(Turning Your Career Into a Book (with Alexandra Gater))

In the season finale of “Writer’s Digest Presents,” editor-in-chief Amy Jones and literary agent Jessica Berg talk about why writers should consider writing retreats, what you can expect from the Writer’s Digest Writing Retreat in Tuscany this spring, and more. Scroll to the bottom of this page for more information on the retreat.

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About the Writer’s Digest Writing Retreat: Tuscany 2026

Escape to the peaceful Tuscan countryside to spend a week dedicated to making time for writing, improving your craft, and learning from publishing professionals, all while enjoying a taste of Italy!

Tour Dates

April 7 – April 14, 2026

Tour Includes

• 2 nights in Florence 
• 5 nights on a nature reserve in the hills of Tuscany, an 1,100-acre organic farm, Tenuta di Spannocchia 
• All breakfasts, 5 dinners, and 5 lunches 
• Coach transportation to and from Spannocchia 
• Farm tour, a pasta making class, and a day trip to Siena 
• Friendly and knowledgeable local tour guide 
• Dedicated writing time, instruction, and 1-1 coaching in the scenic Tuscan countryside

Click here to learn more and to register today.

The post The Benefits of a Writing Retreat appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(The Craft of Writing Horror (with Carson Faust))

In this episode of “Writer’s Digest Presents,” Michael Woodson chats with interior designer and author Alexandra Gater about the process of writing her how-to book, Own Your Space, where she offers advice for other professionals looking to write their own books, the importance of the proposal in nonfiction writing, her literary agent experience, and more.

About the Author

Alexandra Gater is a stylist and home decor expert, connecting with millions through her home makeover videos on YouTube. She makes design accessible for renters and homeowners alike and believes everyone deserves to live in a beautiful space that feels like home, no matter their budget. Alexandra started her career as the Home Editor for Canada’s iconic lifestyle magazine Chatelaine, and her work has been featured in Apartment Therapy, Clever by Architectural Digest, and Domino Magazine. She lives in Toronto.

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From the Episode

On Following The Proposal

“The hardest thing for me was—it was all in my head, and I was like, How do I get this down on paper? And Paige, my agent, really helped me with that initial proposal, and to be honest, putting in all that work for the proposal made writing the book so much easier. I followed that proposal section by section, so I did a lot of the heavy lifting prior. It’s actually how I approached essays in university—I would think a lot about my essay, and then I would write it in a condensed amount of time.”

On Literary Agent Green Flags

“My biggest green flag was honestly just the vibes were it. Her initial email to me was … it was so clear that she was a viewer of my content, that she understood my brand. She wasn’t like, ‘You should write a book!’ she was like, ‘Have you ever considered writing a book?’ And then when I got on a call with her, she was just so warm, so lovely. I could tell she really knew her stuff. And I think green flags are just feeling like that person has your back and understands the industry much more than you do.”

On Believing In Herself

“I think it can be really easy to feel super disheartened in any industry having someone tell you, no. I think for me, I’ve always been like, No I can do it. I think that belief in myself has gotten me pretty far. Some would say it might be delusional, but I’m truly like, ‘I can do this, and I really want to do it.’ Writing a book, if you don’t have any interest in that, would not recommend, because you gotta be in it.”

Watch or Listen Here

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(Keeping Young Readers Engaged with Alyssa Colman)

In this episode of “Writer’s Digest Presents,” we’re chatting with author Carson Faust about writing southern gothic fiction, his debut novel If the Dead Belong Here, how to perfect styles of writing you admire as a reader, and more.

About Carson Faust

Carson Faust is two-spirit and an enrolled member of the Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe of South Carolina. He is the recipient of fellowships from the McKnight Foundation and the Jerome Foundation. His fiction has appeared in Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology. He lives in Minnesota. Learn more at CarsonFaust.com, and follow him on Instagram.

