Writer's Digest March - April 2016

1 This Is The End In “Goodbye to All That” (Page 40), TheDeep End of the Ocean author Jacquelyn Mitchard looks closely at how we can arrive at the best possible endings for our fictional stories. In a bonus online sidebar, she offers insight into how these approaches apply to narrative nonfiction. 2 Publication With Purpose Inspired by WD’s 23rd Annual Self-Published Book Awards grand-prize winner Louise Esola (Page 44)? Learn more about her indie author journey and her best advice for other authors in our interview outtakes. 3 Mapping the Journey If Christopher Paolini’s novel-framing maps (Page 14) have you wanting to chart your own story, you’re in luck. Gain more insight into the process with a special look at Paolini’s early drafts. To find all of the above…

Once Upon a Time … At a neighborhood party recently, the adults on my street were discussing the fact that I’m newly slated to become a published novelist with a mixture of fanfare, curiosity, and something akin to suspicion. What fun, I thought, having people suddenly wonder what’s going on in my brain! Nothing like fielding a series of odd questions to make you feel like a “real” writer, right? But then my neighbor’s second-grader spoke up. “You should write a book for kids ” she said. “I do have one idea ” I told her, and then, not really thinking, spouted a one-line description of my half-baked picture book title. It wasn’t anything Id thought seriously about writing, just a story I made up to make my son giggle.…

TERI BROWN (“Get Schooled,” Page 34) is the proud mother of two children, in addition to being a wine-sipper, head-banger, slow-runner, book-reader, rule-breaker, food-fixer, novel-writer, kitty-keeper and mountain climber. She writes young adult books (Born of Illusion and Velvet Undercover), as well as adult historical fiction (the Summerset Abbey series). Brown lives with her husband and way too many pets in Portland, Ore. LAUREN CAMP (“9 Ways to Polish Your Poetry for Publication” Page 56) is the author of three books, most recently the Dorset Prize–winning One Hundred Hungers. Her poems have appeared in New England Review, Linebreak, Beloit Poetry Journal and more, and she’s been awarded the Margaret Randall Poetry Prize, Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award and a Black Earth Institute fellowship. She can be found online at laurencamp.com. JACQUELYN…

The tidy endings you find in fiction often bear little resemblance to real life. Fortunately, even when reality doesn’t seem to have much of a cohesive plotline, it’s still filled with raw materials that can feed your fiction. Everything you’ve ever seen, heard, read, thought or done is simmering away in your brain. Like the spell-brewing witches of Macbeth, you, too, can make a little magic from all that toil and trouble. To cook up something completely new using your stew of experiences as inspiration, consider adding the following ingredients—imbued, of course, with your own personal flavor. 1. EMBARRASSING INCIDENTS Instead of trying to forget the blush-inspiring things that happen to you, try imagining that the consequences were more dire. Ask yourself: What character would be especially discombobulated by this…

As a broadcast journalist, I always felt somehow “less than” those published in print. This was to be expected, since my self-identification in conversation as an ABC Radio anchor or a WINS-AM theater critic was often met with a print colleague’s slight lift of the nose, as if to say I wasn’t a real journalist if I was only on the radio. Yet I loved being there—popping into press conferences, getting a salient sound bite on tape, writing quickly and creating a package where the narrative fit smoothly around the 20-second captured voice. Then—miracle of miracles—hearing myself on the air almost immediately, telling the story concisely, sharply, clearly to hundreds of thousands of listeners. What a thrill it was to beat the competition with a report. Racing back from opening…

5 WAYS TO MAKE THE MOST OF NATIONAL POETRY MONTH April marks the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month, first organized by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. One goal of designating a full month to celebrate poetry is to introduce great poems and poets to the world. Here are five ways to celebrate—even if you’re not a poet. 1. READ POETRY. The best way to appreciate poetry is to read it. Luckily, great poems have never been easier to find. Subscribe to a literary journal, buy a poetry collection or visit the poetry shelves of your local library. Browse poetry websites, and if you encounter a work you admire, leave a comment saying so. 2. WRITE POETRY. Anyone can write poetry, right? This NBA season, superstar Kobe Bryant…