Writer's Digest10 min read
Bringing Characters To Life On The Page
The most exquisitely developed characters in the world won’t make an impact unless those characterizations are clear and vivid in the pages of your story. Bringing characters to life on the page comprises a myriad of context and detail that, if done
Writer's Digest3 min read
A Single Red Balloon
Joe wanted a reason to live. He was sitting on the corner of Lexington and 53rd, surrounded by his few worldly possessions and a cardboard sign that read “Disabled Veteran, Please Help” propped up against a metal jar with a few coins in it. He walks
Writer's Digest2 min read
Contributors
YASMIN ANGOE (YasminAngoe.com) is the author of Her Name Is Knight and a first-generation Ghanaian American currently residing in South Carolina with her family. She’s served in education for nearly 20 years and works as a developmental editor. Yasmi
Writer's Digest4 min read
A Single Woman
Most mysteries and thrillers I’ve read lately feature chapters alternating between characters. It makes sense why that’s a popular approach—switching to another point of view after a tense chapter not only makes readers want to keep turning pages, bu
Writer's Digest6 min read
Breaking In
The Invisible Hotel (Literary horror, March, Zando) “In the aftermath of the Korean War, a young woman dreams of an abandoned hotel with infinite keys to infinite rooms, waking up to the unsettling truth about her nation’s collective heritage.” WRITE
Writer's Digest2 min read
A Questionable Choice
I was recently asked who my favorite fictional characters were, and I had trouble giving an answer. But it wasn’t because I couldn’t think of any. It was because the characters I like the most are the ones that live the longest in my head—and those a
Writer's Digest5 min read
Breaking Into Books: Different Kinds of Literary Collaborations
A few students recently shared their plan of completing the 30-day NaNoWriMo challenge, then emailing the brilliant pages of their next Great American Novel to an agent who’d quickly land a six-figure advance with a top publishing house. Yet, in over
Writer's Digest2 min read
Jessie Kwak
Ghost Pirate Gambit, From Chaos to Creativity: Building a Productivity System for Artists and Writers (Science fiction, nonfiction writing craft; Jessie Kwak Creative) WHY SELF-PUBLISH? I’ve been writing for a living for 10 years, dabbling in everyth
Writer's Digest5 min read
Independent Printing
For many indie authors, the idea of publishing a book is exciting. But it can also be nerve-wracking, especially when it comes to the printing of the book. Offset printing is a printing technique in which ink is transferred—or offset—from a printing
Writer's Digest5 min read
Letting Curiosity Lead
As we met to discuss her winning novel, Claire Fraise said something that resonates through every part of her writing and publishing journey: “I just try to keep a curious mindset and to explore and to keep doing something to move myself in the direc
Writer's Digest5 min read
Connecting Theme to Character
What’s it about?” That’s a question that writers are often asked. Whether the questioner is a reader at a book festival, a friend or family member, an agent or editor, the writer must come up with a compelling, yet pithy, answer. Usually, the writer
Writer's Digest1 min read
Creative Quill
INSTRUCTIONS: It’s time to interview your character! Whether you’re imagining sitting down for coffee across from the hero of your latest project or taking a stroll with a well-loved character of popular media, use the answers they give you to write
Writer's Digest12 min read
Tommy Orange
In 2018, Tommy Orange took the literary world by storm with his debut novel, There There, which told the story of 12 people from Native communities slowly discovering how their lives are connected as they all work to get to the present-day Big Oaklan
Writer's Digest2 min read
The Five Senses
The terminal smelled like disinfectant and heavy perfume, a mixture that gave Charles a headache on the spot. He shifted his body to the right, so that he was facing the stream of disembarking travelers. The Spanish ones had better faces than the tou
Writer's Digest1 min read
129
TO ENTER: Email your entry to YourStoryContest@aimmedia.com with the subject line “Your Story #129.” Entries must be pasted directly into the body of the email; attachments will not be opened. Include your name and mailing address. Entries without a
Writer's Digest5 min read
5 Literary Journals Open to Submissions
There’s a reason why literary journals are perpetually popular among writers looking to get published: Like the magazines on this list, many of them are paying markets that publish fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. So, there’s room for most types of w
Writer's Digest2 min read
The Winners
They Stay by Claire Fraise Read Island by Nicole Magistro Forever Home by Cathy Stenquist Mrs. R. Snugglesworth, Attorney-at-Law by Amy Flanagan Nature Parade by Nikki Samuels Siege of Herons: Collective Nouns Alphabetically by Ramona Wildeman The Th
Writer's Digest5 min read
Daring to Show My Dark Side
I never planned to write my debut about the Devil. The characters who filled my short stories would be appalled: Annie, who blew kisses to her little brother during his difficult first day of school; Curley, a mail-carrying hedgehog whose uniform mis
Writer's Digest1 min read
Writer's Digest Tutorials
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Writer's Digest1 min read
Worth a Thousand Words
Bob Eckstein is a New Yorker cartoonist, NY Times–bestselling author, and adjunct professor at NYU. His new book is The Complete Book of Cat Names (That Your Cat Won’t Answer to, Anyway). ■
Writer's Digest2 min read
Kristin Ostby
Kristin Ostby is an editor-turned-literary agent from the Midwest. After moving from Michigan to New York, Ostby began her career in publishing at Penguin Random House and rose to become a senior editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Os
Writer's Digest9 min read
Finding Your Character’s Voice
Character voice is the way our characters speak inwardly to themselves and outwardly to other people. Like with your own voice, it has degrees, modulations, and changes in pitch. How you talk to yourself is different and sometimes maybe even crueler
Writer's Digest4 min read
Analyzing Agent Responses
When I started querying in 2010, one of the agents I approached requested a paper manuscript. I printed my manuscript and sent it in a padded envelope. I received a reply by mail a few months later; a brief, kind rejection signed personally by the ag
Writer's Digest8 min read
Love to Hate Them
You just finished writing your book. You’ve sent it off to a handful of readers and are waiting with all the patience of a caffeinated squirrel for that coveted reader feedback. After what feels like eternity, it finally comes. And there you see it.
Writer's Digest10 min read
Anchoring Characters In A Series
Writing a series is a massive undertaking. It requires a lot of time and even more commitment. Think hard before you choose to take it on. But writing a series can be magical, fun, and exciting. It can feel like home because you get to play around a
Writer's Digest6 min read
What’s In A Name?
When crafting characters for your novel, names are vital to the authenticity of the world and can enhance and heighten a reader’s experience and understanding of the plot, especially the undercurrent of symbolism and thematic tension. Each name, when
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