Publications / 323 posts found
WD Presents: New E-Guide, New YouTube Video, and More!
There’s always so much happening in the Writer’s Digest universe that even staff members have trouble keeping up. As a result, we decided to start collecting what’s on the horizon to make it easier for everyone to know what’s happening and when. This week, we’re excited to announce our new poetry e-guide, our third podcast video on YouTube, and more! **** Announcing Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming! Do you want to write more poetry but find yourself struggling to get started? Maybe you’ve hit a rut and are tired of writing about the same old […]
How To Become a Journalist
So, you want to become a journalist? Great choice—there’s never been a greater need for diverse and skilled individuals in the rapidly expanding and evolving news industry. (What Is Investigative Journalism?) Opportunities are no longer limited to the legacy media of television, radio, and print. While mainstream outlets suffer from closures and waning public trust, online platforms are multiplying and thriving. There are openings in both traditional and digital platforms, but just remember that we are trending towards multimedia journalism. News and features are now presented in a multitude of ways, combining text, graphics, images, audio, and video. So keep […]
What Is a Personal Reportage Essay in Writing?
Many writers are probably familiar with how journalistic reporting reads, very fact-based with the 5 Ws and 1 H to go along with an inverted pyramid style of placing the most essential information at the top followed by other pieces of information in descending order of importance. Many writers also have a good idea of what a personal essay is. (What Is a Personal Essay in Writing?) In this post, we’re going to look at what a personal reportage essay is, including what makes it different from other types of essays and when writers may prefer to use this style. […]
4 Tips on How To Begin a Novel
You’ve got an idea for a novel, I know you do. Maybe you talk about it all the time, maybe you just silently obsess over it, afraid to spoil the beautiful notion by writing it down. I understand—I’ve done the same thing myself. (Diana Abu-Jaber: On Unearthing Family History) Maybe some ideas are just too pretty to be written. But in a world filled with gatekeepers and critics, I humbly suggest we try not to stand in our own way. Here are some pointers to help you move from dreaming to writing. 1. Mise En Place Cooks know there’s something […]
Plot Twist Story Prompts: Jurisdiction Battle
Plot twist story prompts aren’t meant for the beginning or the end of stories. Rather, they’re for forcing big and small turns in the anticipated trajectory of a story. This is to make it more interesting for the readers and writers alike. Each week, I’ll provide a new prompt to help twist your story. Find last week’s prompt, Weakness Becomes Strength, here. Plot Twist Story Prompts: Jurisdiction Battle For today’s prompt, have your characters get caught in a battle over jurisdiction. As an example, you could have state law enforcement get in a turf battle with city law enforcement over […]
Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Rushing the Editing Process
Everyone makes mistakes—even writers—but that’s OK because each mistake is a great learning opportunity. The Writer’s Digest team has witnessed many mistakes over the years, so we started this series to help identify them early in the process. Note: The mistakes in this series aren’t focused on grammar rules, though we offer help in that area as well. (Grammar rules for writers.) Rather, we’re looking at bigger picture mistakes and mishaps, including the error of using too much exposition, neglecting research, or researching too much. This week’s writing mistake writers make is rushing the editing process. Writing Mistakes Writers Make: […]
How (And Why) To Write About Food in Fiction
Whoever first said “You are what you eat” probably didn’t mean it as writing advice, but that’s how I take it. What you eat doesn’t just literally keep you alive, it can say so much about who you are, where you’re from, and more. (Amanda Elliot: On Food and Romance in Fiction) In my new book Sadie on a Plate, a romantic comedy following a young chef on a Top Chef-like cooking show, I made spreadsheets to keep track of what every character was cooking for each challenge, because each dish was meant to tell the reader something about the […]
Announcing Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming!
I’m really pumped to share a new digital guide for poets: Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming! After more than a decade of sharing prompts every Wednesday (and daily in April and November) on the Writer’s Digest website, I’ve accumulated more than a thousand poetry prompts (and example poems). This digital guide collects 365 of my favorite prompts, including topic-based prompts, title-based prompts, and, well, weirder prompts. Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, by Robert Lee Brewer Here’s my introduction to the guide: Welcome to the fun house! We’re about to do […]
Patrick Strickland: On the Importance of Empathy in Writing Nonfiction
Patrick Strickland is a journalist and author from Texas who has reported from some 15 countries across Europe, the Middle East, and North America. His reportage has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The New Republic, Politico, The Guardian, Vice, In These Times, and elsewhere. He is the author of Alerta! Alerta! Follow him on Twitter. Patrick Strickland In this post, Patrick discusses how the pandemic altered the way he did research for his new nonfiction book, The Marauders: Standing Up to Vigilantes in the American Borderlands, the jobs he took in the midst of the […]
How To Write a Character Driven by an Obsession
When setting out to write a piece of fiction, it’s likely you’ve been told to give your protagonist a singular desire. While this is good advice, I would urge you to take it a step further—what happens when your protagonist’s perhaps modest desire becomes an all-consuming obsession? (Caitlin Barasch: On Curating Our Own Personal Stories) My debut novel, aptly titled A Novel Obsession, is about an aspiring novelist named Naomi who becomes obsessed with her boyfriend’s ex, Rosemary. The more Naomi learns about Rosemary, the more her curiosity consumes her, and before she knows it, her obsessive internet stalking morphs […]