Innehållsförteckning för September 2021 från The Writer

Doing what we love Sometimes I wish we treated writing more like running. Or swimming. Or cycling. Or any athletic pursuit, really. I’ve been thinking about this ever since I was asked, during a recent webinar, how new writers could build more confidence in their work’s merit. It was a good question, an understandable and relatable question, but it also struck me as perhaps the wrong question. And it certainly wasn’t the asker’s fault but rather our collective relationship with writing in general. In what other endeavor in life are we so preoccupied with whether something is “good” right out of the gate? Why must we worry about having confidence in the worth of our work when we’re just starting out? If you’re a beginning runner, brand-new to the sport,…

»ConsciousStyleGuide.com Billed as a site “for anyone curious or serious about conscious language,” Conscious Style Guide serves as a database of articles, guides, and resources to help writers think critically about the terms they use to describe appearance, abilities and disabilities, age, race, socioeconomic status, and more. “We study words so that they can become tools instead of unwitting weapons,” explains the website. »LoseTheVery.com This single-use site helps writers enhance simple adjectives instead of relying on the oft-used very. Enter in “very careful,” and the site will suggest “fastidious,” for example, or “humdrum” in place of “very boring.” Be warned: Refreshing the site for new random adjectives quickly becomes addicting. »Ironicsans.com/thsrs That said, sometimes – whether you’re writing headlines or tweets – long words like “fastidious” just won’t fit in…

Eager to try your hand at the 100-word genre? Submit your best work – fiction or nonfiction – in just 100 words in our second annual 100-Word Contest, returning this fall. Bookmark writermag.com/contests for more information. First Place Perennial BY ALICIA LUNA Today, I embrace the soil. “I’m working outside,” I tell my wife. I kneel in submission, remembering Abuela’s botanical cathedral. Lemon, cacti, and tomatoes bear fruit to all I took for granted, desperate to fit in. Wasteful youth. Oakland Teen Serves Time. I miss her kitchen, her breath. “Muy bien, hijo,” the corn says. I smile, and the peppers smile back. I crane my neck to the sun. “See, hijo. The veins of the leaves make the sign of the cross.” The spade grips my hand in hers, willing me to love God.…

Brass Ring Daily Kara Cutruzzula’s daily newsletter with tips for creativity, productivity, collaboration, and inspiration in the midst of self-doubt. Electric Speed Jane Friedman’s free biweekly newsletter with digital tools and resources for writers ranging from how to write a book proposal to how to self-publish. Funds for Writers C. Hope Clark’s free Friday newsletter offers interviews; calls for submissions from magazines and small/midsize book publishers; and information on fellowships, awards, and residencies. Journalist’s Toolbox Part of the Society of Professional Journalists, this biweekly newsletter provides information on digital tools for writers, including audio and video recording apps, chart and graph generators, and podcast software. Opportunities of the Week Sonia Weiser’s twice-weekly round-up of calls for submissions from magazine and newspaper editors around the world. $3/week. Writing Exercises from Matt…

ETHEL ROHAN “A good protagonist consistently, credibly, and uniquely surprises the writer, and in turn the reader. She’s someone readers root for even as she might disappoint, anger, frighten, and repulse because she also excites, tenderizes, and encourages. The great protagonists don’t only change; they effect change in others, including the reader.” LAYLA ALAMMAR “A good protagonist slides under the reader’s skin, sinks their hooks in, and refuses to let go. They become real, in every sense of the word. Readers find themselves thinking of the protagonist’s life before the narrative began, and they imagine the protagonist’s life after the final page. That’s ultimately the writer’s goal – for their characters to take on an existence beyond the story they crafted.” SADIE HOAGLAND “A good protagonist keeps you close –…

99 out of 100 words in your manuscript will look beautiful and professional once laid out by a designer. But occasionally, misfires will happen, especially since books are justified, meaning each paragraph forms a “block” of text with no ragged edges on either side. Each full line looks just as long as the last. Sometimes words might look really stretched out or very cramped in a way that’s distracting. Sometimes words will break unevenly or confusingly from line to line. Maybe you need to flip the page mid-sentence, only to find that there’s just one word remaining in the sentence, and a few adjustments to the layout would allow it to finish on the same page. Professionals at the publisher will hunt through your manuscript and fix these formatting woes…

What is high concept? And dear god, do you have a simple way to write a logline before the actual writing has started? How do you write a logline? —FLAILING Dear, dear Flailing, Wow, that went downhill fast. Here, sit down. Put your head between your knees. Here is a paper bag for you to breathe into. Out, two, three, four. In, two, three, four. Better? OK, here we go. High concept just means it’s easily summarized, easily sold. It’s the thing you can quickly picture being made into a film. It was first coined at the movie studios in the 1970s to describe ideas you could imagine right off the bat. Jurassic Park was high concept. The Wizard of Oz was, too. The Silence of the Lambs? Also high…

