The Writer's Workout

Learn everything you need to know about query letters!

Picture this: you’re in the querying trenches. You have been stressing over your query letter and sample pages, revising and tweaking until you achieve the desired tone, word count, and hook in the hopes of landing an agent. Then you finally hit “send.” You spend the next few hours, days, weeks obsessively checking your email and overanalyzing the lack of response as both a positive and a negative. The whole process is grueling. A Different Struggle Even so, querying hits dif

We interviewed the Magicfest First Place Overall winner, Brian Lockwood! WW: What encouraged you to participate in Magicfest? BL: I submitted pieces for the Writer's Games in two different years. I enjoyed the challenge, but weekends are a difficult time for me to find time to write. All-day or out-of-town plans can develop fast, and I didn't want to abandon premium family time for the sake of the Games. When Magicfest was announced as a competition that took place during the

We interviewed the Magicfest Second Place Overall winner, Bea Sage! WW: What encouraged you to participate in Magicfest? BS: I’m a Writer’s Games diehard, so the Fests feel like a natural addendum - having said that, the last time I participated in one (Leapfest), I didn’t manage to submit anything for one Event and ended up with a very hastily completed 500-word story for another, so I also wanted to redeem myself on the Fest side of things! WW: What were you worried or nerv

We interviewed the Magicfest Third Place Overall winner, Alyssa Beatty! WW: What encouraged you to participate in Magicfest? AB: I’ve been in a bit of a writing slump and wanted to remind myself that writing is something I do for the joy of it. In short fiction I find fantasy the most fun genre to write in; I always end up with characters or a voice that I really love. I’m deep in the weeds of writing a fantasy novel and it’s becoming a slog, so I wanted to re-ignite that spa

Learn about the exciting topic of writing query letters!

Read all about foreshadowing and the power of planting clues in your narrative.