Writer's Digest

I am conflict-averse, and I hate confrontation. Generally, I try to avoid both at all costs. That’s probably not the best way to live life, and it’s certainly not the best way to write a book. Or is it? At first glance, it would seem that a book with

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

Today is her forty-fifth birthday. She finds it hard to believe. Once she’d been young and she’d thought forty-five would come slow and impossible. She’d thought forty-five would be another world. But it came fast and it’s not what she thought it wou

EVE J. CHUNG is a Taiwanese American human rights lawyer focusing on gender equality and women’s rights. She lives in New York with her husband, two children, and two dogs. ROB HART (RobWHart.com) is the author of Assassins Anonymous, as well as The

DEADLINE May 1, 2024 EXTENDED DEADLINE May 31, 2024 Win $10,000 in cash, national acclaim, and a trip to the Writer’s Digest Conference! • $10,000 in cash• A feature article about you and your book in Writer’s Digest• A paid trip to the Writer’s Dige

Writing poetry is very helpful for processing emotions. Fall head over heels in love? Write a poem. Tumble down the stairs of a broken heart? Write a poem. Get in a heated argument? Write a poem. Dealing with the aftermath of a tragic event? Write a

One of the things articles in this issue challenge writers to do is to express a character’s emotions without specifically naming the emotion (i.e., not writing: “He was angry”). Write a few sentences about each image that will show readers what emot

I have been engaged in a yearslong war with Grammarly over the phrase “in order to.”1 I occasionally use the grammarchecking site in my freelance writing work as a kind of “super spellcheck,” and every time it highlights the phrase and suggests, pre

When Winter Comes; The Self-Publishing Blueprint (Nonfiction books for authors, horror, and suspense fiction; Activated Authors [nonfiction]; Devil’s Rock Publishing [fiction]) WHY SELF-PUBLISH? In the beginning, I was just interested in learning how

I got my start as a full-time writer when I was 19 years old—so long ago that I penned my first articles with a goose quill on parchment—and over the ensuing decades, I learned a thing or two about both the good and the bad of freelance writing. When

When I wrote Daughters of Shandong, my biggest challenge was finding a way to convey, in full force, the gravity of what my characters overcame. In that sense, I was terrified of failing to do them justice. Writing is not something I’m accustomed to

Jennifer March Soloway (she/her/hers) is a senior agent with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Previously, she worked in marketing and public relations in a variety of industries, including financial services, healthcare, and toys. She has an MFA in

EARLY-BIRD DEADLINE: AUG. 15, 2024 DEADLINE: SEPT. 16, 2024 You’ve chosen the independent route and self-published your e-book, now take the next step and be recognized for your great work. Submit your self-published e-book(s) in the Writer’s Digest

If you’ve ever been in a writing workshop, you’ve probably heard the conversation wander into some version of “But how does the character feel?” Whenever I’ve been asked a version of this question—or told, more bluntly, that the reader can’t tell wh

Bea Northwick wrote her first novel around 2015. Her children were getting older, and she had more time on her hands, so she returned to an early love—books. With that first novel, Northwick, who has her master’s degree in library science, participat

I once heard John Irving describe how he came up with his novels this way: “I think of a character I love and then imagine the worst thing that could happen to them.” This is a pretty good description of any story, which is always going to be driven

Congratulations! You’ve received an offer of representation from your Dream Agent. It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for. In the good ole’ days of threehour lunches and cocktails sharply at 5 p.m., many authors signed with their agents on a handsha

When thinking about which markets match up with exploring emotion and conflict, it eventually dawned on me that political magazines are the best fit—a category that I’ve been avoiding for years now, probably because politics are rife with conflict an

Though she was usually law-abiding and cautious, Susan was so late that she allowed herself to do something she’d usually never do: She put the pedal to the metal and accelerated all the way to 80 miles an hour, though the speed limit was 65. She did

The world of children’s publishing is tough. Publishing houses are consolidating, print sales are struggling, and profit margins are narrow. Because of this economic reality, many publishers lean heavily into “sure things”—like celebrity books, seque

Typically in this column, the frontlist title is talked about first, followed by the older title. This time, the order will be reversed because the newer novel is the sequel to the older, but I’ll be careful to avoid any spoilers. Moon of the Crusted

SHORT STORY May 17–19 HUMOR June 15 SECRETS OF PUBLISHING July 13 SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY August 23–25 MASTERING STORYTELLING September 21 HORROR October 19 NONFICTION November 16 HISTORICAL FICTION December 6–8 Visit WritersOnlineWorkshops.com or sc

SAVE THE DATES! MAY 9 Effective Book Marketing JUNE 6 Today’s Key Book Publishing Paths JULY 18 Will Your Nonfiction Book Sell?  AUGUST 8 Establish (Or Improve) Your Email Newsletter  SEPTEMBER 12 Improve Your Author Website  OCTOBER 10 Literary