ARCHIVE FOR The Editors at Dead Darlings

This month at the Dead Darlings, we played a frightening game of WHAT IF(?) Here are some of our top nightmare scenarios and helpful hints to survive catastrophe.

What if someone publishes your idea before you?

Milo Todd saw a similar novel to his get to market first and lived to tell us about it. 

This month at DeadDarlings we turned up the air conditioning and drew our inspiration from some unusual sources. Here is a look at some of the places where we get our ideas:

From the Buddha

Belle Brett meditates about how to know when a project is done in "The Sound of One Hand Clapping." 

Here at the Dead Darlings office we've been asking others for their advice. Last month we spoke to several novelists about craft and looked closer at the stressful process of finding an agent.

From the writers' room

Lauren Grodstein, author of Our Short History, shares how writing for an audience of one helped her find her narrator's voice. 

This month at the Dead Darlings office we spent time preparing for some of the most challenging parts of a writer's life – querying and pitching our work. Tracey Palmer interviewed Cambridge native and debut novelist Louie Cronin about persistence and craft.

Querying

This month at the DeadDarlings Office we took a close look at inspirational ideas, first drafts and what it means to build a series.

Discovering Meaning

In an ambiguous world,Finding True North can be difficult. Lisa Birk looks at how to read and write in a world where definitions are unstable.