Innehållsförteckning för May/June 2022 från Writer's Digest

PENG SHEPHERD was born and raised in Phoenix, Ariz., where she rode horses and trained in classical ballet, and has lived in Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, London, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York. Her first novel, The Book of M, won the 2019 Neukom Institute for Literary Arts Award for Debut Speculative Fiction and was chosen as a best book of the year by Amazon, Elle, Refinery29, and The Verge, as well as a best book of the summer by the “Today” show and NPR’s “On Point.” A graduate of the NYU MFA program, Peng is the recipient of a 2020 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Elizabeth George Foundation’s emerging writers 2016 grant. DON VAUGHAN has written professionally for 45 years, 31 of…

The world of writing prompts is littered with basic story starters that don’t do anything more than get a writer writing. While there is nothing wrong with that, there comes a point where writers want more out of their prompts. By using deliberate practice to focus your writing, these advanced writing prompts will not only test your imagination, but they will stretch your writing muscles and push you to learn. But what exactly is deliberate practice for writers? Deliberate practice is a term coined by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson to describe how expert performers practice by breaking down specific skills in deliberate, systematic, and bite-sized chunks. Ericsson argued by doing this, people could quickly develop their skills. For writers, deliberate practice can look like a lot of things. Here, it…

Many authors who selfpublish focus more on publishing their book than they do promoting it. While the reasons vary, some have no clue where to start. Others don’t want to waste hundreds to thousands of dollars on marketing that may not result in any sales. But probably most of us would just prefer to sit back, write, and hope the book sells itself. All those reasons make sense. Yet unless you hit the publishing lottery, your book won’t sell itself because you’re competing against millions of others. Th at’s why—assuming you want to sell copies to more than just family and friends—you must build a strategic marketing plan for your story. “The truth is that most selfpublishers are not successful,” writes Brad Pauquette, author of The Self-Publishing Handbook. “Th at’s…

Stephanie Delman grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, studied writing seminars at Johns Hopkins University, and moved to New York after college. “I spent nearly 10 years at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates,” she says. “In the fall of 2021, I co-founded Trellis Literary Management with Michelle Brower and Allison Hunter.” “I look to be drawn in by the prose and held captive by the story,” Delman says. She’s particularly interested in the concept of hauntology. “I first heard about it from my brilliant client Temim Fruchter,” she says. “But I think it puts words to the themes that have always fascinated me: the ghosts we carry, how we’re haunted and kept company by our cultural past, our ancestry, our regrets. I believe that fiction—and some nonfiction—can transcend that…

WRITER’S DIGEST: WritersDigest.com The online hub for everything Writer’s Digest, including the new “Writer’s Digest Presents” monthly podcast! Join one of the writing challenges, get writing and publication advice from bestselling authors, and learn how you can enter any of our six writing competitions. You can also sign up for our newsletters to get highlights and inspiration each week. WRITER’S DIGEST UNIVERSITY: WritersOnlineWorkshops.com ake intensive writing classes taught by world-class instructors at Writer’s Digest University. Whether you want to improve your copy editing skills, write the first draft of your novel or memoir, or learn tips for querying agents, the WDU collection of courses, boot camps, and virtual conferences has what you’re looking for. WRITER’S DIGEST TUTORIALS: Tutorials.WritersDigest.com If you prefer your online education to be on-demand to fit your…

Every year, there is some new form of technology introduced into the “writersphere,” and each one seems as though it has the ability to help you write in a way that you have never written before (or would ever have thought to write). Many of them, while well intentioned, usually require the writer to explore a learning curve in an effort to make use of the technology in a productive and meaningful way. For those of us who can remember using typewriters, there was indeed a learning curve there, just as it was for word processors, computers, and wide array of more portable writing devices. Even now, there are the numerous soft ware programs that allow us to organize, format, and export our writing into other forms, and each one…

When Steve Physioc was told he was our 9th Annual WD Self-Published E-book Awards Grand Prize winner, the reaction was one of utter disbelief. “I am shocked,” he says with a laugh, his flabbergast for considering himself something of a publishing newcomer. “I’m so new to this industry. I can’t thank WD enough. I’m totally honored and surprised.” But with a lifelong love of reading, three books under his belt, and a years-long friendship with Outlander’s Diana Gabaldon, the sports broadcaster is more in his element than he’s willing to admit. Physioc grew up with a teacher and librarian for a mother, someone who validated his love of books. “I had a fantastic mom,” he says. “Even though my grades were bad, she said, ‘I know you’ll do fine because…

