Innehållsförteckning för November/December 2018 från Writer's Digest

1 I, Philanthropist A long-time advocate for literacy, WD Interviewee James Patterson (Page 44) explains why he puts forth so much effort to foster a widespread love of reading. 2 Impressionist Art After learning to imitate your favorite authors using the hands-on exercises in “The Imitation Game” (Page 40), find more examples of how to sharpen specific skills like writing setting, dialogue and point of view. 3 Between the Lines Accomplished linguist and newly acclaimed novelist Christina Dalcher takes you inside her writing process in “Language Arts” (Page 18). In this uncut Q&A, Dalcher waxes long on the benefits of short prose. To find all of the above online companions to this issue in one handy spot, visit writersdigest.com/dec-18 .…

BOBBI DEMPSEY (“The WD Interview,” Page 44) is a freelance writer whose credits include The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine and Parade. A fan of bargains and all things ’80s, she is the author of Degrees of Desperation: The Working-Class Struggle to Pay for College. She is writing a memoir about growing up in poverty and moving 70 times by age 18. Find her online at bobbidempsey.com and on Twitter at @bobbidempsey. KELLYE GARRETT (“Director’s Commentary,” Page 10) is the author of the award-winning Detective by Day series about a semi-famous, mega-broke black actress who takes on the deadliest role of her life: Private Investigator. Prior to writing books, Garrett spent eight years working in Hollywood, including a stint writing for the CBS drama “Cold Case.” She currently serves on…

Well-known contemporary poets like Rupi Kaur, Atticus, Lang Leav and Christopher Poindexter began their careers by posting on Instagram. They, along with countless others like them, are leading a renaissance of this time-honored literary form, and based on the hundreds of thousands of poetry accounts and millions of poems shared across multiple digital platforms, it is obvious that #poetryisnotdead. Technology—specifically, social media—is not only shaping how we share and read poetry; it is also shaping contemporary poetic forms. Just as ancient epics and Shakespearean sonnets created influential movements, digital poetry is changing what we write and how we write it. Social media platforms support brevity; in order to make a connection in this fast-paced, easily-distracted world, a poem often needs to be readable within minutes, or even seconds. This need…

As much as Christina Dalcher loves words—she’s a linguist by trade, having taught at universities internationally—she knows better than most the power of their absence. An award-winning flash-fiction and short-story writer, her debut novel VOX (released in August) has generated buzz from the likes of TIME, Publishers Weekly and Vanity Fair. In the fast-paced dystopian novel, where a certain demographic is limited to speaking only 100 words per day, it’s no stretch to say that language is, well, everything. Dalcher took a break from promoting VOX abroad—including doing four interviews in Italian the day before we chatted—to talk about where she gleans inspiration, how the study of linguistics influences her tales and why writing short is the best practice for longer endeavors. In VOX , women are…

I’m an analog girl in a digital world. I like old things and old style. I used a rotary-dial phone until the march of progress threatened to crush us both. My car just celebrated its 24th birthday. I like canvas sneakers, gin martinis and homemade afghans. But I’m a writer in contemporary times, and I’ve adapted to new technologies. Frankly, most of it has been a blur. I do remember, though, sitting alone at night in an office building sometime in the 1980s, watching my boss’s printer slowly excrete 200 pages of random ASCII characters. For all I knew, the computer was trying to tell us something. I sent the pages to the tech guys at headquarters for analysis. They still haven’t gotten back to me. Fast-forward to now, when…

Here’s an awkward confession from a writer trying to make a living from his work: I love a good used bookstore. Nothing beats walking out with a stack of books for pennies apiece. One of the most overlooked aspects of a secondhand store, however, is how it acts as a time machine. Every writer is admonished to read widely. This is usually interpreted to mean that you should read outside your preferred genre—and that’s true enough. But it also means you should read outside your current time period. It’s easy to become locked into a chase for what’s modern and hot, the trends that are getting published right now, today. But the books being published today are the tail end of trends that started two years ago; the past has…

In suspense novels, it’s important to choose the right details to set the tone, especially early on. What you opt to include determines how much your readers trust—and, later, what will make them doubt—your narrator. Those details clue readers into what deserves special attention, and gets them asking questions that will keep them turning pages. Tana French’s debut novel, In the Woods, uses the unreliability of memory to affect readers’ perception of her main character, Detective Robert Ryan. In the novel, Ryan returns to the neighborhood he grew up in, the site of a major event in his childhood (of which he has little memory) to solve a recent murder. My imitation of In the Woods is a new story featuring a new character, Rachel, who faces similar challenges when…

