Off the Cuff: Sometimes you have to let a book go
Even when a project stalls, you can learn how to become a stronger writer.
By Valerie Sloane
Interview: Rescued by language
Stranded in the U.S. during the Bosnian conflict, Aleksandar Hemon has managed to dazzle critics with his unique sensibilities and inventiveness.
By Sarah Anne Johnson
Archive: The art of terror
Tap into readers' fears with five technques for an emotionally rich story.
By John Edward Ames
Step by Step: Get started with pre-writing techniques
They're a basic way to overcome fear, and to develop and organize your ideas.
By Robert Raymer
10 fiction pitfalls
A writing teacher and novelist shows you how to avoid the most common errors, which range from problems with backstory and narration to weaknesses in plotting and characterization.
By Sam McCarver
Special section: Freelancing
How to target small specialty magazines
A resourceful writer offers seven strategies for making these publications pay off.
By Roy Stevenson
Special section: Freelancing
Learn from experienced newspaper reporters
Here are 11 tips that can help freelancers strengthen their writing and research skills
By Caitlin Kelly
Special section: Freelancing
'How do you find the people you write about?'
You begin by developing the writer's sense of alertness to potential stories, says this veteran magazine columnist.
By George Gurtner
Special section: Freelancing
Learn from 'the greatest magazine writer in America'
The label is sometimes applied to Gary Smith, and nonfiction writers can extract some valuable lessons from his work.
By Steve Weinberg
Earth to writer—listen up
A former sci-fi/fantasy editor at Penguin and Random House describes the common writing and marketing errors that speculative-fiction authors make.
By Liz Scheier
Write what you know—and be sorry
A novelist known for his "mind-bending" originality takes aim at the most common of all literary aphorisms.
By Kris Saknussemm
Business Freelancing: How to evaluate potential clients
In five simple steps, you can quickly determine whether or not a lead is worth pursuing.
By Robert W. Bly
Market Focus: Add to your income with advertorials
These assignments look like feature articles but promote a publication's advertisers.
By Tricia Despres
Literary Spotlight: The Cincinnati Review
This month's spotlight is on the somewhat whimsical literary journal The Cincinnati Review, describing its tone, contributors and editorial preferences.
By Melissa Hart
Editor's Notes
Letters
Letters from our readers
Take Note
Get involved: Play an active part in the writing community
How to get involved in the writing community, an organization founded to promote the art and craft of biography, plus other literary notes, Stephanie Dickison's regular bimonthly column about freelancing, an excerpt from a new writing book, and more.
By Lori A. May and others
WriteStuff
Insiders discuss writing for the screen
Reviews of Tales From the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters Share Their Stories, edited by Peter Hanson and Paul Robert Herman; Illuminating Fiction: Today's Best Writers of Fiction, edited by Sherry Ellis; and Writers and Their Notebooks, edited by Diana M. Raab.
By Chuck Leddy; Elfrieda Abbe; and Melissa Hart
Markets
Writing contests
Compiled by Martha Lundin
How I Write: Elizabeth Flock
For Elizabeth Flock, author of Me & Emma and other novels, writing "goes to the core of who you are."
By Elizabeth King Humphrey