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From The Episode

“Horror is a way to bring the past directly to the page. “

“I’m interested in survival as a collective action more than the hyper individualistic, ‘one person will survive’ aspect. I think the characters that are most successful in getting closer to what they want are the ones who find one another, support one another, and build on each other’s knowledge. None of them [the characters] agree, which is actually their strength. None of them are exactly the same in how they think of the world, but it’s all of those perspectives coming together that allow for some version of—as close to success as one can get in this incredibly flawed world that we have.”

“Craft is not something that happens when you shut the word out and you emerge from your chrysalis a savant. It happens when you engage meaningfully with the world in whatever way feels more correct to you.”

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(Meet Cutes, Miscommunication, and Queer Romance with Chip Pons)

In this episode of “Writer’s Digest Presents,” middle-grade author Alyssa Colman sits down to discuss how to keep young readers engaged, how writing what she wanted to know more about kept her engaged, and her new historical fiction, Where Only Storms Grow, now available.

About the Author

Alyssa Colman is the author of Where Only Storms Grow, The Tarnished Garden, and The Gilded Girl, which won the 2021 Northern Lights Book Award for middle grade fantasy. Publishers Weekly called the story “a thoughtful and imaginative exploration of friendship, internal change, and perseverance” in a starred review. Alyssa lives in northern Virginia with her family.

From the Episode

“I do not like drafting. I make terrible noises when I’m drafting. I whine as I’m typing, I just want it to be over. For me, the magic of writing is in rewriting.”

“I think that encouraging writing as a living, breathing thing is the best we can do for kids. Because when they have to write stories and essays, it often feels like, ‘Why do we have to do this?’ But then you realize how many people make a living doing that, and being able to express your ideas in a coherent, well-written form is so important.”

“The best advice I can offer writers is—you’re going to hear a lot of people say ‘read,’ but what you should really do is reread. Once you’ve read something for a story, and you’ve fallen in love with it, go back and read it again, and figure out how the author made you care. Read just the dialogue on a page to see how the conversation connects.”

Listen Or Watch Here

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(Writing Fiction Based On Your Life: A Chat With Jessica Berg)

In this episode of “Writer’s Digest Presents,” editor Michael Woodson sits down with Robert to discuss his new book American Scare: Florida’s Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives (on sale today), how he infuses literary sensibilities to his historical nonfiction, and more.

About the Author

Robert W. Fieseler is a journalist investigating marginalized groups and a scholar excavating forgotten histories. A National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association Journalist of the Year and recipient of the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, his debut book Tinderbox won seven awards, including the Edgar Award, and his reporting has appeared in Slate, Commonweal, and River Teeth, among others. Fieseler graduated co-valedictorian from the Columbia Journalism School and is pursuing a PhD at Tulane University as a Mellon Fellow. He lives with his husband on the gayest street in New Orleans.

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From the Episode

On Choosing What to Write About: “It’s a lot like falling in love, but from a horrific standpoint, because you’re dealing with history. It’s typically something that engages me intellectually while simultaneously taking this side door into my heart in a way where I can’t stop obsessing about it.“

“I have this problem that I’ve had since I was very little where I want to know the story that others don’t want me to know. That’s the juicy stuff! That’s the gay gossip!”

On Incorporating Fiction Craft Practices In Literary Nonfiction: “I love nonfiction that can employ literary and aesthetic sensibilities, where they have respect for the line, for the musicality of language, where they have a respect for and an understanding of mood and atmosphere, which is very difficult to communicate to an academic historian, but I think it matters. I also love plotting, set-up and pay-off, introducing threads and paying them off later. And I like the way that literature allows for revelation—where there’s just moments where you feel like you’re entire body’s lit up.”

Listen To The Episode

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(How To Be More Media-Savvy: A Chat With Paula Rizzo)

In this episode of “Writer’s Digest Presents,” editor Michael Woodson sits down with author and literary agent Jessica Berg about how to write fiction based on your life, how you can find inspiration everywhere, how to mine your life for story ideas in real time, and more.

About Jessica Berg

Jessica Berg is a literary agent, author, and the founder of Rosecliff Literary, where she champions bold, emotionally resonant fiction with unforgettable characters, strong stakes, and a sense of urgency.

