Tabla de contenidos para March/April 2022 en Writer's Digest

Susan Cain burst onto the literary scene 10 years ago with the publication of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, which launched an entire Quiet Revolution and a few spin-off titles. For introverts, Quiet has provided validation for those who feel out of place in an extroverted culture and confirmation that introversion has its own strengths, especially for creative people. Now, Cain may be on to a new movement with her title Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, which was inspired by a very simple question: Why did she find sad, bittersweet music so moving and “strangely uplifting?” “I guess when I first started asking that question I thought of it as an interesting question,” says Cain, “but not one that would…

Your idea is too cerebral and issue-oriented for today’s romance,” read the polite rejection letter. I came to realize this was high praise indeed. That was 1986. I was a 20– something newlywed living in Hawaii, dreaming of being a romance novelist, having devoured many a bodice-ripper in my teens. Back then, one could pitch a novel via posted letter to a publishing professional at places such as Silhouette Books in New York City and promptly receive a personalized response in military housing on Oahu. I had never seen myself as cerebral. Three years later, I attended law school. In the interim, I shelved my romance novel idea, combining a journalism degree and passion for prose to scribe for multiple military wives’ publications and militarybased association newsletters. Meanwhile, the romance…

We’ve all heard of method actors, right? Like how Lady Gaga spoke with an Italian accent off-screen for nine months in preparation for House of Gucci, or when Jared Leto sent his castmates a dead pig while playing the Joker in Suicide Squad. These stories always sound extreme and, at times, not completely necessary (Jared Leto had only about 10 minutes of screen time in the two-hour film). It does make for a great headline, though. So how did I find myself slipping into this technique when writing my own characters? If I were to take a guess, it started during my love for acting and theater when I was a teenager. I remember having to play the role of a bitter, midwestern American woman. Having only lived in Sri…

I began my writing journey as a fiction writer. I liked to make stuff up—or so I thought. In truth, I liked to tell stories, and I was clear that the goal of the fictional stories I told was to entertain, move, and inspire the reader. I did not realize the importance of that goal until I sat down for the first time to write a story in which I, William Kenower, was the protagonist. I had told many such stories in my life, but always in conversation with friends, relatives, and coworkers. I certainly wanted those stories to entertain, but I took for granted that I had in these folks a friendly audience, people who, if nothing else, were interested in me and my life because they knew me…

Writing what you know can only extend so far, especially in the world of speculative fiction. It’s right there in the name! As authors tackling new universes and dimensions, our protagonists are frequently removed from the human experience. From animals to mystical creatures and even the occasional inanimate object, there is no point of view that’s off-limits for writers of horror, science fiction, or fantasy. And it’s a good thing because writing nonhuman characters provides us with opportunities to explore distinctly human truths in a space free of preconceptions and other noise. At their heart, most stories are human stories, no matter the species or classification of the protagonist. But writing from the point of view of a troll, rabbit, or robot presents a unique set of challenges, especially since…

Grand Prize Know Your Hairitage: Zara’s Wash Day by Zenda M. Walker Early Readers/Children’s Picture Books First Place Not So Different by Cyana Riley Honorable Mentions Do Ants Wear Pants? by Gabrielle Grice Mighty May Won’t Cry Today by Kendra & Claire-Voe Ocampo Genre Fiction First Place Seizure by Peter Black Honorable Mentions As Fate Would Have It by David M. Brooks Death of a Rancher’s Daughter, #2 in The Lady Lawyer Mysteries by Susan P. Baker Dromos by Raymond Stanley Ruble Ivory Rangers by Joseph Mujwit Numbered by Crissi Langwell Revival by Alexis Koetting Season of the Runer: The Trial of Two by Abigail Linhardt The Fall by Nia Forrester Windfall: A Henry Lysyk Mystery by Byron TD Smith Inspiration First Place The Art of Quietude: Spring by Paula…

Historical novels are stories informed by the past. They can be based on a historic person, an event, artifact, invention, era, or more. Though there are many types of historical novels, the one thing they all have in common is bringing the past to life, and to do that takes a writer willing to go hunting and digging for facts and information. GETTING STARTED The research a writer conducts for their historical novel is the defining element. Miss details or information and your story may not be taken seriously. Sticking too closely to the “truth” might eclipse your creative vision and imagination (it is fiction, after all). Aim for balance. The more you can get at the tried-and-true history, the more you can inform your own work. But where do…

I love March and April! Every March, I announce the next April Poem-A-Day Challenge on WritersDigest.com; and every April, I lead and participate in the April Poem-A-Day Challenge. So, I spend most of March getting excited about writing poetry, and then transition into the actual poeming in April. I hope you’ll join the fun this year for our 15th annual April PAD Challenge! But after the poems have been written and revised, there are so many opportunities to place those poems in great print and online poetry publications. Here are five poetry publications to get you started. Poetry (PoetryFoundation.org/poetrymagazine) Poetry magazine was founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe and has been in continuous publication for more than 100 years. And it has existed by publishing some of the best poems,…

