Writers Digest Editors - The complete handbook of novel writing : everything you need to know about creating & selling your work

Ideas can start out running wild; train them onto the page.

Understanding the show, don't tell rule.

Learn fixes for big-picture writing errors.

Four techniques to get your passion onto the page

Turning true stories into fiction

How to effectively plot your fiction

How to use complication to raise your plot stakes

Using scenes to give your writing momentum.

Use this time-honored method to give form to your fiction.

Creating an ending that satisfies your reader.

Build your story's mood, point of view, and credibility.

Enhancing characters through settings.

Find out how to make characters that take on a life of their own.

Crafting characters who are real on the page.

How to create authentic dialogue.

Determine whose eyes the reader will see your story through.

Enriching your writing by utilizing emotion.

Exercises to help you stimulate your readers' senses.

Using detail to engage your readers.

Hooking your readers from the start.

Decide how fast your story should unfold.

Write the perfect words to introduce your story.

Using theme to make your work successful.

Stop obsessing. Start writing a book in fifteen minutes a day.

Reshape, revise, and reimagine using great literary styles.

How one famous writer beats writer's block.

Using a working journal to improve your novel.

Strike that right balance of fact in your fiction.

Take some tips from the worksite to build your novel.

Create the framework for your story to grow on.

Get messy with your first draft to get to the good stuff.

Step-by-step guidance for revising your novel.

How to use feedback to improve your writing.

Can a writer can have both clout and money?

Creating fantasy that speaks to the human condition.

Discover which aspect of your story matters most.

Writing creative and original horror.

Forget formulas. Infuse your mystery with suspense.

Creating vivid characters for your mysteries.

Four techniques to add suspense to your writing.

Write the meat and potatoes of mystery.

Navigating the world of Christian publishing.

Find out what's allowed in this popular genre.

Learning the fundamentals of romance.

Craft these crucial romantic elements.

Distill rumor to create compelling fiction.

How it works and how you can play an influential role.

Learning an editor's tastes and particular needs.

Find the keys to developing a novel proposal.

Write a query letter that sets you apart from the pack.

The basics of a good synopsis.

Here's what you can glean from specific negative responses.

Smart strategies for becoming visible, marketable and viable.

Why it's in your best interest to promote your work.

How to get your audience's attention.

Finding the right editor has some similarities to online dating.

What can you expect from agents in years to come?

Negotiate terms that will benefit your writing.

Here's our take on self-publishing as we know it.

Weigh your options and know what you're up against.

What the changing landscape means for writers.

Tom Clancy on plotting and the use of technical details.

Elizabeth George on the writing and research process.

Examining the differences between novels and short stories.

John Updike on writing ordinary lives.

Kurt Vonnegut on breaking rules and remembering the readers.

A testament to longevity and the purity of the written word.

Finding parallels, polarity, and candid insights.

See how risks online can reap rewards in print.

How do you follow up a hit? Embrace the freedom to create.

A mild-mannered author delves into the dark side.

A testament to the power of staying true to your voice.

On finding validation and writing screenplays.

Finding your voice and the beauty of multitasking.

Brand and factory might not seem like terms of endearment.

Thirty pages, a dream, and some old-fashioned teen angst.

Challenging the memoir craze and questioning publishing.

If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like Old Faithful. I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting. I wake early and hear my morning voices leaping around in my head like jumping beans. I get out of bed quickly, to trap them before they escape. Ray Bradbury

Every idea is my last. I feel sure of it. So, I try to do the best with each as it comes and that's where my responsibility ends. But I just don't wait for ideas. I look for them. Constantly. And if I don't use the ideas that I find, they're going to quit showing up. Peg Bracken

Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don't forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth. Paula Danziger

Don't put down too many roots in terms of a domicile. I have lived in four countries and I think my life as a writer and our family's life have been enriched by this. I think a writer has to experience new environments. There is that adage: No man can really succeed if he doesn't move away from where he was born. I believe it is particularly true for the writer. Arthur Hailey