Every so often, someone on Twitter starts a fight (as one does) about the difference between romances and romantic comedies. This might seem like a silly argument, but the distinction is important. Readers expecting a rollicking romantic comedy may find themselves disappointed by a perfectly lovely romance, but it can be difficult as a writer to know if your romance is funny enough to be pitched as a romantic comedy. So, what, exactly, is the difference? One of the great pleasures of my MFA program has been the opportunity to learn how to read purposefully with the goal of answering questions like this one. In pulling apart dozens of books, I’ve come to believe that the trick to writing a romantic comedy lies in finding the space between the “rom”…

Often, the writing publications I share in this column are focused on people doing very people-like things like business, travel, and hobbies. While there’s nothing wrong with that (I personally like people very much), let’s focus on animals this time around. After all, writers of all genres have found a great sense of inspiration and companionship with animals over the years. We need our dogs, cats, horses, birds, fish, gerbils, hermit crabs, snakes, and turtles. So much so that there are whole magazines dedicated to animals that need and pay for animal-related writing. Here are a few to get you started. The Chronicle of the Horse (ChronOfHorse.com) The Chronicle of the Horse covers national and international horse competitions, focusing on dressage, hunters and jumpers, foxhunting, and steeplechasing. The magazine published…

Sometimes securing a book deal feels like mixing a potion. If you have all the right ingredients, in the right amounts, and a touch of magic, it all comes together. According to these debut kidlit authors, patience, persistence, revision, and writing what you love are all good measures for brewing something good. 1. ALEXANDRIA ROGERS—The Witch, the Sword, and the Cursed Knights (MG Fantasy, Little, Brown) “I first thought of this book on Christmas day, 2010. The first version of it flumped, so I wrote new books, worked on my craft, and didn’t rewrite it until 2019. I signed with a dream imprint and an editor who truly understood the heart of the story—it was worth the wait!” 2. VANESSA L. TORRES—The Turning Pointe (YA Historical, Knopf/BFYR) “My critique partner…

Ready to meet and greet at a conference? Your personal branding strategy should include a platform to direct network connections back to—before, during, and after an event. How do you want to be perceived? Your personal brand should be a reflection of you and intrinsically tied to the brand ID you’re creating. 1. The pandemic cleared the way for video to be front and center for engagement. Whether you’re on Zoom, Teams, or Facebook Live, you’re often inviting colleagues and clients into your home. To make the best impression, always be aware of lighting, backdrop, and things like background noise and echoes.2. Make sure your social media handles are as consistent as possible so you’re easy to find and follow. These channels should ultimately drive traffic back to your website…

CONFERENCE GUIDE MAY/JUNE 2022 • 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 at the new Hilton Los Angeles, Westside Culver City. August 5–7, 2022. Writers of all genres and disciplines benefit from this popular educational and inspirational three-day event on…

POETIC FORM: SÉADNA The séadna is an Irish quatrain (or four-line stanza) form that packs a lot of rules in a concise area. The séadna can be tricky to write, but it has an intrinsically pleasing sound when it follows all the rules. Here are the guidelines: • Quatrains (or four-line stanzas)• Eight syllables in lines one and three; seven syllables in lines two and four• Lines one and three end with a two-syllable word; lines two and four end with a monosyllabic word• Lines two and four rhyme• The final word of the first line alliterates with the first stressed word of the second line• The final word of the third line rhymes with the stressed word preceding the final word of the stanza As I mentioned, it’s a…

Listen. We all acknowledge the requisite tools a writer needs: pens/pencils, a computer, notebooks, journals, coffee, tea, self-loathing. But there’s something else you desperately need: a good microphone. You might not produce your own podcast. Nor should you feel you have to because they’re all the rage. But, odds are, as a writer looking to sell books and promote how you go about the work, you will no doubt be a guest on several podcasts, and nothing takes a listener out of the experience than bad audio. Brad Listi, host of “Otherppl,” says as much: “It’s probably to your advantage to have a microphone so that you can present yourself more professionally. A mic will deliver a more radio-quality experience and will impact how many people stay with the conversation…

