Business
Writer’s Digest
Choosing Violence
The secret to writing animal characters.
6 min |
July - August 2024
Writer’s Digest
The Ecology of the Family
Build and leverage a family ecosystem to develop and deepen your fiction.
8 min |
July - August 2024
Writer’s Digest
The Art of People-Watching
Advice for how observation can help you put people on the page.
7 min |
July - August 2024
Writer’s Digest
Acting Against Their Nature
Four ways to create effective uncharacteristic behavior in your characters.
9 min |
July - August 2024
Writer’s Digest
How Nature Journaling Can Help Your Writing
As writers, we want to transport our readers to the world we are describing or creating on the page.
5 min |
July - August 2024
Writer’s Digest
Writers on writing
When I wrote Daughters of Shandong, my biggest challenge was finding a way to convey, in full force, the gravity of what my characters overcame.
3 min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
Writing a Great Retelling
When I say retelling, it's Sherlock Holmes who comes to mind. Just in recent film and TV, Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumber-batch stand out for their interpretations of Arthur Conan Doyle's beloved character.
5 min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
Conflict Avoidance
Setting expectations early in the author-editor relationship can prevent conflict and help manage emotions when the edits come in.
6 min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
Out to Sea
THE CHALLENGE: Write a drabble-a short story of exactly 100 words-based on the photo prompt below.
1 min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
Alyssa Cole
In Alyssa Cole's newest thriller, One of Us Knows, the lead character Kenetria Nash is the host of what's known as a \"system,\" a group of personalities that inhabit the same body.
10+ min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
Escalate Conflict to Keep Readers Turning Pages
Draw readers in through physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual conflict.
6 min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
Better Story Structure Through Musicals and Kung Fu Movies
Build emotion and conflict for your characters and readers by taking a note from the structure of two popular storytelling forms.
8 min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
The 26" Annual 101 Best Websites for Writers
Creating this list is a yearlong project that involves an overwhelming number of bookmarked sites on our browsers. Th ere are so many great websites for writers—with more popping up practically daily—it’s no wonder this is still one of our most popular features aft er 25 years.
10+ min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
BREAKINGIN
Debut authors: How they did it, what they learned, and why you can do it, too.
5 min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
A Long-Haul Writer’s Lament
Advice for Those at the Start
5 min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
Daniel Willcocks
When Winter Comes; The Self-publishing Blueprint (Nonfiction books for authors, horror, and suspense fiction; Activated Authors [nonfiction]; Devil's Rock Publishing [fiction])
2 min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
Hilarity With a Side of Heartbreak
Katie Love, first place winner of WD's 2023 Personal Essay Awards, shares how she walks the line between comedy and tragedy in her writing.
4 min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
Septet as Memoir
Poet Wayne Lee set out on a journey to write nothing but septets for a year—not knowing it would help him grapple with one of the most emotionally challenging years of his life.
6 min |
May - June 2024
Writer’s Digest
Tommy Orange
The award-winning author on the power and limits of fiction and the breakthrough moment for his second novel, Wandering Stars.
10+ min |
March - April 2024
Writer’s Digest
Bringing Characters to Life on the Page
How to effectively reveal characters through showing and telling.
10 min |
March - April 2024
Writer’s Digest
Love to Hate Them
Four types of unlikable characters and how to make them work in your writing.
8 min |
March - April 2024
Writer’s Digest
Daring to Show My Dark Side
I never planned to write my debut about the Devil.
5 min |
March - April 2024
Writer’s Digest
What's in a name?
The Importance of Naming Characters
6 min |
March - April 2024
Writer’s Digest
A Matter of Trust
Whether hot off the presses or on the shelves for years, a good book is worth talking about.
4 min |
September - October 2023
Writer’s Digest
When Mystery and Mythology Collide
Author and illustrator Nasugraq Rainey Hopson shares the process of keeping her main character in the dark while introducing readers to a culturally significant mythology with her new middle-grade book, Eagle Drums.
4 min |
September - October 2023
Writer’s Digest
Celebrations
BUILDING BETTER WORLDS
5 min |
September - October 2023
Writer’s Digest
Kill With Your Critique ... the Good Way
You can offer serious, honest feedback without crushing a writer's soul.
6 min |
September - October 2023
Writer’s Digest
TWO HOURS AND THREE YEARS: THE LIFE OF A SHORT SHORT STORY
New Zealand-based writer and first-place winner of the 23rd Annual Writer's Digest Short Short Story Awards shares the personal experience that inspired her story.
7 min |
September - October 2023
Writer’s Digest
Chuck Wendig
The New York Times bestselling author discusses genre-hopping, fear as a motivator, and his new books.
10+ min |
September - October 2023
Writer’s Digest
WRITING OUR WAY INTO (AND OUT OF) DARK FORESTS
Using deep characterization for propulsive storytelling.
9 min |