Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2019 i The Writer

Do you have a Bad Season? That’s what writer Rachel Wilkerson Miller calls “the annual two- to four-month period of the year when you just feel sad, mad, uncomfortable in your own skin, and angry at all of your clothes.” I have a Bad Season. Worse, it’s a Writing Bad Season, where I’m sad, mad, uncomfortable in my own book, and angry at all of my sentences. And I suspect I’m not the only one. For most writers, it’s likely winter – there’s a reason why Jack Torrance didn’t pick up the ax until the first frost. But for me, it’s early spring. I can survive cold as long as the sun’s shining, but weeks of rain whittle my nerves to their breaking point. Once the snow thaws, I’m wickedly…

The distinction between literary fiction and commercial fiction isn’t straightforward. Some chalk it up to language, categorizing artful and stylistic use as literary. Others put the dividing line at action within the narrative, with commercial fiction focusing more on plot and literary fiction emphasizing character. Still others look at the numbers, deeming work commercial if it has the potential to sell well. Conversations surrounding the definitions of these terms have also sparked debate in the writing community. Some writers prefer to cast aside these labels. In 2006, novelist and short story writer John Updike wrote, “But let me add that I am dismayed by the recent rise of the term ‘literary fiction,’ denoting a genre almost as rarefied and special and ‘curious’ in its appeal, to contemporary Americans, as poetry.”…

Soon-to-be college graduates: You have gotten – or will get – advice from a long line of well-meaning relatives and family friends regarding your upcoming writing career. Based on their confused stares and concerned tones, you may have considered entering a more stable profession such as cobbling or inseminating horses. I’m here to tell you that you should keep your fingers on the home row and out of the business end of a thoroughbred. If I were 22 again, I’d do many things differently. I’d talk to girls instead of finding comfort in not being rejected. I’d ditch the goatee that made me look like the pudgy afterthought in a shitty boy band. I would not give up writing; I would give up how I entered the field. In 2000,…

Writing is all about craft, and like any artistic endeavor, you must practice to perfect it. Editors and publishers know when a piece of writing is working, and good readers can tell the difference between an amateur and a seasoned wordsmith. For most writers, perfecting the craft of fiction takes years. It takes great devotion to the genre. It takes serious commitment. As Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialist philosopher and author of several philosophical novels, said, “Commitment is an act, not a word.” For a serious writer, what does that commitment look like, and how prescriptive is it? Must you write every single day of your life? If you don’t, are you being unfaithful to your calling? How do successful writers go about their writing life? Well, we asked. As you might…

One recent trend in American publishing is the rise of bilingual authors boycotting the established practice of italicizing non-English words, arguing that it’s not simply a neutral expression of style. While the practice is used to inform “a reader that she hasn’t come across a typo or an English word she doesn’t know…the practice reinforces a monolinguistic culture of othering,” explains novelist Thu-Huong Ha in an article in Quartzy. English-speaking readers generally expect to have foreign words or concepts explained to them. They may be uncomfortable around people who speak different languages (how many iterations of “speak English, you’re in America now” have you heard over the years?) or by people who speak English with an accent. Multilingual writers are trying to change things by persuading the English-speaking reader to…

Almost every other guidebook author I’ve spoken to hates the process of creating draft maps. I must be a little odd, because I enjoy drafting maps. But there’s no denying that the process is tedious. The good news is that you’re not drawing your maps entirely from scratch. The first step is to find a base map — for outdoorsy guidebooks that’ll usually be a topo with your GPS track(s) overlaid on it, while for a travel book it might be something like Google Maps. Then you grab a handful of colored pens and label anything that might be of interest to your reader: Driving routes, land features, water features, public-use cabins, campsites, and so on for outdoorsy guidebooks, or major roadways and towns, notable landmarks, hotels, restaurants, gift shops,…

While many publishers will purchase stock photography or let you solicit pictures from others to fill in any gaps in your coverage, make no mistake about it: You are the primary source of photos for your guidebook. But that doesn’t mean you have to run right out and start buying zoom lenses that are as long as your arm. For most authors — especially those who are traveling incognito — a combination of smartphone photography and a compact DSLR or mirrorless camera with an unobtrusive zoom lens is more than adequate. Here are my favorite tips to keep in mind when shooting for your guidebook: Chat with your publisher ahead of time about how many images they want per chapter, any particular subject matter they want, what format to shoot…

Choosing an MFA program is a big decision. Before you take the student-loan leap, it's worth doing some serious research to find the program for you. That's where The Insider's Guide to Graduate Degrees in Creative Writing comes in. Written by University of New Hampshire professor (and founder of the Best American Experimental Writing series) Seth Abramson, this guide covers MA, MFA, and PhD programs in America and around the world. But Abramson's book is no mere directory of schools; rather, it attempts to serve as a sort of FAQ for students interested in pursuing a higher degree. Abramson answers questions on a range of subjects including funding, the application process, and finding a job after graduation. The author offers lengthy answers to tough questions like “How much does the…

Every few months, I teach freelance journalism at an adult education center in Boston, and the first thing I tell my students is that I didn’t become a journalist until I was 30. This always gets the assembled realtors, lawyers, government workers, retirees, and unemployed millennials to sit up a little straighter and pay attention. When I admit that I never worked on my school paper or went to journalism school – yet was a foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times of London and Newsweek and have had bylines in many major American publications – relieved smiles stretch across their faces. I sum up my opener with: It’s never too late. Conversely, I’ve heard from more than a few recent journalism school graduates about how frustrated they are not to…

