WRITERS' Journal

Table of Contents
September/October 2006
Volume 27, Number 5

      .....Editor's Note, by Leon Ogroske 

I want to thank all the subscribers who took the time to answer our survey. Your answers told us what you would like to see more of in WRITERS’ Journal and, for the most part, that you like what we are doing, and we should continue pretty much as we have in the past.

Thanks to Roy Peter Clark and Little, Brown and Company for allowing us to reprint part of Writing Tools on page 12. Sometimes writers forget the basics and need gentle reminders to set their writing back on track. This must-have book is chock full of topics authors need to apply to all their writing.

Are you having a hard time getting published? On page 23, Diana Bocco offers some suggestions on how to get your freelancing career up and going. Her words at the conclusion of her article sum up freelancing in a nutshell.

Lawrence and Suella Walsh explain the foreshadowing technique to us on page 41. Subtle hints in proper places will lure the reader into exciting plots and then leave the reader feeling satisfied.

As with all contests, you should be sure to read the rules carefully. On occasion we disqualify an entry because our guidelines are not followed. Please look at our new contests guidelines on page 26. After much deliberation, we added a rule here and there and changed some reading fees and are now offering bigger and better prizes. Some of the changes resulted from the quality of entries we were receiving. If the writing is good, the authors should be handsomely rewarded. The information WRITERS’ Journal is providing to writers is definitely helping contestants create powerful well-written stories.

While I am on the subject, you must read the Horror/Ghost Contest first-prize story. This well-crafted story may catch you off-guard, so slow down and settle in for an enjoyable read. Congratulations to all the winners!

Columns

  4       .....Readers' P.O.V.

  5       .....Massaging the Muse, Lynne Pisano
           Visit an Exotic Destination from Your Armchair

  6       .....Marketing Helps, Janet Elaine Smith
           Where's My Tracking Number? 

  7       .....Effective Screenwriting, by Christina Hamlett
           Dead Celebrity Rights: What You Don't Know Can Come Back to Haunt You
            When does a "public icon" become "public domain"? Whether you're anew or seasoned screenwriter, you need to play by the rules before you can pen an encounter with Elvis, a montage with Marilyn, or some sidewalk silliness with the Stooges into your next script and legally get away with it. We went to four entertainment law professionals for a few insightful answers regarding the privacy rights of famous personae....

 10      .....Photography Techniques, by Ronald D. Kness
           The Magic of Fall
           Fall is a magical time for photography. It is a time when Nature transforms the greens of summer into the muted reds, browns, yellows, and oranges of fall. It is an event we look forward to every year; however, many of us are disappointed with our results. Below are some tips on how to improve your fall-color photographs.....

 58       .....For Beginners Only, by Gay Ingram
           Revamp Those Cliches Don't Settle for the Old and Familiar
           Colorful descriptions and clever phrases enrich prose. Just don't get caught making do with cliches. The Oxford American Dictionary defines a cliche as a phrase or idea that has lost its original impact through long overuse. William Zinsser, in his classic On Writing Well, defines cliches as "dreary phrases that constitute journalese at its worst and writing at its most banal."....

 59      .....Words...Tools of Our Trade, by Betty Garton Ulrich
           Rules Are Made to Be Broken—Maybe
           Did you ever read a book that left you reeling and a bit breathless?....

 61       .....WRITERS' Journal Market Report, by Laurie Graziano
            September/October 2006 Market Report Plus, Diana Murphy of Kitchen Portfolio            Magazine
            If, as written in Lord Alfred Tennyson's "In Memoriam," "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all," then is it better to have written and been rejected than never to have written at all? Is it worth the pain and anguish? Is it worth the questioning and commitment? Is it worth the feeling of defeat? .....

                   Markets: Kitchen & Bath Portfolio, Las Olas Magazine, Palm Beach Charity Register, International Yachtsman, Treasure Coast Charity Register, Lincoln Road Magazine, The Naples Charity Register, Bed & Breakfast America, Palm Springs Life, Looking Good Now!.

Feature Articles

 12       .....From Writing Tools, by Roy Peter Clark
            A Few of these Fifty Essential Tools
            Tool # 5: Watch those adverbs. Use them to change the meaning of the verb. The authors of the classic Tom Swift adventures for boys loved the exclamation point and the adverb. Consider this brief passage from Tom Swift and His Great Searchlight:....

 14       .....Behavior Modification for the Total Writer, by Dennis E. Hensley
            Changing Bad Habits
            In recent columns in this magazine, I've offered a series of ideas on how to beat procrastination and overcome writer's block. Several readers sent me letters expressing their appreciation for those tips, and also asked for help in other areas of their lives. their point was, often the poor habits writers get into (overeating, ignoring the family, failing to exercise, smoking, falling behind in reading) ultimately lead to the demise of a writing career, even though such problems might not have a direct relationship to the craft of writing....

