Innehållsförteckning för July/August 2019 från Writer's Digest

1 “Hari Om Senior Center” Read the winning story from our Short Short Story Competition (Page 48). 2 The Library Role Bestselling author Susan Orlean, this month’s WD interview (Page 44), discusses what libraries bring to the 21st century and her role in illuminating the story. 3 Dos and Don’ts When Meeting Editors at Writing Conferences Check out this extended conversation with agents Rita Rosenkranz and Lisa Hagan from Conference Scene (Page 64), with even more tips on how writers can get the most out of an agent meeting. To find all of the above online companions to this issue in one handy spot, visit writersdigest.com/aug-19.…

WILLIAM KENOWER is the author of the Writer’s Digest book Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence and Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion. He is editor-in-chief of Author magazine and a sought-after speaker and teacher. Kenower has been published in The New York Times, Edible Seattle, ParentMap, Tiferet Journal and has been a featured blogger for HuffPost. His video interviews with hundreds of writers from Nora Ephron, to Amy Tan, to William Gibson are widely considered the best of their kind on the internet. Kenower hosts the podcast “Author2Author,” where every week he and a different guest discuss the books they write and the lives they lead. Learn more about Kenower at WilliamKenower.com CARLA HOCH is the author of the Writer’s Digest book Fight Write: How…

THE WINNERS OF THE 2018 WRITER'S DIGEST POETRY AWARDS Every year, I am delighted by the new crop of poems I get to read for the Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards. Then, I’m faced with the hard work of figuring out which poem rises above the others. It’s no simple task to rank one poem above another, especially when considering the diversity of poetry. A quick glance at the Top 10 list shows a sonnet and ghazal (two completely different forms), but there were many other forms, including free verse, along with varying degrees of mood and subject matter. There were so many strong contenders—around 1,000 entries—that I had to make a subjective call. Ultimately, it came down to which excellent poem spoke to me more than any of the other…

Rachel Sussman grew up in the suburbs of New York City, graduated from Brown University with a degree in English and American literature and began her publishing career at Scribner, where she honed her editorial skills for four years. Following a year in London, where she says she fell in love with the English countryside much like the Romantic poets she studied in college, Sussman turned to agenting with Zachary Shuster Harmsworth in New York. Six years later, “after many book deals and one baby,” Sussman partnered with her former Scribner colleague Terra Chalberg and founded Chalberg & Sussman. “I believe in books, because I get to learn something new every day from my clients, because I love the intellectual challenge of grappling with ideas and structure and because helping…

Imagine Little Red Riding Hood: ruddy cheeks, basket full of goodies, off to Grandma’s house with not a care in the world. She’s taking in the sights, smelling flowers, throwing that towel over her meat pies to keep them warm and fresh. The very picture of innocence: unaware that these woods hold danger. Then, BAM! You know what happens next. Except this time, it doesn’t. No wolf emerges from the forest, salivating over the savory treats. No heroic woodcutter, no gobbled granny. No threat. No danger. No salvation. Where’s the story in that? Without tension or drama, there’s no story at all. And none of it can happen without the most important character: the villain. Without an antagonist, Little Red Riding Hood is a nature walk, Jaws is a day…

For more advice on how to center yourself as the protagonist (or villain) of your own story, check out these titles from Writer’s Digest Books. Writing With Quiet Hands: How to Shape Your Writing to Resonate With Readers by Paula Munier Writing Your Legacy by Richard Campbell and Dr. Cheryl Svensson The Truth of Memoir: How to Write About Yourself and Others With Honesty, Emotion and Integrity by Kerry Cohen Crafting the Personal Essay: A Guide for Publishing Creative Nonfiction by Dinty W. Moore The Byline Bible: Get Published in 5 Weeks by Susan Shapiro Writing & Selling Short Stories & Personal Essays: The Essential Guide to Getting Your Work Published by Windy Lynn Harris For more information about these titles and more Writer’s Digest Books, visit writersdigestshop.com .…

Susan Orlean thought she was done writing books until 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 the story of the fire, which destroyed or damaged more than a million books, but also delves into the role of libraries throughout history and around the world, as well as Orlean’s love affair with libraries, which started when she was a little girl visiting the library with her mother. A longtime staff writer for The New Yorker, Orlean has written about everyone and everything, including the weird subculture of orchid fanatics (The Orchid Thief), which was adapted into the 2002 movie Adaptation. Orlean’s storytelling also includes the tale…

