Writer's Digest University

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Writer's Digest online writing workshops cover every aspect of writing, from how to get started all the way to getting your project published -- all from the comfort of your home! Click here to view the full course calendar >> Courses Starting This Week:  Form and Composition Instructor: Kelly Boyer Sagert Proper grammar, punctuation, and mechanics make your writing correct. In order to truly write well, you must also master the art of form and composition. From sentence structure to polishing your prose, this workshop will enhance your writing, no matter what type of writing you do. Short Story Fundamentals Instructor: John Dechancie The short story is a unique and challenging medium that offers you amazing opportunities. Throughout this four-week workshop, you will have feedback and support while you write and hone an entire short story from beginning to end, and you'll leave with a polished draft of your story. Fitting Writing Into Your Life Instructor: Terri Valentine Finding the time, energy, and motivation to get the writing done—day after day—stumps even the most seasoned writer on occasion. Get a glimpse into the life of a professional writer and set realistic writing goals for yourself with this online workshop. Blogging 101 Instructor: Dan Blank Don’t know how to start a blog? Not sure what to focus on? Don’t fret! This online writing workshop will guide you through the entire blogging process—how to create and setup a blog, where to start, and much more! August Boot Camp: Agent One-on-One: First 10 Pages Boot Camp with Talcott Notch Literary Agency August 20-23, 2020 As you may know, agents and editors won't give your work more than ten pages or so to make an impact. In this invaluable event, you'll get to work directly with an agent to review and refine the first ten pages of your novel. You'll learn what keeps an agent reading, what are the most common mistakes that make them stop, and the steps you need to take to correct them.  Upcoming Webinar: Middle Grade 101: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Sell and Succeed with Andrea Somberg August 20, 1:00 pm EDT  The middle-grade market is thriving and yet it is more competitive than ever. Agents and editors are overwhelmed by submissions and, with publishers cutting back their lists, it’s getting even harder to break in. During this live webinar, you will learn how to craft middle-grade novels, graphic novels, and nonfiction that will capture the attention of agents, editors, librarians, and tweens.  Featured Course: Mastering Amazon for Authors with Rob Eagar August 27 - October 22, 2020 Enroll in one of the most popular courses at WDU! Mastering Amazon for Authors is the premiere online course designed to help you maximize book sales at the world’s largest retailer. Learn inside secrets from Rob Eagar, one of the most accomplished book marketing experts in America. Rob removes the guesswork from publishing and promoting your books on Amazon. August Virtual Conference: Writing for Young Adults Virtual Conference August 28 - August 30, 2020 Gain expert insights from SIX young adult fiction authors on the finer points of how to write for a young adult audience. Spend the weekend learning techniques for honing your craft from six different published authors, then (if you choose) pitch your novel via query letter to a literary agent specifically looking for young adult material. View Full Course Calendar Hate being tied to a schedule? Our Self-Paced Courses are Now Only $19.99! EXPERT INSTRUCTORS | CONVENIENT ACCESS INVALUABLE FEEDBACK | Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, CO 80301

Literary World Records World records tend to celebrate extremes: The largest, smallest, oldest, youngest, rarest. Such records can apply to just about anything—including books. In fact, Guinness World Records devotes an entire section to extraordinary book- and author-related achievements.  Let's explore a few of them. Read the full article... Creative Writing Prompt: Strange Phenomenon Describe a normal, everyday object or activity from the perspective of a character who perceives it as a strange phenomenon they are struggling to understand. For example, your character might be an alien or a person from a different historical era trying to explain a smartphones. Read More... This Week in Writing 8/3—P.D. James born 1920 8/3—Joseph Conrad died 1924 8/3—Flannery O'Connor died 1964 8/4—Percy B. Shelley born 1792 8/4—Dennis Lehane born 1965 8/4—Jojo Moyes born 1969 (10 Jojo Moyes quotes for writers) 8/5—Guy de Maupassant born 1850 8/5—Conrad Aiken born 1889 8/5—Toni Morrison died 2019 (7 Toni Morrison quotes) 8/6—Alfred Lord Tennyson born 1809 8/8—Sara Teasdale born 1884 8/8—Shirley Jackson died 1965 (14 Shirley Jackson quotes) 8/9—John Dryden born 1631 Robert Lee Brewer Robert Lee Brewer is a senior editor for Writer's Digest and former editor of the Writer's Market book series. He is also the author of Smash Poetry Journal and Solving the World's Problems. Find him on Twitter at @RobertLeeBrewer | Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, CO 80301