  16       .....Writing with a Partner, by Julie Maddock
           The Pros and Woes
           Writing is arguably the loneliest profession in the universe—a close runner-up would be the poor guy stuck working by himself on the outside of the space shuttle, suspended weightless in the black vastness of the galaxy....

 21       .....Ten Rules for Writing Your Own Million Dollar Baby, by Sandra Gaffigan
            Clint Eastwood's Movie Shows the Way
            Somewhere in his long career, Clint Eastwood must have come across The Elements of Style. If not, he probably has the storytelling gene imbedded in his DNA. Then again, maybe he had to work at it. However he came by his talent, in Million Dollar Baby, Clint shows the genius of a master storyteller. The movie illustrates the wisdom of Strunk and White's little rule book. Here's how: ...

 23       .....Getting Your First Clip, by Diana Bocco
            How the Pros Did It
            If you're just getting started as a freelancer and dreading the first steps, it may help to know that even the pros were once in the same position. Here are some tips to help you follow their lead....

 41       .....Writing Mystery Fiction, by Lawrence and Suella Walsh
            How to Plant the Clues
            Foreshadowing is a writing technique generally not discernible to the reader but of great importance to the plot. This technique places at strategic points in the story, information that prepares the reader for the story's end. If foreshadowing is used correctly, the ending gradually becomes inevitable....

42        .....Writers' Notebook
           Though You Reject Me, Still I Will Write, by Candy Pettiford
           Who's Who?, Ken Marten

 44       .....Go for the Green, by Kathleen Peelen Krebs 
            Tips for Selling to the Garden Market
            If you have ever planted a pumpkin patch, pruned a rose bush, watched over a window box, arranged an herb garden, or grown greenhouse tropicals, you have the makings of an article for the garden market and the chance to sell to a multitude of related publications. These include house-and-garden, horticultural, nature, ecological, agricultural, plant, and flower publications, as well as city, state, and lifestyle, gourmet, cookery, children's, and even bridal magazines....

 45       .....When to Show and When to Tell, by Marilyn D. Anderson
            Telling Isn't Always a Bad Thing
            Most developing writers have heard the catch phrase "Show, Don't Tell." If you've taken any kind of formal writing course, the teacher probably explained the phrase in words similar to these: "Use plenty of details and dialogue (the two Ds) to show the setting and the action happening on the page."...

 47       .....Pump Up the Profits,  by Sonya Carmichael Jones
            Develop a Marketing Plan
            The expectation of money-yielding agents, editors, publishers, and clients competing for our words is similar to the familiar notion that if you just build it they will come. But whether you're a well-seasoned pro or just starting to wet your pen, you know that rejection, inconsistent pay, and a shady contract all shrink enthusiasm fast. And when confidence starts to fade, writing ambitions do, too. Choosing the freelance roller coaster over cubicle comfort, I suffered from all of the above. What boosted my confidence, as well as my bank account, was to develop a marketing plan....

Fiction

 27       .....Twin Paradox, by Alicia Stankay
            First Prize Winner of 2006 Horror/Ghost Contest

 28       .....The Gray Man, by Landis R. Blair
            Second Prize Winner of 2006 Horror/Ghost Contest

 30       .....Wish Bone, by Maria Halagan
            Third Prize Winner of 2006 Horror/Ghost Contest

 34       .....Penny Wise, by Catherine Runyon
            H. M. Winner of 2005 Short Story contest

 36       .....Wish Bone, by Samori Augusto
            H. M. Winner of 2005 Romance Contest

April 20, 2006 Write to Win! Winner

 38       ....."The Least I Could Do" "The clerk looked...," by D. R. Prescott

Poetry

 51       .....Every Day With Poetry, by Esther M. Leiper
            "Message Poems—Hi-De-Ho, or Ho-Hum Humbug?"
            In the days of the Greek and Roman Empires, when most people were illiterate, it was understood that a successful poem should instruct listeners in important matters of national identity. Thus epics, while telling thrilling adventures, simultaneously conveyed the culture's most cherished ideals: proper attitude toward the gods, the value of sovereign loyalty, and how to conduct oneself honorably against great odds....

 56       .....Esther Comments On..., by Esther M. Leiper
            "Split It Down the Middle" and "When I Talk About..."
            It seems appropriate in a highly political and controversial time to present a controversial political poem. Not that Bernie Bernstein's wryly humorous poem is that controversial, but hey (or perhaps hay?), my spell-check refuses to acknowledge ass as a valid word, though both Democrats and Republicans use it in more ways than one...