She is especially drawn to literary, upmarket, historical, and supernatural suspense, with a soft spot for haunting atmosphere, richly layered relationships, and characters who carry deep emotional wounds.

A multi-nominated writer with an MFA from Spalding University, Jessica brings a sharp editorial eye and a hands-on, strategic approach to agenting. She is a member of AALA and EFA and provides developmental feedback for Writer’s Digest. Represented by Amy Collins at Talcott Notch, she splits her time between crafting her own stories and guiding her clients through every stage of their publishing careers.

From The Episode

On How Much Fiction to Put Into Our Life On the Page: “I think part of what we do as authors is cathartic. We’re working through our own Big-T Trauma, little-t trauma, to understand why we act the way we do. So, how much do we put in? I think we take the juiciest bits and then we twist them and we fictionalize them and dramatize them so that they feel familiar because they’re lived experiences, but they’re not so thinly veiled that our friends and family will be able to say, ‘Oh actually, I remember it differently.'” – Jessica Berg

On Having Enough Curiosity to Find Story Everywhere: “I was on a girl’s trip with a bunch of author and publishing pals. We’re on the train, and we see one shoe. It’s a group of four women, and we see one shoe, and we all are in publishing and writing in some way, and immediately we start telling a story. ‘Oh well this happened and then this happened,’ right? Because that’s what we do as humans. Now, the person who lost the shoe, they’re probably like, ‘Oh, I lost a shoe.’ It’s not a most significant moment, but to us it was this really fun experience to say, ‘What happened and how did it happen?’ and we were able to construct narrative around it. So, when we look at how our lives might not be ‘dramatic enough’ or full enough or have experiences worth telling, I have to say that’s not true. Because that example reinforced to me the fact that all you need is a little bit of curiosity, and then you can talk about anything.” – Jessica Berg

On A Feeling Being A Truth From Life for Our Fiction: “The concept of something can also be truth from our lives. I was asked to write a story about the coming out experience. I was then interviewed about it, and they asked, ‘Is this true? Did this actually happen?’ And no. Nothing in this story happened, but the feeling that this gives me is true. I decided to run with no event in my life, but the feeling of all of these things—melancholy or nostalgia or something—bring up a truth in me that then was so much easier to fictionalize and put into scenes. I think authors understandably are like, ‘I don’t have a lived experience that I can pull from.’ But how did this thing make you feel? Fictionalize the truth of that feeling.” – Michael Woodson

Listen to “Writing Fiction Based On Your Life” Here

Watch “Writing Fiction Based On Your Life” Here

The post Writing Fiction Based On Your Life: A Chat With Jessica Berg appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(The Art of Writing Whatever You Want: A Chat With Hilary Leichter)

The first job of a writer is to actually write their book. The next is to promote it. But getting in front of a camera or microphone and talking to a live audience isn’t as easy at it may sound, and authors who are used to having thousands of words in a book to lean on may need to come up with just a few minutes of sound bites to help them get their point across.

In this episode of “Writer’s Digest Presents,” content editor Michael Woodson chats with media coach and author Paula Rizzo about why it’s important for writers to learn to be media-savvy, the different kinds of media that can help them promote their work, and how to have every possible answer ready in their back pocket.

About Paula Rizzo

Paula Rizzo is an Emmy Award-winning television producer, bestselling author of Listful Thinking & Listful Living, media-training coach, speaker, LinkedIn Learning Instructor, host of the live-stream show “Inside Scoop,” and creator of the popular online training Media-Ready Author. Grab Paula’s free guide, 10 Media Questions Every Author Needs to Answer, to create buzz for your book.

Listen Now

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(Getting Started In Screenwriting: A Chat With Script Magazine’s Sadie Dean)

In this episode of “Writer’s Digest Presents,” content editor Michael Woodson chats with author Hilary Leichter, author of Temporary and Terrace Story, about ignoring craft rules, not thinking about your readers, and when to ask yourself what you’re afraid of.