WRITE A SHORT STORY of 650 words or fewer based on the photo prompt below. You can be poignant, funny, 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 with the subject line Your Story #99 (entries must be pasted directly into the body of the email; attachments will not be opened). NOTE: WD editors select the top five entries and post them on our website (writersdigest.com/your-story-competition). Join us online in early August, when readers will vote for their favorite! The winner will be published in a future issue of Writer’s Digest. DON’T FORGET: Your name and mailing address. One entry per person. DEADLINE: July 8, 2019…

Character in Adversity Put your character in a scene where adversity leads him to an epiphany about himself that he finds unpleasant: realizing that he isn’t very strong, that he’s more selfish than he imagined, etc. Ideally, put him in a scene with other characters who push or test him. The Flawed Person Write a monologue in your character’s voice, in first person, in which she describes all of her worst habits and flaws, dark secrets and quirks. Then switch to third person and have her describe her best qualities, what people like about her and her virtues and strengths. Notice if she comes across as more or less self-aware depending on the POV, as well as likable or sympathetic.…

1 Romance Writers of America RWA2019 Conference Give your writing the love it deserves at this long-running specialty conference where romance is king. WHEN: July 24–27, 2019. WHERE: New York Marriott Marquis, New York City. PRICE: $549 for RWA members, $624 for nonmembers through June 26; $649 for members, $724 for nonmembers after. Saturday’s Blogger Day event alone is $50, though attending bloggers can receive a discounted rate on the entire conference. See website for details. WHAT MAKES THE CONFERENCE UNIQUE: It provides attendees with the most up-to-date information on what’s working now. “We welcome writers regardless of their level or career path,” RWA spokesperson Jessie Edwards says. “An unpublished writer eager to hone their craft or a number one bestseller looking to move between traditional and indie publishing will…

? CAPTION THIS Try your hand at writing a caption for this cartoon by Bob Eckstein. Send your entries to wdsubmissions@fwmedia.com with the subject line “Caption This” by July 8. Writer’s Digest editors will pick their favorite caption to be published in a future issue of the magazine. Bob Eckstein is a New York Times bestseller and award-winning cartoonist and illustrator for The New Yorker and The New York Times. His new book is The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons. ? WHO TWEETED IT? If they had access to Twitter, which villain would likely tweet this line? My face is gorge. #madebygod Want to tear it? #jealous #sinner A. The White Witch, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe B. Napoleon, Animal Farm C. Grendel, Beowulf D. Abigail Williams,…

AUTHOR PLATFORM: HOW TO BUILD YOUR ONLINE AUDIENCE AND STAY SANE E.J. Wenstrom shares a few steps you can take to save your sanity while you are building your online author platform. https://bit.ly/2uIf0Zc A SENSE OF DISCOVERY: CHOCOLAT AUTHOR JOANNE HARRIS ON ROUTINE, INSPIRATION AND WHAT’S NEXT Author Joanne Harris discusses her writing routine, her journey to becoming a full-time author as well as her upcoming book The Strawberry Thief, which is set in the same universe as her 2000 hit novel Chocolat. https://bit.ly/2K15gnd THE SCIENCE OF STORY IDEAS: HOW TO AWAKEN YOUR BRAIN’S CREATIVE SUPERPOWERS The brain is not only designed to think, it loves to think—and there are specific ways you can summon and maximize your brain’s ingenuity to generate better story ideas. Here…

The echoing call Of the red-eyed loon Rings, Bell-hollow, Against first-light. A chorus of chirrups, Whist-whistles, and Trills. A run of scales. A wail. Soft rustles in the distance. Voices calling across tree limbs still veiled with night, Made daring by the rising light. Damp fog seeps in through my window jamb. It permeates my waking-sleep. Wraps itself around my legs and breath, Pulling off warm covers, Pushing me towards coffee, Towards the dock, Where I sit next to your empty chair, Listening, To the bell-hollow call of the red-eyed loon, Ghostly in the early morning mist. THE 2018 WD POETRY AWARDS TOP 10 WINNERS 1. “Sing the Solitary Sunrise” by Beth Brody 2. “Gasping Breath—Heart on Fire” by Roy Salole 3. “High Tea at Four as the Apocalypse Draws…

The term self-publishing covers many paths to publication. Beneath the wider moniker are three main varieties of author-publishers with different creative intentions, goals, needs and outcomes. Let’s get to know each one. 1. THE SELF-SELF-PUBLISHERS These authors produce books, but they don’t put much energy into the other stages of the publishing process: marketing, promotion and rights sales. Sometimes this is because they don’t know how, but more often it’s intentional. They are publishing a book for family, friends or their community. These authors often only publish one book—their life story, wisdom or occupational experience they want to share. They have traditionally been accused of vanity for wanting to publish a book, an unfair label that has allowed substandard self-publishing services to emerge. For these authors, publishing is primarily about…