When a picture book client seeks my help to transform an existing manuscript to the next level, one of the areas I focus on is the page turn. It’s easy to see why people don’t think about it much. It’s not something you encounter in a meaningful manner in a YA spy thriller, a MG Old West biography, or a zinger-filled chapter book. Perhaps poetry comes closest to using this technique, since poets carefully break lines and stanzas, but not by withholding those for another page. Still, every picture book page can’t end in a huge cliffhanger. That’d be too much. But at the right moment and for good narrative reasons? Absolutely. Author Heidi E. Y. Stemple explains that “page turns should make you want to move forward and linger…

There’s an outdoor cat who is slowly adopting me. When I first moved into my house, I saw her slink through the yard occasionally, but for months, when she saw me, she bolted. Then something happened to change her view of me—I started leaving food out for any neighborhood cat who needed it. And because I’m that person, I’d sit outside and talk to the cats to try to befriend them. For Calista the calico, mission accomplished. Her view of me changed and today, as it snows, she welcomed herself into my home. Instead of running from me, I’m now the person she comes to for food and warmth. That’s the thing about point of view—it’s all about perspective. In writing, we often talk about POV as the vantage point…

Writing is empowering. Publishing is exhausting. That is how most of my conversations start with diverse author friends since the beginning of the pandemic. Not only are we experiencing a social justice crisis, but we are also seeing more and more cracks and fissures in the publishing process for diverse authors. BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ children’s book authors are finding their stories on banned book lists. Women writing genre romances are facing blatant misogyny from a select number of indie bookstores who are folding their romance sections into general fiction, even though romance is the most profitable genre. Industry professionals are asserting microaggressions against diverse authors. And despite dissent from marginalized communities, publishers continue to support many political titles with harmful rhetoric. As a corporate DEI professional who’s consulted for publishers…

MCKINNON LITERARY Tanya McKinnon, principal at McKinnon Literary, says she was a curious girl who grew very tall, very fast, with big hair, glasses, and a sharp tongue. “All of this made me ill-suited for popularity, but very well-suited to a life of the mind,” she says. McKinnon grew up in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the U.S. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from Tufts University, she worked as an editor. She’s also worked as a literary scout, representing foreign publishers and Hollywood producers, and as an agent, while also earning a master’s degree in cultural anthropology at New School for Social Research. “My clients are brilliant and constantly challenge me to rethink what I know,” she says. “It’s like being in graduate school for life. Which is…

Finding the right point of view (POV) for your novel or story can be almost as challenging as figuring out the plot, at times. Should you adopt an intimate POV that keeps the reader close to the character, or allow yourself the wide lens that an omniscient POV allows? Before you decide, let’s demystify a commonly attempted POV, omniscience—the “all-knowing” narrator who can reveal information to the reader without the characters’ knowledge. What Is Omniscience? In essence, an omniscient narrator is like an all-knowing storyteller who sees everything in the landscape of your story, one who may not even be an actual person or character in the story—merely a clever device that makes it possible to widen out past the characters’ experiences. The omniscient narrator can reveal information that the…

Too often, we as writers fall back on the basic techniques to showcase point of view. But what if we looked at POV like another facet of character? Instead of sticking to the typical showcases of first person, second person, etc., we can push past into a land where our stories are engaging and compelling. One of the tools that many skilled writers use is showing their characters’ development through their dialogue—the words they say, how they say them, and who they say them to. Using dialogue to develop or progress character through story and using it to show and distinguish character to the reader are two different techniques. While distinct character voice is essential, it does not show the reader a particular character’s point of view about the world…

Dear FYSA, I’ve pitched during online events like #PitMad, but I don’t get bites. Is there something I can do to make my pitch stand out? Sincerely, PitBad Dear #PitBad, Have you considered a confetti popper? I have been pondering carrying one around in my pocket for spontaneous use in moments that I feel need a little more zazzle, like: arguments with Husband, crowded subways, aaaaand eulogies. But I keep reconsidering this move because maybe there are other ways to stand out that don’t induce so much yelling and vacuuming. In your case, I feel the same—there isn’t any zazzle needed, as long as you have found a succinct and concise way to express what your novel is about. You want your written pitch to be an enticing look at…

Let’s imagine, for a moment, that we’re meeting at an icecream shop. And let’s say I ask you, “What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?” Whether you’re consciously aware of it or not, your answer is your point of view, and it’s assimilated from every aspect of your very humanity: your biological wiring, your experiences, your childhood, your beliefs, even how you’re feeling in the moment. Point of view (POV) in prose is just as deceptively complex. Yet, too often only simplistic definitions are served up, in the manner of the childhood “we all scream for ice cream” chant: • First person (I scream for ice cream)• Second person (You scream for ice cream)• Third person limited (He, she, or they scream for ice cream)• Third person multiple, or omniscient (Wow!…

