Innehållsförteckning för January/February 2020 från Writer's Digest

Writer’s Digest posed the question to readers on our blog, “What are your 2020 writing goals?” Our readers responded: “My goal for 2020 is to find the agent or publisher willing to give me a shot. And I believe my work is really close to being ready now.” —Joe L. Law “My writing goal for 2020 is to allow myself to make mistakes; it’s how one grows. I am my harshest critic. I have to let my love of writing take over and not be afraid of failing.” —Mikita5510 “This year, I’d love to complete my current novel, find a publishing home for the one I finished last year, and get published in one or two literary journals. (All while pursuing my doctorate degree.) I’d also like to nap more.”…

So you wrote your article or essay and feel ready to click send. Not so fast. Once you have written a piece, it’s important to edit yourself and revise. As an editor, writing coach, and adjunct writing professor at New York University, I teach my students these tips on how to get their work ready to send out the door. 1. HAVE YOU ELIMINATED THROAT CLEARING SO YOU HAVE A STRONG INTRO? A powerful opening brings your reader right into the action through dialogue, surprising statements, or questions posed to the reader. If any words don’t move the story forward, scrap them. For example, one student wrote in a fiction piece, “I woke up, had coffee and then looked out the window. It was a beautiful day, the sun was…

Six years ago, I had no hope of publishing a novel. I had given up entirely. My days in the MFA program at the City College of New York (CCNY) were long behind me, the thesis I had written stuffed into a desk drawer, my one publication a distant memory. Not that I admitted it—having spent three years and $25,000 on my MFA, I wasn’t about to tell anyone I’d given up—I’d say I had a mess of pages, which was true, but I had begun looking for reasons not to write. My full-time job as an academic advisor came with a tuition exemption, so I signed up for courses in Spanish, French, Latin, and math. If my writing ever came up in conversation, I said I was merely too…

In the June 2002 WD interview, Isabel Allende shared the method she uses for starting a new novel with former WD editor Kelly Nickell. It’s an interesting approach in both its pragmatism of keeping to a schedule and its superstition. Allende’s new novel, A Long Petal of the Sea, is out this January. Chilean author Isabel Allende has spent much of her life living on memories—memories of her homeland and of loved ones lost. As a relative of Chilean President Salvador Allende, she was forced into exile when he was overthrown during a 1973 coup. Away from her country and much of her family, Allende began writing to remember her life, and the lives of those she loved. Ten books later, including such bestsellers as Daughter of Fortune (a 2000…

John Talbot graduated from DePauw University with a Bachelor’s degree in English composition. After college he lived in Japan before settling in New York to pursue book publishing. He first joined Simon & Schuster as an editorial assistant, then worked as an assistant and associate editor at Pocket Books. He moved on to the role of acquisitions editor at Putnam Berkley (now Penguin Random House). There he became a senior editor and worked with Tom Clancy, W.E.B. Griffin, Jack Higgins, and Tom Perrotta. He founded his eponymous literary agency in 1998, joining forces with Gail Fortune in 2005 to form The Talbot Fortune Agency. Who is John in a nutshell? “Husband, father, traveler,” he says. “Appreciator of friendships, sports, music, food, and books. Avid reader, sales person, advocate, friend, and…

The sooner you introduce the narrative question, the better. These opening passages, each of which comes from the beginning of the book, demonstrate how the narrative question can be revealed in just a few words. EXCERPT Prologue Paris They will be looking for me by now. The Orphan’s Tale. Pam Jenoff. Historical romance. 2017. Ruby They shoot the white girl first. Paradise. Toni Morrison. Literary fiction. 1997. One We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge. Darker Than Amber. John D. MacDonald. Crime fiction. 1966. COMMENTS The narrative question is evident in the first sentence—who is looking for the narrator and why, and will they find her? (eight words) This opening achieves two key goals: It creates a mood…

If we lived in a much more interesting universe where everyone had House Words like in Game of Thrones,1 mine would very likely be “Man plans, God laughs.” A perfect example of this is the plan I came up with a few years ago to launch my freelance writing career. At the time, I was working a day job. I was already sitting in a room, alone, tapping a keyboard all day long while various cats sat on me2 —I was already living the freelance life, just without the checks. So I devised a careful plan: I would take on a few small jobs on the side to get my sea legs, then slowly expand at a comfortable pace until I was matching my day job income with freelance earnings.3…

It’s always a tricky proposition to write about common mistakes in any industry. Especially in a creative field such as writing and publishing, it bears stating the obvious: Every writer is different. A mistake for one is not a mistake for all. And mistakes can’t be entirely avoided—in fact, they’re needed if we’re to grow and improve as writers. Still, as someone who has been involved in the writing community for 20 years, I see the same mistakes over and over again. Knowing what they are is akin to having a roadmap. The journey is long enough as it is, so why not avoid a wrong turn if you can help it? Here are five areas where writers often take those wrong turns. 1. RUSHING TO GET PUBLISHED Nearly all…

