Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i The Writer

One of my favorite ways to deal with a problem is to bury it in the darkest corner of my mind and try to forget it exists. Hey, I didn’t say best. I said favorite. Because it’s certainly the coping strategy my mind reaches for first when presented with a dilemma. Sadly, burying seed woes does not a solution tree make, and sooner or later, I need to stop avoiding eye contact with whatever’s causing my anxiety. The issue, I think, is that my brain likes to convince itself that the problem is too big, too menacing, too complicated for my tiny self to face. This is a lie, plain and simple, and all it usually takes to confront that invented nonsense is to break out my favorite pen and…

Aesop’s fables, those very short stories involving tortoises and hares and mice and such, are considered by many to be the first flash fiction. In more contemporary times, we have the literary flash magazine Vestal Review, founded in March 2000. Vestal’s editor, David Galef, wrote Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook (Columbia University Press, 2016). “A good piece of flash resonates with me in a way that a longer story doesn’t,” he explains. “It’s like a perfect miniature, like those portraits you used to see in museums – tiny pictures of someone’s face in which everything – setting, description, character development – is perfectly proportioned.” Galef and his staff are eclectic in their taste, and they deeply appreciate diversity. “We’re especially seeking submissions from underrepresented authors,” he notes. Tone, editorial content…

How does one find submission guidelines for nonfiction magazines? I’ve been looking up specific magazines online and can only find information about how to subscribe. (I am new at this.) —FOOT IN THE DOOR Dear Foot in the Door, You say you’re new at this, so I’m going to assume that you don’t have the verbiage of this business down pat yet, either. Reading between the lines of your query, when you say “nonfiction magazines,” you mean “consumer magazines,” like you might find on the newsstands. Think Newsweek, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, and GQ. These are also the publications whose guidelines are most likely to be difficult to find, which might explain your confusion. And – you’re right! Some of these publications are also not likely to even post their…

IT should go without saying that any manuscript that we submit for publication should be so free of sin and error that it will go straight to heaven the very second that the end comes. Perfection should be baseline. Or, at least, near-perfection. I work with a lot of different manuscripts (my own, my students’, my professional clients’ and colleagues’) and, frankly, most of them are a mess. They have allegedly been spellchecked and proofread, but we all know that the hand that makes the error is connected to the eye that can’t see it. Likewise, the computer that didn’t detect the error in the first place won’t find it later. A fundamental problem these days is that we’ve all become dependent on our software to catch mistakes, and the…

Workshoppy Writing conferences are packed with panel discussions, keynote speeches, and workshops to help hone your writing. Because of COVID, most workshops have gone virtual for 2021. It’s worth double-checking their plans as changes are happening each day. Here are some tips for making the most out of conference craft sessions. Information in this section is provided to The Writer by the individual markets and events; for more information, contact those entities directly. CONFERENCES ALASKA Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference Homer, Alaska, May 15-18 (virtual). Offers daily workshops, readings, and panel presentations in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and the business of writing. Manuscript reviews and academic credit also available. Closing speaker: Ernestine Hayes. Contact: Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference. rsbrewer@alaska.edu writersconference.homer.alaska.edu ARIZONA Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference Tempe, Arizona, February 18-21 (virtual). Hosted…

PLANNING TOOLS 1. THE WRITER’S PLANNER This coil-bound, undated planner is designed specifically for novel writers, featuring dedicated sections for character development, writing goals, world mapping, and story structure, among others. It also contains tracking pages for word count, expenses, income, submissions, and mood/sleep. $28.95, laurakinker.com 2. DOWNLOADABLE BOOK RELEASE PLAN Create a custom timeline for each book you release into the world with these downloadable planning sheets, offering spaces to schedule everything from final plotting and editing to sending out ARCs and designing countdown-to-launch graphics. $6.99, etsy.com/shop/ohsonovel 3. READ HARDER BOOK TRACKER This reading log, created by Book Riot, allows you to jot down each title you read this year, along with space to leave your impressions and reviews. The book also contains reading challenges to expand your bookish horizons,…

A table of contents is an odd little thing: usually forgotten in the heat of creating a first draft but so useful to focus, shape, and pace later drafts. At some point during the second draft – possibly a “blocked” day, when a manuscript’s progression stalls – it’s quite useful to set up your novel’s table, where an author works through chapter titles and lengths and gains the sense of through-line that comes with this knowledge. Here’s an example for a working table of contents for Feenie Bailey and the Dog Days Mystery, a middle grade novel. Titling chapters First things first: It’s time to name the chapters in your draft. When it comes to titling chapters, the idea is to come up with something. This is a working table…

PROMPTS FOR LOCKDOWN Stuck inside? Let these exercises and exploratory questions transport you. SETTING THE SCENE Choose a setting from the following list as the setting for a short story in your favorite genre: WORDPLAY Ready to loosen up your linguistic muscles? These wordy workouts will help. PERSONAL REFLECTION Looking for some opportunities to delve deep into introspection this winter? These soul-searching exercises might help. 28-DAY WORD CHALLENGE If you’ve been feeling stuck or uninspired lately, perhaps a month of play is just the ticket to revive your regular writing practice. Schedule a freewriting session each day in February, using the words below as your springboard for each freewrite. (You can go in order or make a list, cut them out, and pull one out of a hat each day…

READERS should use caution when entering into any legal contract with a literary service offering agenting-type assistance; publishers who charge, rather than pay, an author for publication; publishers who require a purchase before publication and contests that charge high entrance fees. The Writer also recommends requesting a list of references and submission guidelines before submitting a manuscript. If you have any concerns regarding the advertiser’s commitment or claims, please contact the advertiser and make certain all questions are answered to your satisfaction. ADVERTISERS We do not accept ads from agents or businesses that charge a reading or marketing fee; Subsidy Publishers: Copy of contract. In order to effectively handle questions from our readers regarding the products and services of our advertisers, the staff of The Writer asks that you provide…