Announcing Maaza Mengiste and Viet Thanh Nguyen as Central Keynotes!  Writer’s Digest is thrilled to announce the exciting joint central keynote for this year’s WD Annual Conference: Maaza Mengiste and Viet Thanh Nguyen! You’ll hear from both award-winning authors as they speak with each other in an interview-style keynote. Maaza Mengiste is an award-winning novelist and essayist whose work examines the individual lives at stake during migration, war, and exile, and considers the intersections of photography and violence. She was a runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Beneath the Lion’s Gaze. Her second novel, The Shadow King, is longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Guardian, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, BBC Radio, and Lettre International, among other places. Viet Thanh Nguyen is a Pulitzer Prize winner, Dayton Literary Peace Prize winner, finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award, and finalist for the National Book Award. His writing has been called bold, elegant, and fiercely honest. Along with teaching at the University of Southern California, he works as a cultural critic-at-large for The Los Angeles Times. There are more exciting announcements coming soon, so stay tuned! With more than 40 sessions and three days of education, fun, and networking you can’t go wrong with the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference. Writers of all backgrounds and experience levels will sharpen their skills, pitch their work to literary agents and find inspiration in the words of experienced mentors. Register today! Register Now Information SPONSORED BY:  | Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, CO 80301

A Professional Pair of Eyes for Your Work Before you submit your manuscript to an agent, editor, or competition, get professional feedback from 2nd Draft Critique Services. Our critique services provide a high-level review of your writing, pointing out reasons your work may be getting rejected, or may not meet the standards of traditional publication. You'll not only learn what's working in your writing, but what's not, and—most important—how to fix it. What Happy Customers Are Saying: "As a new writer, I was dying for some professional advice after finishing my first novel. The critique I received was invaluable." "2nd Draft offered me a professional pair of fresh eyes and the spit shine my manuscript needed. I can now submit my first three chapters without hesitation."  View a sample critique >> BROWSE CRITIQUE SERVICES Popular Services: Line Edit Service LEARN MORE Manuscript Critique LEARN MORE Developmental Editing Service LEARN MORE Proofreading Service LEARN MORE 1 Page Query Letter Critique LEARN MORE Picture Book Critique LEARN MORE VIEW ALL 2ND DRAFT SERVICES  | Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, CO 80301 Each Flashback Friday throughout 2020, we'll be sharing an article from our archives to celebrate our 100th anniversary. Tweet your favorite WD memory to us @WritersDigest using the hashtag #WritersDigest100. Thanks for celebrating with us! Afternoon of a Part-Time Writer By Brooks Noel, Writer's Digest June 1957 I write on one end of the kitchen table. Mostly I write at night and on the weekends. During the day, I work. This keeps the landlord from knocking at the door. The most important thing is to get something written every day. But it’s not always easy to write every day. Take yesterday for example: I push all the dishes to one end of the table, grab the portable and two pages and 500 words later I’ve gotten a pretty good start on that suspense story I plotted during lunch. The beautiful secretary is dead, an icepick in her left ear (they want ‘em brutal). I’ve managed to get the hard, lean red-blooded Lieutenant and his partner into the room, the coroner rushing to the scene, the approximate time of death, and the first suspect, who is not the iceman, introduced to the reader. I’ve also hinted at the motive and told the reader twice that it was the left ear. (This is the gimmick that finally traps the killer.) I’m just warming up. I put another sheet in the roller. I typed: He knelt for a closer look at the wound. Her head was partly turned on the thick woven rug. There was hardly any bleeding. He rose slowly, eyes blazing, his head shaking visibly. “I’m going to get the dirty rat that did this and when I do, I’m going to empty this…this…this…” He finally drew his black automatic Colt .45 with his initials on the handle that was loaded with six dum-dum shells. There is a timid knock at the door and I stop reluctantly right there. A very small figure with freckles stands at the door, tears in his eyes, a baseball glove on his left hand. He pounds his right hand into the glove a few times. “Coach,” he says in a broken voice, “I can’t play in Saturday’s game.” I’m still in the murder room. “What game? Game? Oh, yes, the game. Why can’t you play, Shorty?” “I have to visit my Grandmother in California. Isn’t that terrible, Coach. For two weeks, too.” By this time the tears are streaming. I say “I’m sorry, Shorty, but don’t worry, your spot will be open when you return.” I return to the machine. Then it hits me. Shorty Huitte! No! They can’t do this to me! Shorty is the best eleven-year-old third baseman in the whole Little League. We haven’t a chance now against those Purple Tigers. This is terrible. Let’s see, I can put Johnson at third, Fats Wallace in Johnson’s place at first, put the center fielder in the hole at short, shift Mike to the catcher’s spot and Speraneo to second. Fine. We’ll beat those screaming Tigers yet. I return to the story. I write: The coroner enters, his black bag in his right hand. Right hand! That won’t do. We’ve got to have a right-hander in there pitching. Let’s see now. Bring in Ronnie … Ronnie … what’s his name—the one that’s always picking his nose—put him in the pitching spot and shift the pitcher to second. I go back to the story. Continue reading this article on our website. Amy Jones Amy Jones is Editor-in-Chief of Writer’s Digest and the former managing content director for WD Books. Prior to joining the WD team, Amy was the managing editor for North Light Books and IMPACT Books. Find her on Twitter at @AmyMJones_5 Agent One-on-One: First 10 Pages As many writers know, agents and editors won't give your work more than ten pages or so to make an impact. Join Talcott Notch Literary and get agent feedback on your first ten pages! Learn more...  Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, CO 80301