AMANDA JAYATISSA loves to read disturbing books with shocking plot twists, so it seemed logical to her that she should attempt to write disturbing books with shocking plot twists. When she isn’t recovering from a selfinduced book hangover, she runs corporate trainings on communication skills development, and works tirelessly as the chief taste tester at the cookie shop she co-owns. She grew up in Sri Lanka and has lived in the California bay area and British countryside, before relocating back to her sunny island, where she lives with her husband and two Tasmanian-devil-reincarnate huskies. My Sweet Girl is her first thriller, and her next, titled You’re Invited, will be published by Berkley in Fall 2022. NISHA SHARMA is the award-winning author of YA rom-com My So-Called Bollywood Life and contemporary romance…

POETIC FORM: RONDEL SUPREME The rondel supreme is a French form that falls in the quatorzain domain. That is, the rondel supreme is a 14-line poem that lacks strict sonnet structure. Here are the guidelines: • 14 lines in three stanzas• First two stanzas have four lines, the final stanza has six• Rhyme scheme: ABba/abAB/abbaAB (capital letters are refrains) Beyond these guidelines, there are no restrictions on meter or subjects. Here is an example by a Poetic Asides reader: “Marriage Vows,” by RJ Clarken “I vow to never wear a flannel nightgown if you vowto never do a comb-over.” —Unknown We don’t discuss them much, but epigraphs can be a great framing device for a poem. “I promise to (often) laugh at your wit.”“I swear I’ll (frequently) put down the…

I was on the phone with Scott Turow when his fire alarm went off. This took place a handful of years ago, after I’d called the bestselling novelist of such legal thrillers as Presumed Innocent to feature him in a Writer’s Digest Interview. The first few minutes of the conversation had felt a bit stilted and formal, and I was beginning to worry the piece would come off as such, when the alarm blared. Turow apologized, sounding somewhat flustered, and off the cuff, I quipped: “It would be tragic if I had to end this Q&A with, ‘… and that was the last anyone heard of Scott Turow.’” The comment caught him so off guard that he laughed for a good 10 seconds, and it had the effect of cracking…

Mazey Eddings A Brush With Love (Adult romantic comedy, March, St. Martin’s Press) “Two dental students trade fillings for feelings as they navigate the messy complexities of adulthood, anxiety, and exceptionally meddling friends.” WRITES FROM: Philadelphia, Pa. PRE-ABWL: The romance genre became my greatest stress reliever during dental school, and it inspired me to start writing again as a break from the intensity of the program. At the time, my anxiety and depression were high, and writing let me feel more in control of a narrative and journey. TIME FRAME: The first draft took me about six months to write and edit. I did a few rounds of edits with my agent, then we went on submission February 15, 2020. ENTER THE AGENT: I found most of the agents I…

Not All Narrators Can Be Trusted An “unreliable narrator” has been a convention since Arabian Nights, and maybe even longer than that. The term, which is attributed to Wayne C. Booth, who used it in 1961’s The Rhetoric of Fiction, refers to a noncredible narrator, although readers may not know the narrator is noncredible until the end of the story. Sometimes, though, the narrator is openly “unreliable” from the start. Ann Enright’s The Gathering, for instance, opens with the narrator saying she wants to recount an incident from her childhood but doesn’t know if she can because she isn’t certain it actually happened. From that one statement, we know we can’t trust the narrator, even though we don’t know why she’s unsure about the veracity of her memory. Is she…

Zenda Walker grew up a reader. “I was really into Judy Bloom books; lots of picture books, of course,” says the Grand Prize winner of the 29th WD Self-Published Book Awards. “And then there were just all these series of books for children, like The Baby-Sitters Club.” But it was the books she read as she got older—like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye—that opened her eyes to what books can do for a person. “I thought, Wow, these books really have an ability to change your entire life, your perspective, and broaden your awareness.” It is a culmination of that childhood love of reading and the books that helped mold her that led her to write Know Your Hairitage: Zara’s Wash Day, a story she hopes accomplishes two things for…

I tell my students when an editor sends out a call for pitches on social media, the writers who answer first, get noticed. That is especially true when you are dealing with a rapid response editor looking for a news hook, like Holly Baxter, Head of Opinion (U.S.) for The Independent—a progressive British, international newspaper with 28.1 million readers a month. Holly is focused on bringing in American voices. Ninety percent of the 4–5 pieces she runs daily are commissioned that day or a day before. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? I get 50–100 pitches a day and read them all. I always take pieces attached to the big holidays; I have a weekly personal essay slot that doesn’t need to have a news hook, but I need the whole…