Current Issue

April 2010

The Writer

The essential resource for writers

Join thousands of successful writers when you subscribe to The Writer magazine. Each month The Writer is full of features you can use to improve your writing, including before-and-after examples of improved writing, more literary markets than ever before, practical solutions for writing problems, selected literary magazine profiles, tips from famous authors and hands-on advice.

Features
Get Started: Choosing an online critique group
By Cathie Gandel
When her schedule left no time to commit to a regular in-person workshop, the writer instead looked into the world of online critique groups.
pg. 13
Breakthrough: Amid family losses and an Irish retreat, a voice emerges
By Susan DeBow
It was a long road, but eventually our writer's words began having value to the harshest critic she knew: herself.
pg. 14
Off the Cuff: Good intentions
By Kerry Cohen
Memoirists worry that their words may cause harm. But can their stories heal relationships?
pg. 15
Poet to Poet: How to expand on a spark of an idea
By Marilyn Taylor
To help get the poem in your head onto the page, ask yourself a series of questions.
pg. 17
Interview: 15 million copies and counting
By Melanie Florence
Bestselling young-adult author Med Cabot, author of the Princess Diaries series and much more, learned to be comfortable writing funny, and to persevere amid endless rejections.
pg. 20
Navigate the copyright maze
By Travis Heerman
What are the rules of the road for excerpting or quoting someone else's published work in your own writing? Here are a few tips to steer you straight.
pg. 23
Archive: Focus on the story, not readers
By Madeleine L'Engle
In fiction, if you write the story that wants to be told, you'll win a wider audience, our distinguished author wrote in 1985.
pg. 24
Step by Step: Improve your fiction with film techniques
By Meredith Sue Willis
You can borrow from a rich array of director's tools, including panoramic shots, close-ups, detailed physical action, and dramatic high points.
pg. 26
'Writer in residence'? Sign me up!
By Kathy Stevenson
All modesty aside, the author feels very well-suited to a number of cushy literary challenges.
pg. 29
Special section: What makes literary fiction 'literary'?
By Moira Allen
What is literary fiction anyway, and how is it different from mainstream fiction? What are its editors looking for--and not looking for--and what can it mean to you?
pg. 30
Special section Give your literary novel an edge
By Bharti Kirchner
An author of four novels surveys the literary terrain for ways to improve your odds, drawing your focus to such elements as audience, voice, plot, setting and conflict.
pg. 32
Special section: Submission strategies for literary journals
By John Matthew Fox
Place your work in a literary journal and you earn credibility in the literary world. So here is one writer's no-holds-barred guide to submitting, including the best and worst times to submit, and how to "translate" a rejection note.
pg. 35
Think ahead of the curve
By Ben Corbett
Predicting future trends can be a freelancer's ace in the hole, so here are some tips on how to cultivate that sixth sense. Plus, read Barry Michaels' sidebar on how to use anniversaries as pegs for all kinds of publications.
pg. 36
Freelance Success: How to impress agents and editors
By Kelly James-Enger
Preparation is key for those potentially important one-on-one meetings at conferences and other events.
pg. 38
Market Focus Show your personal side with an essay
By Erica Manfred
Writing about your life experiences helps you connect with readers and break into markets.
pg. 44
Literary Spotlight: Blackbird
By Melissa Hart
This month the spotlight is on Blackbird, an online journal of literature and the arts, describing its "elegant, yet playful spirit," as well as its preferences and contributors.
pg. 46
Departments
Editors Notes
Market listings
Writing conferences
Compiled by Martha Lundin
pg. 47
Letters
Letters from our readers
Take Note
The changing future of books
By Chuck Leddy, others
A few thoughts on how technology is changing our book culture, plus other literary notes, Lisa Shearin's regular bimonthly column, an excerpt from a new writing book, and more.
pg. 8
WriteStuff
Book reviews, products and resources
P.D. James celebrates mystery writers
By Chuck Leddy, Steve Weinberg
This month, reviews of Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James; The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again, by Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols; and Memoir: A History by Ben Yagoda.
pg. 41
How I Write
Zoe Heller
By Robert Allen Papinchak
For Zoe Heller, author of the novel Notes on a Scandal, writing gives her the chance to try to provide the satisfactions that other writers have given her.
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