About the Author

Hilary Leichter is the author of the novels Temporary and Terrace Story. She has been a finalist for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Prize, and her work in Harper’s Magazine won the 2021 National Magazine Award in Fiction. Terrace Story has been named a best book of 2023 by Time Magazine, The New Yorker, The LA Times, Publishers Weekly, and other publications. Hilary teaches at Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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From the Episode

“I have something controversial to say, which is that I don’t think about my readers at all. And I mean that from a place of deep, deep respect. I think that for any book, the only two people that exist on the page are the author and the reader. The characters are not characters. They’re words. There’s no one in a book. There’s just text and paper. If we’re talking about fiction, there’s no one with real feelings. There’s no one with real experiences. The only real with a capital R people are me and whoever is on the other side reading it. And I don’t want the reader to be thinking about me. I want then to be thinking about the book. And so, for the same reason, I don’t think about the reader. And what that looks like in terms of writing is making every decision about what the experience of reading the book would be for a person, but not thinking about the person who’s reading it. And frankly, not thinking about if anyone will ever read it. If it’s liberating for anyone listening to not care about the reader, but to love them. That’s how I feel.”

“I think there is an idea that we are suppose to write about what we know and write about the world that we live in. But the world we live in is constantly changing. And the person you are when your book comes out is five people past the person you were when you wrote it. I think my books are always kind of this arrow shot into the future. I’m always thinking about things that I don’t have or haven’t experienced or am wondering about.”

“I think if you’re worrying about craft rules, or if you’re worrying about anything that isn’t in the world of the thing you’re writing, then I think it’s worth sitting back and asking yourself what you’re afraid of. I think when those voices come in—like, Oh, I can’t write this, or I can’t write something this short, or I can’t write something this long, or This is took much like this other thing that already exists, or anything like that, that’s not really about the thing. you’re writing. I think it’s a signal that youa re circling the red-hot center of whatever you’re writing, and it’s terrifying you. Shifting to like, Well, what am I so afraid of putting on the page? Then the answer to that question is what your book is about a lot of the time.”

Listen Here

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(The Intersection of Personal History and Historical Fiction: A Chat With Sharon Short)

In the first episode of season four of the “Writer’s Digest Presents” podcast, content editor Michael Woodson sits down with Script magazine’s editor-in-chief Sadie Dean to help writers get started in screenwriting.

Listen to Podcast Here

Watch the Podcast Here

Other Resources For Screenwriting

Script Magazine

Script University

SimplyScripts

Script Reader Pro

The Internet Movie Script Database

The post Getting Started In Screenwriting: A Chat With Script Magazine’s Sadie Dean appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(How Fight Scenes Can Reveal Character)

In the final episode of “Writer’s Digest Presents,” editor-in-chief Amy Jones and content editor Michael Woodson chat with author Sharon Short about her new novel, Trouble Island, how she fictionalizes real events, her love of weather in fiction, and more.

About Sharon Short

Sharon Short is the author of 16 published books. She is a contributing editor to Writer’s Digest, for which she writes the column, “Level Up Your Writing (Life)” and teaches for Writer’s Digest University. She is a frequent, in-demand speaker at libraries, book clubs, and writing groups.

Under the pen name Jess Montgomery, she is also the author of the award-winning Kinship Historical Mysteries set in 1920s Appalachia and inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff.

She is a three-time recipient of the Individual Excellence Award in Literary Arts from Ohio Arts Council, a two-time recipient of the Montgomery County (Ohio) Arts & Cultural District Individual Artist Fellowship, and has been a John E. Nance Writer in Residence at Thurber House (Columbus, Ohio).

Sharon attended Wright State University (Dayton, Ohio), where she earned a B.A. in English with Honors and a French minor, and Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, Ohio), where she earned an M.A. in English with a specialization in Technical Communication.

Sharon lives in southern Ohio with her husband and their three spoiled cats. She and her husband are also the proud parents of two adult daughters. In her spare time, Sharon enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, swimming, watching good TV and films, and hiking.

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