Rachel Weaver: “If you can write for hours a day, do it! But if you can’t because you have other responsibilities, you are in good company. I’d recommend not beating yourself up over how many hours you should be writing. Instead, pay attention to what you are gaining as you begin to move through the world as a writer when you are not writing.” Alix Ohlin: “I once met a writer who told me she wrote her (very good) novel one sentence at a time whenever her car was stopped at a red light. To me it sounded impossible, not to mention dangerous. But her story always reminds me that time is where you find it, and putting one sentence after the next is how every book gets made.” Joan…

When Sarah Pekkanen marched into the corporate office of Simon & Schuster in 2008 to meet her editor, Greer Hendricks, for the first time, she’d prepared herself for a somewhat daunting exchange. Hendricks wouldn’t be rude, no, but Pekkanen expected a typical Manhattan editor – dressed in swaths of black, peering out over her glasses, red pen waiting like a knife up her sleeve. Pekkanen had specifically sought Hendricks to be her editor for her upcoming debut novel, The Opposite of Me, as the Simon & Schuster veteran had built a sterling reputation working with authors including Jennifer Weiner (Good in Bed), Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), and co-authors Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin (The Nanny Diaries). Pekkanen, pregnant at the time of their meeting, had drafted…

One of the most common questions I get is how I take notes while I’m on a hike. Some people carry a pencil and notepad, while others record notes in a voice recorder. I’ve tried both, and finally settled on using a smartphone GPS app (Gaia GPS) that lets me type notes into waypoint markers and even attach photos to waypoints. That way I can quickly snap a photo or type in my notes, then keep hiking and, later, cross-reference those pictures and entries to their locations on the trail. You can use the same tools for travel guidebooks. But I’ve found it most convenient to keep a running list of interesting attractions and key information — whether in my favorite notes/lists app or on a plain old notepad —…

In 2010, the U.S. economy was recovering from a recession. Many magazines and newspapers either went out of business or moved their print publications online. Writer Kim Winternheimer listened to concerns about the potential death of physical books. She watched the demise of the Best New American Voices anthology. But rather than despair, she started The Masters Review as a way of celebrating emerging writers in an online literary journal. “I made a deal with myself to stick with it through a lot of challenges,” she says. “Part of the game is staying in the game.” Nine years later, staff at The Masters Review publish fiction and narrative nonfiction as well as book reviews and interviews on their blog. They host contests for short stories and flash fiction and publish…

Before you can approach an editor or publishing house, it’s a good idea to seek agent representation. The following agents are a small sampling of what the industry has to offer. Find more listings at writermag.com. Information in this section is provided to The Writer by the individual markets and events; for more information, contact those entities directly. F = Fiction N = Nonfiction P = Poetry C = Children’s Y = Young adult O = Other F N C Y 3 SEAS LITERARY AGENCY Represents romance, women’s fiction, science fiction/fantasy, YA and middle-grade fiction, and select nonfiction titles. Query by email only. No attachments. Contact: Michelle Grajkowski or Cori Deyoe, 3 Seas Literary Agency, P.O. Box 444, Sun Prairie, WI 53590. 608-834-9317. queries@threeseaslit.com threeseasagency.com F N THE AARON M.…

I open my PC and begin clacking away on my keyboard, each noise a click forward in my memoir. A paragraph of gibberish forms on screen, jagged red lines below nearly every word. I look down. As my fingers press each small black box, wrong words – or barely words – form. I narrow down my damage, realizing several keys are broken and, while pressable, no longer relay brain → finger → screen messages as commanded. How does a problem so random begin? An image seeps across my mind: My 1-year-old and her hand, which barely covers six keys, smacking across my keyboard-covered lap as soon as I reach a good pace. Over and over and over again. Her shrieks of joy and each clap of her mini-palm on my…

TEN YEARS AGO, I WENT LOOKING FOR A BOOK DEAL. I was armed with several years of weekly hiking columns I’d penned for a local newspaper – proof that I not only walked the walk on a regular basis, but I knew how to write about it, too – and a blithe assurance that transforming them into a guidebook would be as simple as making a few tweaks here and there. The process ended up being harder, and taking longer, than I’d imagined. But it was also a rewarding introduction to the guidebook genre. So far, I’ve written three guidebooks – two on hiking plus a travel guidebook that won a nice award from the North American Travel Journalists Association – with more to come. From book proposal (and rejection)…

Guidebook authors are chosen for their insider knowledge, but sometimes that deep familiarity can make you forget what it’s like to visit a new place or try an activity for the first time. The more you can put yourself in your audience’s shoes, combining your knowledge with their sense of wonder, the more relatable your writing will be. Consider the following prompts: Imagine that you’re explaining the place or activity to an elderly family member; start from square one and provide critical facts to build up context. Who would this subject be a particular challenge for? Who would this subject be of particular interest to? What would you point out to your best friend if they were with you on the visit/tour/outing? Ask other people what they remember/like/dislike most about…

Craig Morgan Teicher’s most recent poetry collection, The Trembling Answers, was the winner of the 2018 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Personal and compelling in his exploration of fatherhood and family, Teicher’s work conveys self-reflection and struggle. Teicher is also a well-respected poetry critic and is the director of digital operations for Publishers Weekly. In addition to his latest book of poetry, he is also the author of the essay collection We Begin in Gladness: How Poets Progress. Why poetry? My mother died when I was 14. We were close, and after she died, I needed to talk to somebody. Poetry was where I could do that talking in her absence. I started when I was 15. I had a wonderful English teacher in 10TH grade. Being taught poetry in a…