In this issue, we share a new literary agent alert for Kristina Perez, a new market spotlight, an interview with author Samantha Downing, and so much more!  New Agent Alert: Kristina Perez Kristina Pérez is a half-Argentine/half-Norwegian native New Yorker who has spent the past two decades living in Europe and Asia. Before joining the Zeno Literary Agency in London at the end of 2019, she worked as a journalist, academic, and author. This breadth of experience enables her to serve her clients in a variety of fields and she is a very editorial agent.  Read the full article... Craft & Business of Writing Astronomy: Market Spotlight Established in 1973, Astronomy is a monthly magazine covering the science and hobby of astronomy. The magazine shares stories on the science of astronomy, cosmology, and more for astronomy enthusiasts. Read More... Samantha Downing: Writing for Publication Samantha Downing is the USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling author of My Lovely Wife, which has been nominated for an Edgar award. Her next book, He Started It, was recently released. She currently lives and works in New Orleans. Read More... Remove That From Your Writing I'm better about it now, but one problem I've struggled with for years is using the word "that" a little too much. Or maybe a lot too much. As such, that is a word that I'm constantly removing from sentences. (I mean, "As such, that is a word I'm constantly removing from sentences.") (Click here for more grammar rules for writers.) Often, the word "that" is a placeholder for nothing in particular. For me, it's almost like a railing that I constantly use in my language. But more times than not, I find that if I remove all instances of that from my writing, it still makes sense (and saves space). For instance, remove the first instance of "that" in the previous sentence. Still makes sense, right? Read More... Send Your Work to 2nd Draft Critique Services! No matter your style or genre, Writer's Digest Shop offers a high-level view of your writing. After an evaluation of your submission, one of the professional 2nd Draft critiquers will provide feedback and advice. You’ll not only learn what’s working in your writing, but what’s not, and—most important—how to fix it. Gain a critique of your manuscript, query letter, synopsis, and more! Click here to learn more >> Trian Rannaigechta Moire: Poetic Forms The trian rannaigechta moire is an Irish poetic form with the following guidelines. Read More... Robert Lee Brewer Robert Lee Brewer is a senior editor for Writer's Digest and former editor of the Writer's Market book series. He is also the author of Smash Poetry Journal and Solving the World's Problems. Find him on Twitter at @RobertLeeBrewer  Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, CO 80301

Read about the inspiration for one debut author's modern spy thriller/romance and see our picks for best live streams and YouTube channels. Tiffany Rosenhan: Writing Her Character's Story What prompted you to write this book? My protagonist, Sophia, has been in my head a long time. I was 19 years old and living in Taipei, Taiwan for the summer. My identical twin sister and I had gone to the night market for dinner and at some point we became separated. Suddenly I found myself alone, on a dark street, in the middle of a heavy rainstorm, unsure of where I was or how to get home.  As I began running back in the direction I'd come, searching for my sister, Sophia emerged. I began to wonder: What if I was running from someone? Who would be chasing me? Why? What skills would I have to avoid being caught? Sophia's story evolved from there. Read the full article... Unlock the potential of your manuscript! Helga Schier, PhD, published author and professional editor offers effective, personalized, constructive and comprehensive editorial services. Contact: helga@withpenandpaper.com, www.withpenandpaper.com 310.828.8421 What's New WD's Best Live Streams and YouTube Channels 2020 Here are the top live streams and YouTube channels as identified in the 22nd Annual 101 Best Websites from the May/June 2020 issue of Writer's Digest. Read More... Literary World Records for Books and Authors In this post, Don Vaughan reveals literary world records. Ever wonder which author sold the most books? Or which book has been translated the most times? How about which author has signed the most copies of their book on a single day? Read More... Strange Phenomenon Writer's Digest Weekly Writing Prompt Describe a normal, everyday object or activity from the perspective of a character who perceives it as a strange phenomenon they are struggling to understand. For example, your character might be an alien or a person from a different historical era trying to explain a smartphone. Read More... Last Chance to Register!  Join Maria Vicente on Thursday, July 30, and get your picture book on the shelves. This live webinar includes a live presentation, a Q&A session, a critique of your children's picture book manuscript, and downloadable worksheets that will help you write, revise, and pitch your picture book long after the webinar is over. Click here to sign up. Twitter Screenwriting Tips: Story Outline Essentials A Script Magazine Feature After joining Twitter in 2008, Script has read countless screenwriting tips from professional writers and industry executives. We're launching a new column to share some of the best writing tips we see on Twitter to help you learn more about the screenwriting business and improve your craft. Let's start with story outline. Read More... The Art of Storytelling 102: Showing vs. Telling Writer's Digest University In this course, you'll learn the difference between showing and telling and when it’s good to tell instead of show. Craft compelling stories that capture the attention of readers, editors, and agents. Learn More... Amy Jones Amy Jones is Editor-in-Chief of Writer’s Digest and the former managing content director for WD Books. Prior to joining the WD team, Amy was the managing editor for North Light Books and IMPACT Books. Find her on Twitter at @AmyMJones_5  Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, CO 80301