What was your writing and revision process like for “Perennial?” I often receive The Writer emails with contest opportunities, and this one had been on my mind for a couple of weeks. One morning, I was inspired by the sunlight sifting through a Japanese Maple in our backyard. That was the day I wrote and entered “Perennial.” Oddly, it came together in one sitting. Before submitting, I asked my husband to read it to make sure it was coherent and to see if he had any editing suggestions. I had struggled to put into words this character who was feeling many things at once. Grief in missing his abuela, regret with how his life impacted her, valuable time he missed when she was living, and gratitude. I knew who I…

Acknowledgments Who do you want to thank for helping your book come into existence? Your agent and editors, surely, but who else? Your partner? Your parents? Your writing group? Your Great-Aunt Hilda who said you’d never amount to anything? Write it all down in your acknowledgments page, which is turned in nearer to the end of the publishing process. Advance When people in publishing talk about the financial side of book contracts – a “six-figure book deal,” for example – it’s easy to think that this means a payment for the book itself: A publisher has agreed to pay six figures for the right to publish a book, we assume. But what this really means is that the publisher has agreed to pay a six-figure advance. It’s a payment made…

You just received an email from your editor, who thinks you wrote a terrific dek and lede, but they’ll be choosing a different hed, and oh, could your nut graf be fleshed out just a bit more? Here are some of the terms you might run into: Hed: The headline. What your work is titled. Dek: The subhead, also called a dek. Generally this is a sentence (or sentence fragment) that follows the headline and gives audiences a little more information about the story they’re about to read. Byline: Wondering who the heck wrote this article? You’ll find out in the byline, which, helpfully, usually begins “By…” Dateline: Where (and often when) the story is filed. Look for them at the beginning of news articles before the actual article text…

“I love the way that each book – any book – is its own journey. You open it, and off you go…”—Sharon Creech OTOTO “NESSIE TALE” BOOKMARK Traditional bookmarks are for squares. Loch Ness Monster bookmarks are for legends. $10, ototodesign.com BOOK DARTS Why simply mark a page when you can mark the last line you read? These slim metal “darts” point to your place without adding heft, also making them ideal for highlighting multiple research passages or quotes. $9.95, stellarfactory.com VEKKIA BOOKMARK BOOK LIGHT Keep turning pages as the sun sets with the help of this light-bookmark combo. It clips onto your book and offers three brightness settings, including warmer light tones for easier-on-the-eyes bedtime reading. $15.99, amazon.com BOBINO BOOKMARK PEN This bookmark-pen combo is a perfect match for…

Eighteen years ago, novelist and poet Erika Dreifus completed an MFA degree and found herself inspired to share literary opportunities and resources with other writers. A newsletter, she decided, would help her to broadcast this information widely while creating a writing community. In 2004, she launched The Practicing Writer, a digital newsletter published on the first day of each month. “I was also trying to cultivate more teaching and related opportunities in the writing world,” Dreifus explains. “The newsletter allowed me to alert subscribers about my own services and courses.” Digital newsletters for writers have been around for decades. Some provide subscribers with writing prompts and short essays on craft. Some feature interviews or author profiles or guest posts by people connected in some way to the literary community. Some,…

To be a successful fiction writer, you need engaging characters, a compelling plot, and riveting language. Clearly conflict is important – fiction thrives on conflict, and conflict drives the plot. A short story or novel without a plot, even if it’s character-driven, isn’t a story; it’s merely a sketch. And the language, of course, is much of what makes fiction live for readers. Vibrant language energizes a story. But so often, it’s characters who pull us in – characters we can relate to, root for, or at least empathize with. Chief of all characters is the main character, or protagonist, who must hook readers from the very beginning. Since that’s the case, choose your protagonist wisely. But how do you do that? What’s involved in that choice? We polled several…

Ever seen a writer post a screenshot of their book deal announcement in a teeny-tiny font on a white background (usually accompanied by a coy caption, like “some personal news”)? Odds are it’s from Publishers Marketplace, a subscription-only website that publishes announcements from all corners of the publishing industry. But there’s often a coded language embedded in these announcements that hints at how much money the publisher paid for each book deal. For example, a “nice deal” means anything from $1 to $49,000. Here are some of the other deal descriptors you might see along with what Publishers Marketplace says they mean: “Nice deal:” $1 – $49,000 “Very nice deal:” $50,000 – $99,000 “Good deal:” $100,000 – $250,000 “Significant deal:” $251,000 – $499,000 “Major deal:” $500,000+ Aspiring authors are often…

Many writers want to hone their craft but don’t want to commit to or pay for a full-blown MFA program. Luckily, many local and online classes, workshops, and certificate programs can support writers’ needs without obliging them to commit several years and multiple paychecks to the cause. While MFA programs are valuable for many reasons, local craft workshops can be helpful as well. Consider these options: Writing centers. Most big cities have a writing center that offers work space, breakout sessions, and critiques. Libraries. The place where the written word is most sacred often plays host to writing groups. Colleges and universities. Not only will you be instructed by top-level writers, but chances are you’ll also come out of your course with a certificate in hand. Adult learning centers. Geared…