Whether you are writing a picture book, middle-grade or something in between, writing for children necessitates a delicate balance of visuals and text. You may not be an illustrator, but thinking like an illustrator is important because you will need to reach your target readers using details that are appropriate for their developmental level. Here are some exercises to help you get there: • Choose an incident from your childhood that has made a lasting impression on your life: perhaps a memorable incident with your best friend or your confused feelings on the first day in a new school. Write the opening scene of a story based on this incident. Do not write the story as you remember it, however. Rather, recreate the story for fiction—changing the looks, gender, personality…

Writers of all kinds strive to paint visuals of their characters across readers’ minds. In screenwriting, no description is more critical than that of a character. Not only are we tasked with seducing a reader to follow and root for our protagonist, but we also need to draw in a potential actor, enticing them to call their agent the minute they finish reading the script (or even before), shouting, “Get me that part!” Attaching an A-list actor to your script is the difference between going straight to development and having your screenplay rot on your hard drive. So, introduce your characters like true movie stars. We’ve all seen the basics: JOHN DOE (40s), tall and lean, confidently sits at the defendant’s table. What does that tell us? John Doe is…

CALIFORNIA THE DIGITAL AUTHOR™ & INDIE PUBLISHING, plus BCX™ BOOK CAMP EXTREME CREATIVE WRITING CONFERENCE, produced by West Coast Writers Conferences. October 12–14, 2018 in Los Angeles, CA. Writers of all genres will benefit from a full weekend of intensive workshops, digital demonstrations and educational sessions focused on new paradigms in an increasingly digital world where the publishing giants include digital resources in addition to the traditional "Big Five." The lndie Publishing track will cover essentials from book formatting to cover design, building your platform, legal issues, working with indie publishers, and promoting yourself and your books traditionally and through social media marketing. The Digital World track will cover ebooks, audiobooks, book trailers and tablets. Guest speakers will include industry experts, digital media and publishing professionals, veteran educators, and…

FIRST WORDS Match the famous opening lines on the left to the novel they kick off on the right. Once you’re finished, check your answers at writersdigest.com/dec-18. PICTURE THIS What classic novel does the illustration below appear in? Make your guess, then flip the page upside down to see the correct answer. TIMELESS TIPS “We don’t know what it is that sometimes comes to make our books alive. All we can do is to write dutifully and day after day, every day, giving our work the very best of what we are capable. I don’t think that we can consciously put the magic in; it doesn’t work that way. When the magic comes, it’s a gift.” —A Wrinkle in Time author Madeleine L’Engle in the March 1990 Writer’s Digest…

PROCRASTINATION PERKS Habitually putting off work is a problem plaguing many writers. Author Jenna Blum rethinks her approach to self-distraction, and shares seven ways you can make procrastination positive. bit.ly/procrastinateWD ON THE FAST (LAUGH) TRACK In this excerpt from The Byline Bible, essayist Susan Shapiro offers 18 quick tricks to punch up your scenes and infuse your stories with the stuff that laughs are made of. bit.ly/laughtrackWD MAKE NOISE IN LIBRARIES Libraries spend a surprising amount each year on expanding their collections. Learn how, with these five strategies, indie authors can rise past the traditionally published and snag the attention of book-loving librarians. bit.ly/indiespiritWD…

I recently dislodged from our family bookshelf one of the Little House books I’d collected so many years ago. Undisturbed for several decades, the entire front jacket of By the Shores of Silver Lake tore apart in my hand, dangerously close to the Harper book ribbon that states: “This seal identifies a book of tested excellence, conforming to the highest editorial standards.” When I first heard about the controversy surrounding the American Library Association’s decision to rename the “Laura Ingalls Wilder Award” to the “Children’s Literature Legacy Award,” I didn’t remember—but was not surprised by—the passages from Wilder’s work surfacing in the media. They were stereotypical, offensive and downright prejudiced (the term we used before “racist” became the catch-all for all forms of discrimination). Even so, the distasteful portrayals were…

