WRITERS' Journal

Table of Contents
May/June 2005
Volume 26, Number 3

Columns

  2        .....Editor's Note

  4        .....Readers' P.O.V.

  5        .....Massaging the Muse, Lynne Pisano
            Fishing for Ideas

  6        .....Marketing Helps, Janet Elaine Smith
            Book Reviews

  7        .....Effective Screenwriting, by Jerry McGuire
           Working with Film Committees
            Very few of the largest, most successful companies, organizations, or agencies have full-time screenwriters as members of the staff. Often, scripts for various film or videotape productions are assigned to professional freelance writers. Usually, those are extremely interesting, well-paying experiences filled with sometimes wild challenges....

 9       .....Photography Techniques, by Ronald D. Kness
           Don't Be in the Dark about Light
            Writing with light. Literally, that is what the word photography means. Creatively, it means creating a photograph by recording light reflected off of a subject....

11       .....Computer Business, by Colin G. West
          Using Microsoft Word, Part One: Lots of Really Useful Stuff
            Most writers, I expect, have some version of Microsoft Word installed on their computer. Teaching yourself basic word processing is relatively easy, if not entirely stress-free. However, much of Word is hidden, iceberg-like, under the surface. Trying to uncover this hidden treasure can be the very devil. You can still see the marks where, while climbing the learning curve, I was driven up the wall and halfway across the ceiling....

50        .....Essay Writing Contests, by Dorothy J. Geiger
            May/June 2005
            In the past year there have been many opportunities for submission of nominations. These nominations can be of yourself or someone you nominate. Here is a recap:....

57        .....For Beginners Only, by Belinda Anderson
            Sitting Wake with a June Bug: Practicing the Art of Observation
            One winter day I began a short story featuring Ricky and Breen, two boys at summer camp. Figuring prominently in my story line was a June bug, a critter very familiar to my childhood summers....

58        .....Words...Tools of Our Trade, by Betty Garton Ulrich
           You Don't Have to Be Crazy—But It Helps
           The light has dawned—I think. It has become clear to me why I am not a great, world-famous author: It has to do with my early years. You see, I had a perfectly normal childhood. My parents were normal, too. My dad was an intelligent, normal man who went to work every day, and my mother, as was the custom when I was a child, was a "stay-at-home" mom who baked and cooked and cleaned and saw to it that my brother an I were properly dressed, learned correct table manners, and were polite and respectful to our elders....

59       .....WRITERS' Journal Market Report, by Laurie Graziano
            So, where do ideas come from? Is there a magical truck with a false bottom? Or maybe an account in the "idea bank." Wouldn't it be great if you could just set up an account at your local bank, pay a maintenance fee, and never have to worry about new ideas again? But it wouldn't be that simple, because for every "idea" withdrawal, you would need to make an "idea" deposit or your account would cl9ose! Then, if someone sent you their idea, it would have to be returned for "insufficient ideas." How embarrassing....

                    Markets: Satellite DIRECT, Satellite ORBIT, Northwest Fly Fishing, Fine Books & Collections, Backyard Living, Fabric Trends, Looking Great, Skyline Magazine, Newtype USA,

Feature Articles

14        .....The Only Business Is Selling, by Antonio Graceffo
            Applying Lessons from Wall Street to Making More Money Writing
            The first day of training on Wall Street, we all sat, dutifully waiting for the instructor, Esther Borne, to tell us how to make millions. It surprised us when she opened with a question....

16        .....Creative Writing in Your Own Backyard, by Sallie Bachar
            Tap Your Hometown for Great Stories
            A wealth of writing material awaits you right in your own backyard. Every neighborhood or community has interesting people with interesting stories to tell, whether it is someone who has a unique hobby, a colorful past, or is an inspiration in overcoming a tragic event or other difficulty. The following information will show you how to tap into this vast resource, conduct a successful interview, write an informative and interesting personal profile, and target the appropriate newspaper or magazine for publication....

20        .....Get Psyched for Your Next Interview!, by Cora Allen
            Ten Tips Used by Counseling Psychologists
            Don't tell your mother, but talking to strangers is part of every writer's job. Sitting down with someone you've never met and asking questions to get the story and solicit quotable comments involves a variety of challenges. Whether you interview in person or on the phone, how you open and conduct an interview will have a great impact on the quality of information and quotes you get for our articles....

