WD Presents: 6 WDU Courses, the Personal Essay Awards Winners, and More!

There's always so much happening in the Writer's Digest universe that even staff members have trouble keeping up. As a result, we decided to start collecting what's on the horizon to make it easier for everyone to know what's happening and when.

This week, we're excited to announce 6 WDU courses, the Personal Essay Awards winners, and more!

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Do you remember the difference between the 8 parts of speech and how to use them? Are you comfortable with punctuation and mechanics?

No matter what type of writing you do, mastering the fundamentals of grammar and mechanics is an important first step to having a successful writing career.

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Are you ready to take the next step toward a final draft of your novel? This course is for you! Join Mark Spencer in an intensive 16-week coaching session focused entirely on your novel in progress. You'll work with Mark on your choice of up to 60,000 words of your novel or two drafts of up to 30,000 words each.

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Creative Writing 101 combines teaching the key elements of storytelling with developing the protagonist. Once you understand who this character is and how to make sure you’ve included the key story elements, you are well on your way to writing that book you have been squelching.

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This course guides beginning and intermediate writers through elements of how to write a personal essay, helping them identify values expressed in their stories and bring readers into the experiences described. Writers learn how to avoid the dreaded responses of “so what?" and “I guess you had to be there" by utilizing sensory details, learning to trust their writing intuitions, and developing a skilled internal editor to help with revision.

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Discover how the seven core competencies of storytelling—concept, character, voice, plot, theme, scene construction, and style—combine to create compelling narrative.

By understanding the engineering and design of a story, and using Larry Brooks’ Story Engineering and Nancy Dodd’s The Writer’s Compass, you’ll learn how to quickly and effectively get your story out of your head and onto the page.

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Do you yearn to write a romantic story? If so, you need to know what sets romance writing apart from other types of fiction.

This course explores why romance is the same, yet different. Some essential components of romance are unique to the genre, while some romance requirements are identical to those of any good fiction story. Neither Stephen King nor Tom Clancy could sit down and write a romance unless he first familiarized himself with the specific factors that create a successful romance.

This course will help you to understand those specific factors that make up the specialized world of romantic fiction.

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Congratulations to all the winners of the Third Annual Writer's Digest Personal Essay Awards! Read an interview with the First-Place winner Toni Lepeska in the May/June 2023 issue of Writer's Digest.

Want an opportunity to win a WD award? Keep checking our competitions page for upcoming competitions.

Click here for the full list of winners.

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Are you caught up on our podcast yet? Listen to the latest "Writer's Digest Presents" episodes now before our April episode streams on Tuesday, April 18!

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