Susanna Einstein was born and bred in New York City, later migrating to the Midwest to pursue a major in performance studies at Northwestern University. After graduating in 1993—and working for two years at what is now Chicago Shakespeare Theatre—she moved back to the Big Apple, serving as an editorial assistant for Warner Books for the next seven years before becoming a literary scout with Maria B. Campbell Associates. Today, she has nearly 14 years of agenting experience, first at LJK Literary, then Einstein Thompson, and finally at her own agency, Einstein Literary Management. “What I adore in my clients is their persistence, their work ethic and their understanding that one book will not make or break their career,” she says. Visit Einstein online at einsteinliterary.com and @Einstein_Lit. FAVORITE DRINK:…

• Old-school technology frees you from the internet. No temptation to check the news or social media. You can enjoy a quiet, peaceful environment while you create. • Simple, manual tech is generally durable and reliable. • There is something metaphysical about employing a wood-cased pencil or a bottle of ink: As you use it, you lose it. The object has a lifespan. • Paper matters. Cheap paper, with its high wood-pulp content and hence rougher surface, causes ink to feather and bleed. During these tests I alternated between an inexpensive retro-style notebook and a crazy-expensive premium pad. The difference in performance and writing pleasure was marked. Everything wrote smoother on the premium pad. Dang. • Just as a drawing of, say, a bowl of fruit might look more alive…

“I never give anyone writing advice.” That may seem like a surprising way to open an interview with a magazine for writers, but James Patterson has always avoided casting himself as the all-knowing writing guru. He’s a firm believer that every author is unique, and each must find a way to use their individual strengths and talents: “I don’t tell other people what they should do. I just know what I do. But I can share what works for me.” What works for Patterson also seems to be popular with a massive number of readers. He holds the Guinness World Record for the most No. 1 New York Times bestsellers, and his books have sold more than 375 million copies worldwide. He is the author of dozens of titles, many…

THE CHALLENGE: Write the first line (one sentence only, 25 words or fewer) to a story based on the photo prompt below. You can be funny, poignant, witty, etc.; it is, after all, your story. TO ENTER: Send your story via the online submission form at writersdigest.com/your-story-competition or via email to yourstorycontest@fwmedia.com (entries must be pasted directly into the body of the email; attachments will not be opened). NOTE: WD editors will select the top 12 entries and post them on our website (writersdigest.com/your-story-competition). Join us online in early December, when readers can vote for their favorite to help rank the top 10 winners! The winners will be published in a future issue of Writer’s Digest . DON’T FORGET: Your name and mailing address. One entry per…

1 Retreat to the Springs! Explore new genres while honing your craft at this popular roving conference. WHEN: Oct. 26–28, 2018. WHERE: John Bryan Community Center, Yellow Springs, Ohio. PRICE: $195. One-on-one manuscript critiques with conference presenters are $25 each. See website for details. WHAT MAKES THE CONFERENCE UNIQUE: Its welcoming atmosphere and workshop lineup of experienced, well-published authors. “Retreat to the Springs … gives participants a taste of several genres, and allows them to ask questions in a nurturing environment,” Conference Director Wendy Beckman says. “It’s aimed at beginning-to-intermediate writers who need an intimate atmosphere in which to learn more about their writing.” HOW MANY ATTEND: 24. FACULTY: Nonfiction writer Ann Hagedorn (The Invisible Soldiers); novelist Donna MacMeans (The Whisky Laird’s Bed); short story writer Jason Sanford (Never Never…

Growing up, my family moved around a lot—we lived in Kansas, Oregon, multiple cities in Texas. In every new place, meeting people took time, and books were the friends that never failed me. My favorite series was The Chronicles of Narnia. I re-read every book in my box set, all the way through to The Last Battle, so many times that the fabric spines began to fray. Something about the unexpected adventure—a world ripe for exploration—unearthed through an innocuous wardrobe for the otherwise-normal Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy (and in later books, even the dour Eustace) captured the enthusiasm of a lonely kid in the upstairs bedroom of a cookie-cutter suburban house. Although The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was published in 1950—more than three decades before I was…

POETIC FORM: CYRCH A CHWTA The cyrch a chwta is a Welsh poetic form that leans heavily on end rhymes and one internal (or cross) rhyme. In fact, this form uses the same end rhyme in seven of its eight lines—so picking a strong end rhyme is key to a successful poetic composition. Here are the basic guidelines for the cyrch a chwta: • Octave (or eight-line) stanzas • Seven syllables per line • Lines 1–6 and 8 share the same end rhyme • Line 7 cross rhymes with Line 8 (internally) on either the third, fourth or fifth syllable. Here is a two-stanza cyrch a chwta by a Poetic Asides reader. Seasick, by Lelawattee Manoo-Rahming I traveled to see great whales. I was told there’d be no…

