WHY I WRITE My childhood had a powerful influence on why I write. I was born in the city but grew up in the country. And there in the country I discovered that words could take me beyond what I knew with my eyes and my ears. It began on a h...
Congratulations to Mary Lou Condike, first place winner in the Mystery/Crime category of the Writer’s Digest 15th Annual Popular Fiction Awards! Here’s her winning story, “A Cowgirl Farewell.” A Cowgirl Farewell A line snaked out th...
Hey everybody! I’m Andy, 23, Italian.I’m not a writer, myself, far from being one, unfortunately. But I have always loved the art of writing and those who practice it! I’ve recently read L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy a...
In part 2 of this 1931 article about mystery story techniques, George Dyer offers his suggestions for how to drop hints about who the real criminal of the story is. Read part 1 of the article Murder for Profit: Mystery Story Techniques here...
In this author spotlight, the duo of Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings (writing as Christina Lauren) talk about their most recent book, The Honey Don’t List, and share how their writing process changes from book to book. Christina Laure...
There are always rural sections of a city you can visit and base it on. Jot down your report as you witness and experience them like in a forest. Could be a park or national park. Then do some research. I imagine castles are very easy to in...
Today is Election Day in the United States and marks one year before the highly anticipated, already contentious 2020 presidential election. So, when we found this article from our January 1970 issue, and recognized its continued relevance,...
Learn how to start and lead a successful writers group. In this post, John Peragine shares 6 writing group best practices, including limiting your group size, how to effectively share work, and more. Three years ago, at the first Writer’s...
Congratulations to the winners of the 88th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition! For an interview with the Grand Prize winner, see the November/December 2019 issue of Writer’s Digest. See which WD competitions are currently accept...
Reporting. “A person who reports”, according to Google, so that’s incredibly specific. Actually, the definition goes on to say “a person who reports, especially one employed to report news or conduct interviews for n...