Writer's Digest

PAUL GOAT ALLEN has worked in the publishing industry for the last three decades in a variety of positions, including publicist, blogger, editor, and publisher. As a genre fiction book critic, he has written more than 10,000 reviews for companies lik

What does it mean to “write the next great story”? You might find the phrase stifling or intimidating, to think of writing a “great” story from the start. It is for me. When I sit down to work on the stories I want to write, I start thinking of the p

“Do you like kids?” Kevin asked her eagerly. “No,” she said. “I like dogs.” Specifically, she liked the big stupid ones, the ones that barked at the wind and got underfoot and bowled you over every time you walked in the door. Norah had three of this

The craft of writing has its own set of commandments. Like, say: Thou shalt show, not tell. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s prose. Thou shalt put thy butt in thy chair and write. And, well, this one, which always struck me as particularly odd amo

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Amy Jones SENIOR EDITOR Robert Lee Brewer MANAGING EDITOR Moriah Richard EDITORS Sadie Dean Michael Woodson EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Hannah Spicer ART DIRECTOR Wendy Dunning EDITORS-AT-LARGE Tyler Moss Jessica Strawser CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

You are a writer who most likely publishes your work or intends to one day. That makes you part of the writing and reading community. And as part of this community, it’s a good idea to support the people who self-publish books. Why? There are many re

Death Violations Trilogy, Sisters of the Wild Sage, Kill Three Birds (Cyberpunk noir, weird westerns, fantasy mysteries; Mocha Memoirs Press) WHY SELF-PUBLISH? I received my first publishing contract in 1998 from an online small press. Before my book

In nonfiction as well as fiction, readers want a great story that grabs their attention and propels them from sentence to sentence and page to page. But how do we as nonfiction writers find the topics for articles and essays that will provide a compe

You’ve finished the Next Great Story. Feels good, doesn’t it? But now you have to market it. I hate to tell you, but you may receive more than one rejection from publishing houses. I received rejections from 63 publishers before my book Deep Thoughts

Savannah Greenwell, owner and senior agent at Two Daisy Media, says her love of reading blossomed when she picked up her first Nicholas Sparks novel as a freshman in high school. Greenwell graduated from Northern Kentucky University with a degree in

When I was in college struggling to write any story longer than 20 pages, I turned to poetry to help me structure a novella. I wrote a 39-line sestina (a poetic form that follows a pattern of alternating the same six end words over six sestets and a

I was always going to be an editorial agent. I’ve known this for as long as I’ve known I’d work in publishing. It was relayed to me that this would entail extra labor: An editorial agent is a literary agent who provides extensive feedback (at no adde

Writers who focus on spiritual themes face the difficult challenge of describing the ethereal and abstract. If not properly grounded, spiritual writing can be confusing or even intimidating to the reader. Thankfully, as embodied beings, we access the

Many of the greatest stories (including poetic tales) written in the past 100 years or so were originally shared with the world in publications, whether print or digital. With that in mind, I’ve highlighted a few paying markets that publish stories b

Writers are often given the advice to figure out our characters’ motivations and goals. Sound advice, given that these elements drive the characters’ actions—that is, the plot. What does your protagonist want? The answer can be just about anything: •

While it may not be the first thing you think about when reading a book, jobs are integral to a character. Kiela is a former librarian who turns to making and selling jam to protect her secrets (The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst). Jack Torrance’s emp

Writing and publishing advice for picture books, middle-grade, and young adult storytelling. In sixth grade, I intentionally missed basketball sign-ups. I’d long decided it wasn’t for me, but fear of disappointing my sports-obsessed father prevented

Note: The setup for this edition of Frontlist/Backlist is a little different than usual. The parts that writers should look to for examples and inspiration in their own writing is similar in both books, so I’ll address them together after the synopse

Writer’s block has tormented scribes since our ancestors first etched cave messages that oddly resembled the assembly instructions of IKEA furniture. When muses couldn’t help with writer’s block, writers often turned to the holy trinity of chemical i