Underneath the gloves of a fighter are yards of cloth wrap. The wrap tightly binds the bones of the hands together to protect them from the impact of a punch. If wrapped incorrectly, the bones of the hands are vulnerable to breaks. More likely than not, the break will occur in the bones of the pinkie. And although the pinkie is the smallest of the fingers, a fracture in it compromises the whole hand and can take even a heavyweight out of a bout. Fight scenes are the pinkies in the hands of our stories. They are a small part of a much greater whole. But when the entire story is not tight, if even the smallest part is loose, we compromise the ability of the work to pack a…

One of the first things fledgling ghostwriters learn about their job is how similar it is to dating. It can get very intimate very quickly—authors often share their deepest secrets with their collaborators within weeks of meeting. It usually involves ongoing negotiation—from deal points through communication styles. And clients will inevitably carry some emotional baggage into the relationship—from deep-seated insecurities, to professional or familial strains, to a scarring experience with a prior partner. Most engagements are professional and productive. Many turn into lasting relationships, some even lifelong friendships. But much like dating today, almost every ghost pro will have at least one horror story to recount if asked. They come in many scenarios—clients who were emotionally and editorially unavailable, bombarded their ghosts with texts at all hours or ghosted their…

Dear FYSA, When a contract is negotiated, what are the main points an author should be aware of? What is that process like? Love, Legal-Ease My Mind Dear Legal-Ease, After you make a verbal deal with an editor, the editor and I agree on the basic terms at the point of sale and then the editor generates and sends me a “deal memo.” I either contest or approve the points in the deal memo, and when it reflects what we both agree are the terms at the point of sale, the editor sends the terms along to her contracts department at the publishing house. What transpires next … hmm … well, have you ever heard of the ancient Roman punishment poena cullei? Well, think of the process as “Poellea Cullei.”…

As any mystery reader knows, today’s villain is no Snidely Whiplash, standing in broad daylight, twirling his moustache and sneering. Any character who looks that nefarious will almost certainly turn out to be innocent. Readers are delighted when the bad guy was hiding in plain sight, an innocuous-looking character who cleverly conceals his true self, luring trusting victims and then snaring them in a death trap. But “the butler did it” won’t wash in a modern mystery. Minor characters who are part of the wallpaper for the first 28 chapters can’t be promoted to villain status at the end just to surprise the reader. And you can’t give a character a personality transplant in the final chapter. Disbelief will trump surprise unless you’ve left subtle clues along the way. PLANNING…

As you probably are aware by now, story is what drives a reader to the end of a book, but characters are what readers fall in love with. So, how can you make your characters—flaws and all—people that your readers can’t forget? As Mark Twain said, “Don’t tell us that the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.” To paraphrase Twain, readers get to know characters through their actions, not through their thoughts or words. Try this exercise while you think about how to make your characters the best they can be: Take a character you’ve been working on. Put them in an entirely unfamiliar situation (for example, a priest at a Grateful Dead concert or an Olympic swimmer in a desert). Write a scene depicting what…

Many writers attend conferences specifically for the opportunity to meet one-on-one with literary agents. WD asked Lisa Hagan of Lisa Hagan Literary and Rita Rosenkranz of the Rita Rosenkranz Literary Agency for some tips to ensure such meetings go smoothly. 1. DO come prepared, and with an eye on the clock. “Given the limited time an author has for both the pitch and then the agent’s response, brevity is key,” says Rosenkranz. “Be mindful of time, leaving enough left for the response and clear follow-up steps if the agent is interested in seeing the work.” 2. DON’T try to talk an agent into representing a genre they currently do not. “Agents represent specific genres and do not generally go far afield of their expertise,” Hagan observes. “No amount of begging…

Please allow me to introduce … our Villains issue. (And if you now have the “woo-woos” from the Rolling Stones’ classic “Sympathy for the Devil” stuck in your head, dear readers, I apologize.) All writers and readers know that no good yarn is complete without a villain. In a well-written tale, the villains are clear. We hate them, root against them and cheer loudly when they’re defeated. In real life, things are much more opaque—who are the villains there? We may think we know, but we often don’t. A villain can take so many forms—not just human. A villain can be an ancient and supernatural one, like old Beelzebub himself. Your arch nemesis could be a faceless corporation, whose cold and calculated decisions affect your life from afar. Get stranded…