Dear FYSA, My agent just sold my novel in a two-book deal—yay! Here’s the thing: This has always been a dream of mine, and my advance is very healthy, but, I love my other career—my “day job” as it were. But I am worried that will make it look like I am not serious about this. Tell me the truth—will I be taken seriously as an author by my agent and publisher if I keep my day job? Sincerely, Working 9 to 5 to 9 Dear Niner, Welcome to living the dream! And I don’t mean your publishing contract, (although congrats!) I mean the slim percentage of folks who adore what they do for work. Living in that Venn diagram collision of vocation meeting passion meeting occupation is not something…

Welcome to Notes From the Margins, WD’s new column about the traditional book publishing business. In this column, we’ll consider the ins and outs of how books are made and what book editors really do all day. We’ll cover topics such as comp titles, things your editor can and cannot fix, how long it takes to make a book once it’s been acquired, and much more. There’s plenty I’ll share based on my experiences with first-time authors, but of course, in true WD form, I want to hear from you. What do you want to know about working with an editor or publishing a book with a traditional publisher? Send your questions my way using the wdsubmissions@aimmedia.com email and use “Notes From the Margins” in the subject line. Since this…

1 Coastal Magic Convention Gain useful insight from dozens of popular authors at this hybrid conference in sunny Daytona Beach. WHEN: February 20–23, 2020. WHERE: Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort, Daytona Beach, Fla. PRICE: $100. WHAT MAKES THE CONFERENCE UNIQUE: It’s a blend of literary fanfare and instructional conference, with opportunities to meet, mingle, and learn from scores of well-published authors. “In 2019 we started partnering with the Book Lovers Con (formerly RT Booklovers Convention) to offer an abbreviated version of their Writer Boot Camp,” Conference Director Jennifer Morris says. “This year we’ll be offering a five-hour Writer’s Garage: Tune Up program, presented by Tere Michaels and Damon Suede, that includes two workshops and a Q&A panel. This requires a separate $40 registration.” See website for details. HOW MANY ATTEND:…

CALIFORNIA 2020 SAN FRANCISCO WRITERS CONFERENCE, February 13–16 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco. This "Celebration of Craft, Commerce and Community" is where writers come to meet major names in publishing. The presenters list includes Walter Mosley, Jonathan Maberry, and Brooke Warner. Bestselling authors, literary agents, editors and publishers attend the SFWC and take personal interest in projects discovered there. Writer’s Digest sponsors the "Speed Dating with Agents" session. SFWC Open Enrollment Classes will also be available. Free and open-to-the-public sessions will be announced in the SFWC Newsletter and posted on the SFWC website. All levels and genres; 70+ sessions; free editorial/book marketing consultation. Main conference is $895 (substantial early discounts available). Speed Dating with Agents ($75) and one-on-one conversations with agents ($100) are available for attendees only. Contact: Barbara…

MOBY LIBS Let’s begin a story by filling in the blanks of the first paragraph of one of the most famous books of all time: Moby Dick by Herman Melville. First, create a list of words following the suggestions below without taking a peek at the fill-in-the-blank section. When you are finished, plug in your word choices and see how the story transforms. 1. A name 2. Noun 3. Noun 4. A place 5. Verb 6. Adjective 7. Adjective 8. Body part 9. Adjective 10. Time of year 11. A verb ending in –ing 12. A consumer product 13. A formal occasion 14. Plural noun 15. A verb ending in –ing 16. Noun 17. Plural form of something you wear 18. A place 19. Noun 20. Noun 21. Verb 22.…

I am thrilled to share with you our supersized January/February 2020 issue. If you read my letter in our last issue, you know that 2019 was a challenging year for Writer’s Digest. It feels good to ring in a new year, and more than that, a new century for WD. 2020 is finally here and the celebration of our 100th anniversary is kicked off, officially! We chose the theme of this issue—New Beginnings—with intention. A new year is a chance to start over, set new goals, and open a fresh page. In this issue you will find columns on how to get started writing when it seems you have no inspiration, start a freelance writing career, write killer openings, and pick up a piece of writing you’ve abandoned and begin…

Selling books is a challenge. Seasoned authors know this and new authors quickly learn it. If a piece is missing from the marketing puzzle, successful sales can be difficult to achieve. What many writers overlook is that people buy from people, not from book covers, titles, or descriptions. So it is important to be able to articulate who you are and express your personal brand. Some authors create an image to hide behind. Others never stop to consider how readers see them. After all, most authors aren’t celebrities. Their focus is writing. Authors need to devise a personal brand to accompany their publishing and book brand. This builds a closer rapport with readers. Many thriving businesspeople know the importance of an effective marketing strategy, but that is only the first…