Jenny Lacika Again, Essie? (Picture book fiction, May, Charlesbridge Publishing) “Rafael tries to save his toys from his baby sister, Essie, by building a wall from shoeboxes, toilet paper rolls, and other household objects in this playful exploration of spatial sense and geometry, illustrated by Teresa Martínez.” WRITES FROM: Santa Fe, N.M. PRE-ESSIE: Growing up, I never thought I would be a writer because I gravitated more toward STEM. Fatigue and cognitive changes that came with Multiple Sclerosis, paired with motherhood, pushed me to try something new. … When I saw a call for submissions for mathbased stories with cultural elements for preschoolers, the concept really appealed to me. TIME FRAME: I saw the call for submissions in early 2018, and I got to work on several story ideas. None…

Roman empresses. Renaissance mistresses. Spies in World War I. Codebreakers, bomber pilots, and snipers of World War II. Kate Quinn has an affinity for bringing to life the stories of women who confound expectations and change the outcomes of some of the most pivotal moments in world history. As she writes the novels of these influential, but often forgotten women, she’s intentional in making sure she’s “never saying, here’s one extraordinary woman. I want to say here’s one extraordinary woman, but look, there’s also other extraordinary women around her, even if they are not the focus of this novel as protagonists. … I want to show a whole variety of the female experience and how many women succeed and not just one.” Quinn is the author of bestsellers such as…

Dear FYSA, My novel published this spring and there was a sentence used twice in one of the chapters and no one caught it—not my editor, my copy editor, or myself. This is embarrassing and frustrating whenever a reader emails me about this. Signed, Is there anything that can be done? Hello, Anything! I hear ya. I wish humans were infallible, but then how would we have penicillin or X-rays or Splenda? Mistakes happen. I understand how you can feel frustrated and embarrassed, but also? Can I be honest? I kinda dig it when a reader is not only reading close enough to catch a mistake, but takes a second to write an email and say, “Hey, did you folks see this?” That kind of engagement feels like we’re doing…

Just how “into” your narrator’s head and heart do you want your readers to be? Do you want them to feel emotionally embedded with your narrator(s)? Or observe your characters’ experiences from afar? What emotional distance (close, far, or a mix) should you strike to achieve the best point of view for your story, novel, or memoir? The answer, of course, depends on the type of story you’re telling as well as the experience you want your readers to have. Luckily, you don’t need to know the answer before you begin writing—though it’s fine if you do. Somewhere in the process of drafting and revising, you’ll need to figure out the emotional distance that’s right for your story’s point of view (POV)—and your readers. DEEP POV—OR NOT? A common pearl…

101 BEST WEBSITES CROSSWORD Solve the crossword using the clues below, which all refer to websites on the 101 Best Websites for Writers list. DOWN 1. Toothy blog about querying agents 2. Blog that packs a punch 4. A site to sketch a Compass Rose for your characters 9. A global marketplace where authors can connect with vetted industry professionals ACROSS 3. A deadly blog that will keep you on the edge of your seat 5. Podcast by literary agents in the gopher state 6. Includes a blog famous for warning writers 7. Association with chapters in the U.S. and Asia 8. A site that has celebrated more than 4,500 poets 10. Journal that delivers nonfiction in a flash ANSWER KEY: 1. QueryShark 2. FightWrite 3. KillZone 4. Inkarnate 5.…

At its core, writing is something that requires very little technology to do: grab a pen or pencil and a sheet of paper and you’re good to go. As recently as 20 years ago, finding someone to publish your book required just as little technology because you could put a few stamps on an envelope to mail your manuscript (and don’t forget to include that SASE for returns!). But these days, the days of computers, email, and social media, writers who aim to publish their work with a publisher or on their own must find a way to embrace at least some level of technological acumen to find success, even if they prefer drafting by hand. In this issue, we aim to provide advice for writers of both camps, because…

