Write Better & Get Published
The following articles were culled from Writer’s Digest magazine to give you everything you need to write great stories.
11 Plot Pitfalls – And How to Rescue Your Story From Them
We’ve all been there: basking in the glow of a finished manuscript, only to read it over and realize something is wrong with the plot. Finding ourselves unable to identify the problem only makes matters worse. But take heart! Here are some common plot gaffes and...
How to Use Facts in Your Fiction
Novelists are naturally drawn to write about the subjects that interest them. Doctors pen medical thrillers. Lawyers turn their hands to courtroom dramas. Suburban soccer moms write about—well, suburban soccer moms. Some add to their experiences by arranging to ride...
3 Strategies for Solid Research
1. Develop a system for tracking your legwork. “Take a digital camera with you, photograph everything, dictate notes … never lose anything. Never lose anything,” says David Hewson, international bestselling author of the Nic Costa thrillers. “I keep a journal on every...
The Best and Worst of Writing Advice
When you gather a panel of writers to discuss the best and worst writing advice they’ve ever received, the conversation promises to be as colorful as it is informative — and this session did not disappoint. Matt Richtel, thriller writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning...
3 Techniques For Crafting a Better Villain
Today’s villain is no Snidely Whiplash standing there twirling his mustache and sneering, a neon arrow blinking “BAD GUY” over his head. In a good contemporary mystery—and in a lot of other genres besides—any character who looks that nefarious is going to turn out to...
9 Ways to Get Started and Stay Motivated
If you don’t already read Lisa Scottoline, I can almost guarantee that her fresh, funny and inspiring session here at ThrillerFest would have made you an instant fan. Case in point? She began by handing out copies of actual rejection letters she received during five...
How to Enhance Your Character’s POV
Once you’ve chosen a primary point-of-view character, you need to get to know her from the inside out. Keep in mind that readers want an experience, not just a view. They want to see the story through that character’s eyes. In order to create an authentic narrative...
How to Give Your Character the Perfect Name
"Once upon a time,” I begin my story, “there lived a king whose name was …” Here I stop. Henry? No, too common. John? Too short. George? Nah, I keep misspelling it while typing fast. Besides, why am I limiting this to English names? The story certainly doesn’t require...
Tips for Writing and for Life
I began the tip sheet you are about to read some 20 years ago, I guess. It was designed for undergraduates, but it soon became clear that our graduate students needed it no less and probably more. It’s by no means static. I put something good (as you’ll read later—see...
8 Basic Writing Blunders
1. Morning-routine cliché Clichés come in all shapes and sizes. There are just as many clichéd scenes as phrases and words. For instance, how may times have you seen a book begin with a main character being "rudely awakened" from a "sound sleep" by a "clanging" alarm...
Can Writers Get Creative With Facts?
When a congressman shouted “You lie” during a nationally televised speech by President Obama in September, the gasp was heard around the globe. That phrase is an insult. And because it is, the verb lie is commonly replaced by misspeak, exaggerate, inflate, mislead,...
Learn Secrets to Self-Publishing Success
by Zachary Petit In this extended interview, discover how Daryl Pinksen, the winner of our 17th Annual Self-Published Book Awards, created a great independent offering—and how you can, too. What should writers bear in mind when selecting self-publishers? You get what...
Tips for Injecting Dialogue With Suspense and Tension
Learn exactly what constitutes conflict, action and suspense, how they relate to other important ingredients in your story, and—perhaps most important—how to manipulate them. In Conflict, Action and Suspense, William Noble recommends using the "Well/Maybe" approach to...
Finish Your Novel in 4 Simple Steps
Novelists are the distance runners, the long-haul truckers, the transoceanic captains of the literary world. There is no sprinting through a novel, at least not for the novelist; there are simply too many characters, too many scenes, too many storylines and pages and...
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 retired...
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...
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