We climbed into the van and greeted Samantha and Mado, the guides who would accompany our 14-member group into Zimbabwe for a visit to Victoria Falls . When we arrived at the border, Samantha collected the paperwork we had just completed and headed into a small stucco building. Within minutes she returned and said, “Mary Ellen Collins?” I raised my hand. “You wrote down that your profession is freelance writer, and because our country is very political, the man would like to see you.” The man? I followed her off the bus and when we approached the smirking bureaucrat he said, “You are a journalist. You write for a newspaper.” My heart sped up. “No, I write personal essays and brochures and magazine articles.” I stumbled over an explanation of…

Dea Poirier 1 Next Girl to Die (Suspense/mystery, May, Thomas & Mercer) “Solving the case will avenge her sister—unless the killer finds her first.” WRITES FROM: Lakeland, Fla. PRE-GIRL: I was working on historical supernatural young adult projects. My agent recommended that I try my hand at romantic suspense and those led me to write this project. TIME FRAME: This book originally sold to a different publisher based on the synopsis/first chapter. It took me four weeks to write the draft of Next Girl to Die after that. I typically write drafts quickly, then a couple months editing. ENTER THE AGENT: I found my agent querying. Laura Bradford asked for a revise and resubmit that resonated with me. I sent the manuscript back after editing it, and the rest…

When I began writing memoir, I was surprised to find how much these true stories needed to read like novels or short stories told in the first person. Just like fiction, there need to be scenes with action and dialogue. Settings have to be vividly rendered with concrete, physical details. There also has to be a clear storyline with an inciting action, rising conflict and a satisfying conclusion, complete with some meaningful change occurring within the protagonist. What there cannot be, however, are villains. There are no villains in memoir. To be clear, memoirs, like life, are often filled with characters doing villainous things. There are cheating spouses, alcoholic parents, schoolyard bullies and predatory priests. I worked with a client whose father murdered her mother, and another who escaped the…

“Every editor should have a pimp for a brother, so he could have someone in the family to look up to.” That’s a quote attributed to Gene Fowler—early 1900s journalist, author and screenwriter—and it pretty accurately, I think, sums up the long-contentious relationship between writers and editors. For freelancers, editors are fickle gatekeepers. They’re the ones who can accept your article and usher it through to publication, or seemingly dismiss your brilliant pitch with the flick of a form email. Even if your idea is accepted, the turbulence doesn’t end there. Rounds of revision may be in store, or a heavy-handed editor might take on the rewrite themselves, sapping your voice from the piece entirely. Ask any well-published writer and they’re sure to have an anecdote about a hellion editor…

How are you able to write every day? I don’t believe in writing this many words per day. Writing can be a paragraph, working that paragraph, whatever that story needs in that moment in whatever time that you have. Working those chunks is helpful, and it creates an urgency in that time. If I give myself those constraints of time, I really focus. I use that time well, or as well as I can. What makes for a good flash fiction piece? What makes a good flash fiction piece is taking a character or situation and very efficiently developing that character’s situation to a strong emotional point. I don’t think so much about what happens, but about how characters develop and the chance for emotional surprise. When did you know…

Out of more than 300 entries, Writer’s Digest editors and readers selected this winner, submitted by Heidi Hansen of Sequim, Wash. At 10, after seeing Close Encounters of the Third Kind, my cousin Billy announced that he was part alien. He didn’t claim to have been abducted, but a descendant. Instead of shaking hands, he extended his left index finger to meet yours a la E.T. We cousins rolled our eyes at him behind his back. He’s an adult now but still starts every conversation at our family gatherings with news of UFOs coming to claim him. This Thanksgiving, we drew Secret Santa names among the cousins. I got Billy’s name. I decided to end his ranting about being an alien by giving him a DNA test kit. I watched…

Early drafts are an exercise in getting to know your character and her story—you are, in essence, telling the story to yourself first so that you can figure out what to add or omit when fine-tuning the story for readers. I encourage you to pen more pages starring your protagonist than you will ever use, test-driving your protagonist in different scenarios with different characters to discover how he behaves in a variety of situations. From these pages, you can cull organic representations of your characters and reveal them fully through demonstrated words and actions. The challenge to good character development is in seeing your characters as fully realized human beings, not just figments of your imagination. The best characters are so vivid that readers refuse to accept they don’t exist…

JULY/AUGUST 2019 • Keep in mind that there may be more than one workshop in each of the listings. • 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. CALIFORNIA ANNUAL GREATER LOS ANGELES WRITERS CONFERENCE, produced by West Coast Writers Conferences. August 16–18, 2019 at the DoubleTree Westside Culver City, Los Angeles. Writers of all genres and disciplines benefit from this popular educational and inspirational three-day…