Picture Book or Short Story? Which is it?

Literary agent for children's book authors Mary Cummings explains the biggest mistake she sees in picture book pitches—and how you can avoid making that mistake.

Writer's Digest

Recording myself reading my story for publication - writers life.
Waiting to record until after the parrots and cicadas shut up - Melbourne life. Catching a lucky break as the cats are quiet (only one of them is loud) - my life in this household.

Tired now. Bed time.

#WritingShortStories #WritingCommunity

Maybe my favourite ever passage from a book on writing:

"So, this isn’t graceless writing; this is a great writer writing a graceless writer writing. (And not only that: it’s a great writer writing a graceless writer writing about a world in which a severed nose winds up in a loaf of bread.)"

This being from George Saunders' "A Swim in a Pond in the Rain," talking about Gogol's "The Nose."

Saunders' book is one of the best books of instruction for writers of short fiction that I've ever encountered. It's deep (I've been working through it slowly, a chapter at a time) but practical and rewarding.

(The Saunders book isn't focused on specfic but still works for it superlatively, IMO. But if short specfic is your thing, I think Ben Bova's "The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells" does something similar & is a way underrated writing text for its clarity and practicality.) #WritingCommunity #WritingShortStories #ShortStories #GeorgeSaunders

What are the best/most active #vss hashtags with writing prompts on Mastodon? I'm a regular contributor on Twitter but looking to get more active here. Anyone have any suggestions?
#writingcommuity #writerscommunity #amWriting #writingscfi #writingshortstories #vssdaily #vsshorror #VSSImagine #vssdreams #vssmagic
How I Interviewed a Serial Killer and Stayed Sane | Writer's Digest

In order to write a section of her book Our Symphony With Animals, Dr. Aysha Akhtar had to talk to a serial killer. Here, she reveals how she stayed sane.

Writer's Digest