ROBERT LEE BREWER, SENIOR EDITOR The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz BY ERIK LARSON BIOGRAPHY, CROWN, FEBRUARY “Larson’s name alone is enough to get me interested in a book, after devouring his previous titles like Isaac’s Storm and The Devil in the White City. He has a way with navigating through history that is compelling and page-turning, and I can’t wait to see how he unfolds this story of weathering the Blitz.” The Sun Down Motel BY SIMONE ST. JAMES SUSPENSE, BERKLEY, FEBRUARY “Everyone’s familiar with a shady-looking motel. I’m already creeped out about this novel that looks at the same mysterious Sun Down Motel from two timelines (1982 and 2017), knowing that the person from the 1982 timeline went missing.…

POETIC FORM: TREOCHAIR The treochair is an Irish form. While most Irish forms are quatrain (or four-line stanza) forms, the treochair is composed of tercets (or three-line stanzas). Here are the basic rules: • Tercet (three-line) poems or stanzas • The first line has three syllables and lines two and three have seven syllables • Lines one and three rhyme with each other • A lot of alliteration Here is an example by a Poetic Asides reader: Weekend at the Beach by Lelawattee Manoo-Rahming Filigrees, lacy curls of quiet coves, frill the shallow blue-green sea. Parallax: Silver bird and sailboat white—a scene that cannot be faxed. Alliteration is a nice sonic device, and the treochair invites it (in this stanza with the words “Silver,” “sailboat,” and “scene”). Paper nests, open…

Kiley Reid Such a Fun Age (Literary fiction, December, Putnam) “Emira babysits three-year-old Briar in a high-end grocery store, until a security guard, upon seeing a black woman with a white child, accuses her of kidnapping. Briar’s mom sets out to right the night’s wrongs, but unfortunate histories are brought to light when the two women realize they have something, or someone, in common.” WRITES FROM: Philadelphia. PRE- FUN AGE: I had written other novels before, but nothing I was truly proud of. Before this novel, I had been writing and publishing short stories in journals, which was a nice way to work with different editors but also get used to rejection letters. TIME FRAME: I sat on the idea for a year and took two-and-a-half years to complete a…

Writing accurately and truthfully about war is never easy. Writing about conflicts that occurred decades and even centuries earlier is even more difficult. WD reached out to Mark Bowden, C.J. Chivers, and Nathaniel Philbrick to discuss their most recent war-themed books and the challenges they encountered researching and writing them. What was the inspiration for your most recent work? Tell us briefly how the project came about. MARK BOWDEN (HU 1968, ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS): Several years ago, my editor and publisher, Morgan Entrekin, suggested a book about the Battle of Huế during the 1968 Tet Offensive. I initially declined, but the more I looked into it, the more I realized it was an amazing story that had not been told in the way I would like to tell it. I…

Dani Shapiro is that rare kind of writer whose novels and memoirs are doors that lead into the deepest rooms of readers’ own lives. Her most recent work is the instant New York Times bestselling memoir, Inheritance, which has garnered such high acclaim from both critics and readers, it’s becoming increasingly rare to meet anyone in the book world who hasn’t read it. I first met Dani at The Lotos Club in New York City for tea and to chat about life and writing. Inheritance has challenged Shapiro in myriad ways, not only as a memoirist but also as a person. In 2016, after submitting her DNA to a genealogy website, Shapiro learned that the late father she loved so much was not her biological father. This is where Inheritance…

Out of nearly 200 entries, Writer’s Digest editors and readers selected this story by Lori Straub of Cincinnati. The two events were fused forever after in Florida’s seductive heat, sewn together like the felt scales racing up her back. She didn’t have to wear the costume until school on Monday, but for the rest of her life it would be impossible to remember that Saturday night without feeling the wind rifling up against the green fabric, her skin hot and tingling underneath in the welcome darkness of the alligator’s body. All day Sunday there was an unnatural flush to her face, and she was almost relieved when the weekend was over to tuck herself inside the scratchy folds of her brother’s old Halloween costume. Grass clippings settled in the front…

Welcome to Publishing Insights! This issue of WD is about new beginnings, which is a perfect time to introduce this new column. In it, I plan to highlight markets for writers to submit their work and share insights about the publishing and media business that I’ve now worked in for 20 years. Since it’s the beginning of the year, a time that many people use to set goals and resolutions, let’s focus on self-improvement magazines, which are excellent for reading—and freelance writing. Here are five magazines that cover nutritional health, psychological health, personal fitness, and more. EATINGWELL ( EatingWell.com ) EatingWell focuses on good-tasting and healthy food. Published 10 times per year, EatingWell dives into cooking and nutrition science, origins of food, social issues related to…

