Thanks all! While I agree that generally research is a good idea, I’m not sure I follow the logic. That might be my lack of understanding, of course. I should probably have stated, this is a short story not a novel. It’s hard SF...
Susan Orlean thought she was done writing books when she heard about the 1986 fire that devastated the Los Angeles Public Library. The story so intrigued her that she spent four years researching and writing about it. The Library Book tells...
It goes without saying that everyone in life has their own path to take. Students across the country spend several years buried in textbooks, cramming for exams and befriending SparkNotes for those last minute essays. Until that fateful da...
“Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your hea...
Writing isn’t hard, but writing well to captivate a wide audience who are prepared to pay a little of their hard-earned money can be tricky.I take the view that if I like what I write, there’s a half-decent chance that some othe...
In this extended interview from the March/April 2019 issue of Writer’s Digest, Min Jin Lee talks about finding story ideas that truly provoke your passions and how to tune out the burden of expectations in this extended WD Interview. Pho...
How many times have you made a resolution in the new year only to let it fizzle out and die within a month or two? Don’t fret! It happens to the best of us. New Year’s resolutions are often easy to make but can be hard to follow through...
In a genre that has historically lacked diversity, six writers of color discuss overcoming the challenge of breaking in and the current climate for crime, mystery and thriller fiction. “It can be lonely. … And there have been times when...
Explore Jane Friedman’s 2018 Year in Review—her take on the latest trends and shakeups in the book and magazine realm, and what those mean for writers in the coming year. Photo by Steven VanDesande Jr on Unsplash For better or worse,...
I’m often asked how to publish a book. After all, I help writers get published as my day job. And I can tell you it’s as simple or complicated as a writer wishes to make it. In this post, I’m going to share 5 questions to consider in ...