Innehållsförteckning för November 2019 från The Writer

Every now and then, I meet a writer who doesn’t read. I’m not talking about writers who are too busy, frazzled, or exhausted to pick up this year’s Great American Novel; I’m talking about writers who have the time, energy, and resources to read and refuse, because – well, because of a number of reasons: There may be tiny kernels of truth or logic in all of these points, but I admit I never quite know what to say when I hear them. Personally, I learn something new – more often, a thousand new somethings – about the craft of writing whenever I read another author’s work. But the lost opportunity to learn from a master isn’t the only reason to pick up a book now and then. Because when…

“Learning how to shape your ideas into well-crafted pieces of writing is essentially learning how to think critically and creatively at the same time,” Tara Mokhtari writes in the introduction of The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing, now in its second edition. “Any good writing teacher will tell you that learning how to write is tantamount to learning how to think…The key theme of this book is the relationship between knowledge derived from experience and the pursuit of writing.” Mokhtari asserts this approach is part of what makes her text stand out from the rest in the industry: “I am interested not only in craft, but also in how the creative process creates new ways into knowledge, and how refining and practicing craft can complicate our relationship to the world,”…

Years ago, a professor told me that there were two types of writers: those who could write dialogue, and those who couldn’t. Kind of a reductive, jerky thing to say to an aspiring writer, but over the years, I discovered that it had a kernel of truth to it. Some writers DID create dialogue that sizzled on the page. Others settled for pedestrian, functional-but-not-WOW dialogue. So, how does a writer join the ranks of that first group – those who make dialogue matter? The answer: Observe what talented writers of dialogue do, and then follow suit. To that end, here are some of their most useful tips, tricks, and ideas. 1 KEEP IT REAL… The first step in creating authentic language is to acknowledge that real people often speak in…

Elinor Lipman’s novels are filled with interesting characters, observational wit, sharp dialogue, and storylines that keep the reader curious about where the plot is going. They share certain elements, such as romantic relationships, family issues, and unforgettable female protagonists, yet each book feels wholly unique. Her latest novel, Good Riddance, follows Daphne Maritch, a woman who can’t understand why her mother left her a 1968 high school yearbook with mysterious notes written in it. In a cleaning binge, Maritch tosses it – only to have it quickly recovered by her aspiring filmmaker neighbor, who vows to turn the yearbook into a documentary. Lipman is also a talented writer of essays, two of which have appeared in the “Modern Love” section of the New York Times. Her first novel, Then She…

NaNoWriMo started in July, 1999 (yes, July, not November), when founder Chris Baty invited 20 of his friends to join him on an audacious creative venture: to write 50,000 words of a novel in one month. Since then, those 20 friends have grown into a global community of writers who write together in various ways throughout the year, and they’ve put up some big numbers: 1,000+ NOVELS EITHER TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED OR SELFPUBLISHED AFTER NANOWRIMO 24,806,635,218 WORDS HAVE BEEN RECORDED ON THE NANOWRIMO WEBSITE 1,589 AVERAGE NUMBER OF YEARS IT WOULD TAKE YOU TO COUNT TO 24,806,635,218 3,000,000+ PEOPLE HAVE SIGNED UP TO WRITE 200+ COUNTRIES WITH NANOWRIMO PARTICIPANTS 7 CONTINENTS THAT HOST NANOWRIMO WRITERS (YES, INCLUDING ANTARCTICA) We’re toasting 20 years of novel-writing chutzpah, motivation, and derring-do by going down…

I wasn’t thrilled to delete a favorite chapter from my latest book – a story about how several kids’ books my neighbor placed in my family’s Little Free Library helped my young daughter to overcome anxiety and depression. But I cut it anyway because I agreed with my editor that the tone and content didn’t mesh with the rest of the chapters. Still, trashing the piece I’d labored on and loved hurt. And so, on a whim, I revised it as a stand-alone essay and sent it to Real Simple. The magazine accepted it. Editors published it along with a photo and my bio. I earned a hefty paycheck and a top-notch venue in which to showcase an essay directly related to my nonfiction work Better with Books: 500 Diverse…

IN ORDER TO MAKE a living while also pursuing the arts, I feel it’s best to aim low. Being a writer, I myself cobble together a living from multiple, mostly unimpressive sources. One: I work part time at a community center, where I’m paid a modest wage to unlock the building on Saturdays for toddler ballet, shred papers for the office staff, read the newspaper, and add up attendance numbers. I also pass on comments from patrons to my supervisor, such as: “There’s a bee’s nest under that metal thingy that holds the basketball hoop.” Or: “We don’t like these toddler dance classes to start so early. We like to sleep in on Saturdays.” Two: I work a few hours a week for a pair of old people, who honestly…

Ask two dozen editors what the future holds for literary magazines, and you get two dozen answers (beautifully rendered, of course – the editors are also talented writers themselves). After noting the recent closures of a number of literary titles, we contacted people in the literary community to discuss the genre’s future, its biggest challenges, and what inspires them at a time when they report receiving more submissions than ever. One thing the two dozen editors we surveyed agreed upon: Literary magazines are changing – evolving to match the times. Here are six things editors are thinking about as 2020 looms. 1 MAKE THAT MONEY: MAGAZINES MUST INNOVATE The late, great literary magazine Glimmer Train long displayed this message on its website: “There is no such thing as a profitable…

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 CONTESTS P AUTUMN HOUSE CHAPBOOK CONTEST Formerly the Coal Hill Review Chapbook Contest. Submit 15-30 pages of poetry by email or regular mail. Final judge of the competition is Gerry LaFemina. Deadline: Nov. 1. Entry fee: $20. Prizes: Publication and $1,000. Contact: Autumn House Press, 5530 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15206. Email from website. autumnhouse.org/submissions/chapbook F THE BIG MOOSE PRIZE Submit unpublished novel through online submission manager only. Manuscripts should be 90-1,000 pages in length. Open to new, emerging, and established writers. Entry through Submittable. Deadline: Jan. 31. Entry…

The Grateful Class of ’68 FOR A FEW WEEKS after my mother’s death, I was in possession of the painstakingly annotated high school yearbook that had been dedicated to her by the grateful class of 1968. Yes, she’d been their English teacher and yearbook advisor, but that didn’t explain her obsessive collecting of signatures and tributes next to every senior’s photo. I could picture her — age twenty-three, her first job after college, roaming the corridors of Pickering High School, pen and book in hand, coaxing the shyest, least engaged boy or girl to sign — Write anything. I want to remember every one of you. Could you personalize it, just a few words? But there would be more— her own embellishments, her judgments and opinions, written next to those…