“A poor pitch can be overlong and not focused,” she observes. “It may also radiate a lack of confidence and inadequate writing skills. You should be able to state what you want to do—especially if it involves interviewing someone—and be able to deliver. There’s an art to making four or five salient points, engaging in word play, referencing other films, filmmakers, movements, and ideas, and wrapping this all up in a cogent 300 – to 1,000–word piece. The pitch has to get across the feel of that piece even before it’s written. Print is a very demanding task master, especially among specialty magazines.” Naglin assigns only a small percentage of ideas submitted from outside her established cadre of writers, though many members of that circle broke in over the transom…

If you drive a few hours north from Manhattan, eventually you’ll come to Delaware County, N.Y., a mostly rural area dotted with a few towns. Some of these towns are famous for antiques, or fishing, or bakeries—and one is famous because it’s imaginary. You can only find it using a map. My second novel, The Cartographers, follows Nell Young, who discovers after the death of her scholar father that a seemingly worthless map in his belongings contains an incredible, dangerous riddle. It’s a story about mapmaking and family secrets that was inspired by an amazing real-life cartography mystery. In the early 1900s, mapmaking was grueling, time-consuming work. Without satellites and GPS, every mile had to be measured manually, then drafted by hand. Two New York mapmakers, Otto G. Lindberg and…

Now in its 24th year, the Annual 101 Best Websites for Writers list has been singling out some of the best resources for aspiring and established writers across all genres. This list offers a mix of WD favorites, readernominated sites, and some personal preferences from the editors. They all focus on one goal: Helping you improve your craft and get your work into reader’s hands. You’ll see a few entries that require membership or a fee to use—they made it onto this list because the quality of their services makes that cost worthwhile. However, we try to keep budget in mind, so you’ll see quite a few websites that either have free-to-use features alongside their paid-for services or they offer their work without any fee attached. We want you to…

There’s a running joke among Doctor Who fans concerning “reverse the polarity of the neutron flow,” a seemingly nonsensical phrase designed to sound like science without actually meaning anything.1 This is one of many more or less meaningless bits of technobabble the Doctor utilizes when they need a scienceadjacent way of solving problems, and it works just fine because there is actually precious little science in Doctor Who’s fiction. And that’s OK! Because science fiction is a spectrum, not a box. Every sci-fistory falls somewhere on the hardsoft scale. Some stories depend on a firm understanding of actual science, while others sail along on the fumes of Clarke’s Th ird Law (“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”).2 But this range is why many writers struggle with their sci-fiworld-building—because…

Several of my Writer’s Digest University and NYU students have published heartwarming stories with Allison Klein, Editor of Inspired Life at The Washington Post. One recent student’s story published around the holidays was titled, “I helped a stranger at the end of his life. It taught me to live my own.” Inspired Life focuses on stories close to the news that offer a humane or inspired moment. “I care about people who might be overlooked, forgotten, or treated unfairly,” says Allison. “For example, if there is a mass shooting or a horrible event that makes you feel terrible about our culture, we try to show people that all isn’t lost. We have heroes, too.” My Estelle’s Edge is if you can tell a story about average people who do something…

Have you ever consciously thought about time when you’re writing? I don’t necessarily mean the timeline of your plot, but the way time influences your plot. For example, a story set in 1950s America would have a very different setting than one in the year 2500. As you’re fleshing out the details of your world, time is something that you should carefully consider. It’s going to change the way you see technology, politics, and even things like resources. When it comes to time, I’ll say it up front: Clarity will always be better than originality. Th at’s how I feel both as a world-builder and a reader. It’s one thing to be on a planet where there are 48 hours of sunlight and 18 days in a month; it’s a…

1 Write to Ignite Hosted by the Wayland Baptist University (WBU) School of Languages & Literature, this new conference is in its sophomore season and is slated to become an annual event. WHEN: June 4, 2022. WHERE: Virtual via Zoom. PRICE: $25. WHAT MAKES THIS CONFERENCE UNIQUE: “Join us for a day-long event perfect for beginning writers and students to connect with other writers and learn from creative professionals with years of writing experience,” says Dean of Languages & Literature Dr. Kimberlee Mendoza. Registration includes the keynote address plus training in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and publishing. HOW MANY ATTEND: 50+. FACULTY: The keynote presentation will be delivered by award-winning author Kali White VanBaale, and workshop leaders feature WBU faculty Dr. Laura Brandenburg, Chloe Brooke, Dr. Erin Heath, Dr. Deborah Kuhlmann,…