Gretchen Anthony 1 Evergreen Tidings From the Baumgartners (upmarket fiction/humor, October, Park Row Books) A formidable matriarch learns the hard way that her perfect family is falling to pieces—and it’s going to take some unconventional moves to put it back together again. WRITES FROM: Minnesota. PRE- EVERGREEN: I made a career in corporate communication, so I’ve been writing for other people for decades [on] everything from quarterly earnings to dating after divorce. It’s been a great ride, but I’m thrilled to finally be publishing in my own name. TIME FRAME: The book’s main character, Violet Baumgartner, lived in my head for years. I couldn’t shake her voice or the idea of her. I finally decided the only way to purge her was to put her story down on paper. ENTER…

You’ve likely heard that you should keep your readers’ reactions in mind when you write. That bit of wisdom has been around awhile. And it’s good to remember. However, as-is, it’s also kind of obvious. So, taking a slightly different slant on things, let’s recast that advice: Here is a countdown of 10 reactions you won’t find readers having—and what you can take away from each of them. 10. “Your chapters are too short. You need to stretch them out more. Give us fewer breaks.” Here, two important issues come to mind: length and cliffhangers. First, remember you’re playing a game with readers—one that they want you to win. The goal is to get them to think, I’ll just finish this chapter and then go to sleep. But then when…

Dear FYSA, I am in a mixed-genre writing group and I write women’s fiction. One night, we started talking agent submissions and someone asked me why I would query a male agent when my writing is so female-centric. I wish I could say we all laughed it off, but the conversation then got really intense. I have to admit, it made me wonder—should I focus exclusively on female agents? Sincerely, Genre Exclusive Dear Genre, Woo boy! That must’ve been a doozy of a conversation. I hope the pinot flowed as plentifully as the vitriol, and that no one weaponized a pencil. There is a lot to unpack here—but more so for the individual who suggested that you need a like-gendered agent than for you. The unfortunately prevalent “to really ‘get’…

Write a picture book story. Yes, right now. Relax. Have fun. Remember, your first draft will rarely be submission-ready. Just as milk needs churning to become butter, your draft will need revision to become publishable. But to begin, just get your story down. Writing that first draft can be painful. If you’re like me, you have an idea that glistens in your head and already has “bestseller” sparkling in neon lights above it. Then you start writing, and the mundaneness of your plot, the flatness of your characters and the dullness of your prose hits you like a sledgehammer. An additional challenge, unique to writing picture books, is that they have two audiences: adults who pay money for the books—parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians—and children, who listen to the adult reader.…

DEFINING YOUR CORE EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE: Endings often suffer from polarization: They’re either too happy or too bleak. Remember that characters can’t always get what they want, nor do young readers want to slog through a book to arrive at an ending where all is lost. To find the more interesting gray area of your true ending, write your character into an alternate ending where they fail. Utterly. How do they react? What do they learn? How do they start to rebuild? Next, swing your protagonist into an ending that is more than they could possibly hope for. What’s the reaction there? No need to write it all—just outline. That will help you find some interesting shades to an ending that balances these two extremes. RECOMMITMENT: There needs to be at…

You’re at your first conference, hanging at the hotel bar, when you suddenly find yourself face-to-face with your favorite writer. It’s the perfect opportunity to ask a pithy, conversation-starting question—but you come up blank. Don’t despair: Asking a published professional about craft, technique and process can be daunting, especially if you’re new to the profession. Here are a few good questions to get things started: For Fiction Writers: • When you were first starting out, who were your literary inspirations and what did you learn from their writing? • What were the greatest challenges in writing your first book, and how did that experience inform your process moving forward? • What do you feel are the most common mistakes made by novice writers, and what advice can you offer to…

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • Keep in mind that there may be more than one workshop in each listing. • These workshops are listed alphabetically by state, country or continent. • Unless otherwise indicated, rates include tuition (T) only. Sometimes the rates also include airfare (AF), some or all meals (M), accommodations (AC), ground transportation (GT), materials (MT) or fees (F). • When you find workshops that interest you, be sure to call, email or check the website of the instructor or organization for additional information. • All listings are paid advertisements.…