22        .....The Library's Hidden Treasures, Elsa Watson
            How to Find the Information You Need
            I always considered myself to be a thorough researcher. After all, I've been to college, I love libraries and have the patience to wade through the moldiest history books. A library, however, keeps some of its best treasures hidden. Without knowing where to look, one can easily miss the resources that can lend a factual base to your writing....

41        .....Goal-Oriented Writing Groups, by Joni Hullinghorst
            Because Writing Is Only Half the Battle
            It's a simple fact of human nature that people will procrastinate for themselves but perform for others. We can't write today because we are too busy fulfilling our obligations to our employers, our families—whatever. As a result, writers have always found it beneficial to join groups of like-minded people interested in pursuing similar careers....

42        .....Writers' Notebook
            What We Found While Editing WJ:
            Favorites: www.efuse.com , www.freelancefusion.com , www.highbeam.com .
            That vs. Who, by Sharon Norris Elliott

44        .....Here an Angle, There an Angle, by Dennis E. Hensley
            How to Multiply Article Ideas from a Single Concept
            Years ago, Bill Thomas, a reporter for Associated Press, was stringing out of The Muncie Star. I was working there as a part-time reporter while completing my doctoral work in English at Ball State University. One October morning, Bill went to the tiny town of Selma, Indiana, because there was a pumpkin festival going on there. When he came back two hours later, he spent the rest of the day writing pumpkin stories....

45        .....E-Subbing, Are You Doing It Right?, by Chitra Soundar
            Avoid Getting onto Editors Block Lists
            Copy & Paste and hit Send. Sending out submissions has never been so easy, especially when editors still insist on printed manuscripts with wide margins and double-spaced text. But there are some caveats before you hit that all-too-efficient SEND button....

46        .....The Villanelle, by Monda Van Hollebeke
            Try Your Hand at This Intriguing Poetic Form
            Modern song lyrics rely on repetition to drive a strong theme into the listener's memory. If the refrain is both cleanly crafted and deeply emotional in content, it can haunt the hearer for a lifetime. So it is with poetry . If you want to experiment with a formal rhyme scheme that has the unique ability to mesmerize readers and carry home a heavily freighted topic, try the villanelle....

Travel Writing Contest

25        .....Alaska—America's Last Frontier, by Lisa M. Yrizarry
            First Prize Winner of November 2004 Travel Writing Contest

28        .....Just a Pickin' in Alabama, by Betty Swift
            Second Prize Winner of November 2004 Travel Writing Contest

29        .....Beyond the Gate—Kruger National Park, South Africa, by Betty J. Samsow
            Third Prize Winner of November 2004 Travel Writing Contest

Fiction

32        .....The Lake, by Craig Anderson
            Honorable Mention Winner of 2004 Horror/Ghost Contest

34        .....Wonderment, by R. Lodinsky
            Honorable Mention Winner of 2004 Short Story Contest

36        .....Guardian Angel, by Liese Sherwood-Fabre
            Honorable Mention Winner of 2004 Romance Contest

December 20, 2004 Write to Win! Winner

38        ....."The New Year's Visitor"—We never have any luck...," by John M. Marmora

Poetry

51        .....Every Day With Poetry, by Esther M. Leiper
            "Rumbled Layers of Green Tweet"
            What makes a poem howlingly awful, so terrible that you want to read it aloud to poet friends for the pure pleasure of watching them break up in helpless laughter? The good thing is that bad poets can improve, if they are willing to work at the process. I know too well what I wrote as a novice, and I tell the absolute truth. So, because we all have been inexperienced and unsure of our talent, let's examine ways that poems can be ineffective, along with suggestions on how to correct such weakmesses....

55        .....Esther Comments On..., by Esther M. Leiper
            Enter Qwerty, Re-enter
            I never claim to be all-knowing when I interpret a poem. I do the best job I can, based on what I know, and then go over my words to make sure that what I mean is conveyed clearly. Then I send off my pages and let the matter go. But occasionally another poet-observer points out something basic that I missed or did not take into account, and the new information makes differing conclusions reasonable and likely....