Writing conferences attract a wide array of attendees, each with a unique personality and goals. Here are the most common types of people you’re likely to encounter: • THE EXTROVERT. Gregarious, fun-loving, and eager to please, The Extrovert is happy to share their writing experiences—and advice—with anyone who will listen. Expect them to dominate every conversation. • THE INTROVERT. Shy and low-key, The Introvert is almost always the quietest person at the table. Approach gently and you’ll find them to be fun and friendly. • THE KNOW-IT-ALL. This person has never sold a piece of writing in their life, yet believes they know everything there is about writing and publishing. Take their (usually unsolicited) advice with a very large grain of salt. • THE NAME-DROPPER. Alleges to know every prominent…

• 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.…

LARRY BROOKS is the award-winning USA Today bestselling author of six novels and four writing craft books, including the bestselling Story Engineering and the new book Great Stories Don’t Write Themselves: Criteria-Driven Strategies for More Effective Fiction (Writer’s Digest Books). He is the creator of a widely respected craft-building website for fiction writers and frequently teaches at workshops and conferences nationally and internationally. He lives in Chandler, Ariz. with his wife, Laura, who is an artist. He can be reached through StoryFix.com Through speeches, workshops, and executive coaching, DIMA GHAWI shares her leadership story to motivate others to reimagine their potential. She draws from two decades’ experience leading teams and developing future leaders. She has worked across the U.S., Europe, Asia, Middle East, and Africa for several Fortune 100 companies.…

We are in an exciting age of publishing, when authors can finally take control of their stories and act as the writer, publisher, and even marketer of their books. As a new author, I put my heart and soul into my writing; however, through my journey of launching my memoir Breaking Vases, I learned that finishing the manuscript is only half the work. The other half is promoting the book. When it comes to advertising, social media is one of the most powerful avenues available and provides us meaningful ways to engage with readers and generate anticipation for our work. Here are seven tips to create buzz for your book through social media: 1. MONTHLY UPDATES: Share monthly status updates with your followers to make them eager to get their…

Picture yourself getting ready to write. You are heading to your office or sitting at your favorite café with your laptop. Write a description of what you believe is about to happen, what is waiting for you. Be as honest as you can. Describe anything that is the least bit negative. No matter how much you love to write, if you are having trouble finding the time to write, then you probably believe there is something unpleasant waiting for you at the desk. Perhaps you see writing as a test of your intelligence or talent. Perhaps the ghosts of your parents or teachers are there with their doubts about writing as a career. Or maybe you believe you can’t sit down to write unless you know what you want to…

The time has come. Your manuscript has been languishing in a subfolder on your computer or gathering dust in the bottom drawer in your desk. Now, at last, life has afforded you the opportunity to get back to it and you’re ready to finally dive back in. But where do you start? At the point where you left off? Research? Reviewing your outline? Revising previous scenes? How do you get back into the spirit of the project? Whether it’s been a few days or a few months—or even years—since you worked on your manuscript, finding your momentum again and getting back into the story with the right pace, flow, and mood from where you left off at your last writing session can be a daunting challenge. Well, you’re not alone.…

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: Email your story to yourstory contest@aimmedia.com with the subject line “Your Story #103.” 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 WritersDigest. com/Your-Story-Competition. Join us online in March, when readers will vote to pick the winner. Follow @WritersDigest on Twitter for Your Story contest updates. 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: February 17, 2020…

When I speak with screenwriters, I always inquire about their career goals and the projects they’re working on. They enthusiastically express a desire to win a contest, sell a script, and get representation. But when I dig deeper into their story idea, the answer is rarely something high concept enough that Hollywood would be interested in buying. The stories are often about someone or something they know, not necessarily something that appeals to a larger audience. Writing gurus advise us to write what we know or what we’re passionate about, but we also need to write something that will sell. Screenwriting is a business. It takes millions of dollars to turn your words into a movie. No one wants to take a risk that large unless they believe they can…

Some of these insights are applicable when submitting to all magazines, but they’re especially relevant when submitting to self-improvement magazines. The great thing about both of these is that they can help your pitch stand out while also giving authority to your actual article. 1. SHARE RESEARCH DATA. While not necessary for every piece, data from recent reports and studies can help a pitch stand out from the competition. Plus, it adds authority to your article. 2. PROVIDE PROFESSIONAL QUOTES. In addition to data from studies, it’s good form to share quotes from professionals in whichever field your article covers. Healthy recipes might benefit from the words of a dietitian. An article on rehabbing a foot injury could use a quote from a podiatrist. If you have specific interview targets…