Tips From Writing Legend Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The following is an online-exclusive extended Q&A portion of the interview—and its accompanying timeline—that appears in the January issue of Writer’s Digest. What’s day-to-day life like these days? Are you still involved at City Lights? I’ve more or less...

4 Techniques to Fire Up Your Fiction

Many fiction manuscripts submitted to my literary agency feel lackluster. Much genre fiction feels tired. Many mainstream and literary novels also strike me as stale. Even when well written, too often manuscripts fail to engage and excite me. What is missing when a...

Use Method Writing to Learn About Your Characters

Famous actors such as Robert De Niro and Al Pacino prepare for their roles through a process called method acting, originally taught by the highly respected acting teacher Lee Strasberg. Method acting is a process that requires actors to go inside themselves to recall...

Creating Characters: 4 Simple Exercises

Tips and techniques for creating characters with emotion and viewpoint in this excerpt from “Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint” by Nancy Kress. 1. WRITE MINI BIOS FOR YOUR DREAM CAST Make a list of characters you either might want to...