Bring a scene to life without relying on the five basic senses

Posted on 11/04/2020 at 03:34 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Past teachers may have encouraged you to add adjectives and adverbs to your essays and discouraged you from beginning a...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Writer's Digest, Writing advice

Writing lessons from "World of Warcraft"

Posted on 10/28/2020 at 02:41 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Whether you’re a dedicated gamer or completely befuddled by its appeal, you can’t deny that gaming has a passionate fanbase....

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Writer's Digest, Writing advice

7 tips for writing intuitively

Posted on 10/27/2020 at 11:27 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

There’s plenty of advice floating around the writing community for pantsers who want to become plotters. What about help for...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Writer's block / writing prompts, Writer's Digest

Romance author shares her recipe for character chemistry

Posted on 10/26/2020 at 03:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Horror isn’t the only genre that sends chills along its readers’ spines — a good romance novel ought to give...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Romance, Writer's Digest, Writing advice

How William Peter Blatty made "The Exorcist" so darn scary

Posted on 10/21/2020 at 10:22 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

When we watch a horror movie, we find ourselves most scared by the scenarios that we can actually imagine happening...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Horror, Writer's Digest, Writing advice

The painful truth: 3 types of suffering for horror-story characters

Posted on 10/14/2020 at 03:44 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Authors of certain genres like to joke that they’d hate to be a character in their books. Those following the...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Horror, Writer's Digest, Writing advice

10 steps to successful world-building in historical fiction

Posted on 10/13/2020 at 02:48 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

World building isn’t just something for fantasy and sci-fi authors to study. It’s equally important for writers of historical fiction...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Historical fiction, Writer's Digest, Writing advice

New life for old stories: How to retell a fable or myth

Posted on 10/11/2020 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Retellings of classics and fables aren’t a new literary trend, but they’re certainly not passé, either. So if the idea...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Classic literature, Writer's Digest, Writing advice

Is your story stuck? Try a plot twist prompt

Posted on 10/09/2020 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

If your story stalls at any point, Writer’s Digest has a tool that could help: plot twist prompts. Instead of...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Writer's block / writing prompts, Writer's Digest, Writing advice

How to avoid clichés in your horror story

Posted on 10/07/2020 at 11:33 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Authors must walk a fine line when it comes to reader expectations. Miss a few themes associated with the genre,...

Categories: Behind the scenes

Tagged As: Horror, Writer's Digest, Writing advice