WRITERS' Journal
Table of Contents
March/April 2007
Volume 28, Number 2
.....Editor's Note, by Leon Ogroske
Advertisers are the lifeblood of most publications. Show your appreciation to our advertisers by corresponding with them or visiting their Web site and letting them know you heard about them in WRITERS’ Journal. You may not have a need for their services now, but when you do, they will be here if they feel you, the reader, are interested. Now, if I may recruit you: If you know of a good company that you feel other writers should know about, contact the company and ask them to take a look at our publication as an alternative or addition to the advertising venues they are using. Many of our present advertisers continue with our publication issue after issue. Why? Because it works. According to letters of dismay from readers who have given up on other publications, we reach thousands of writers that other writing magazines fail to aid.
Brian Noggle, on page 41, explains how you need to write your fiction timelessly; that is, using words and phrases that do not date your writing into extinction. Along the same lines of thinking, writers of historical fiction need to date their writing using the opposite mindset he suggests. This is one of those articles all fiction writers need to read and apply.
My favorite article in this issue is Glenn Dahlem’s "Figures of Speech" on page 46. This is a review article for most of us and reminds me that getting back to the basics of writing is the first thing we must do to be successful. Intentionally using figures of speech will add a spark to your writing. That spark may be just what you need to get the juices flowing again if your words seem a bit stagnant.
Take note of the "Between Going and Gone" story on page 27. A little gruesome, but not bad, considering Jesse was only thirteen when she wrote the honorable mention winner. Many might scoff and surmise that Jesse had help with her story. I say "Good for her!" All of us should utilize others’ help when writing. Isn’t that what writers’ groups and critique groups are about? Writers helping writers write. If, and I can’t say with certainty, she did have help, I praise both her and her mentor.
Whenever I am asked about how well I like my work at WRITERS’ Journal, I almost always mention that it is the best job I have ever had. The pay might not meet my expectations, but the people I meet and work with are very inspiring and helpful. Nearly everyone I communicate with wants to help make this magazine a useful tool for all writers. Whether they have tools, hints, services, or time to offer, they inevitably are very generous.
Leon Ogroske, editor
Columns
4 .....Readers' P.O.V.
5 .....Massaging the Muse, Lynne Pisano
Powerful,
Magical Three
6 .....Marketing Helps, Janet Elaine Smith
Leaving a Lasting
Impression
7 .....Vocabulary
Review, Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Semantic Narrowing
8 .....Effective Screenwriting,
by
Christina Hamlett
Everything I
Needed to Know about Screenwriting I Learned in My Kitchen
Writers
have often expressed the view that life is a continuous melting pot of free
material; it's just a matter of soaking it all up and discerning which parts are
the most likely to yield commercial success when you put them to paper. To
someone like me, who is as much an enthusiast of good writing as I am of good
food, the journey to success doesn't have to start with taking even a step
outside one's front door. If you want your plots to really get cooking, there's
no better place for your education to begin than in your own kitchen. ....
11 .....Photography Techniques, by Ronald D. Kness
Would You Like
That Raw?—Part 2
In
Part 2, we are discussing in-depth adjustments that can be made to an image in a
RAW format. For this article, I'm using Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0, although
most of the major image-editing software suites have similar adjustment
features. Before we start, I must emphasize that you should make a copy of the
original image first before starting to make these adjustments. Never work on
your original image....
58 .....For
Beginners Only, by Barbara E Hernandez
Freelancing
Tips for Newspaper Writing
The
daily and weekly newspaper market is a huge and sometimes lucrative one. While
many freelance writers decide to write only for magazines, writing for local and
regional newspapers can give writers clips, advice, and money....
59 .....Words...Tools of Our Trade,
by Betty Garton Ulrich
Books as
Bridges
You
are probably going to consider this column "preaching to the choir"
because I'm going to write about the value of books in our lives....
61 .....WRITERS'
Journal Market Report, by
Laurie Graziano
March/April 2007 Market Report Plus,
Natalie Rhinesmith of Creative TECHniques
Do
you remember the summer of 2006? Natalie Rhinesmith certainly does. That's when creative
TECHniques was born into the All American Crafts family —a family well
known for its fine craft publications. Ms. Rhinesmith was there for Creative
TECHniques' premier arrival. What better way to both introduce a publication
to the craft world and lead it in the proper direction?...
Markets: Creative TECHniques, Today's Christina Woman, BPM Magazine, Spacecoast Living Magazine, Equities Magazine, Dragon Magazine, Dungeon Magazine, Her Sports + Fitness.
Feature Articles
13
.....Six Clues to Potential Markets, by Carol J. Binkowski
It's All in
the Details
For
years, I dutifully studied writers' guidelines and spent many pleasant hours in
the library reading past issues of my favorite magazines. Yet, rejections still
thrived in my mailbox. Something was definitely missing....
15
.....Researching Agents, by Libby Grandy
Finding the
Right Agent
Writers
must decide whether to market their work directly to publishers or to attempt to
find an agent. It is not an easy decision because acquiring an agent can be as
difficult as finding a publisher for our manuscript. I recommend marketing to
agents first because they have the essential contacts with publishing companies,
and the top houses often accept only submissions from agents....
16
.....Becoming a Travel Writer, by Antonio Graceffo
Writing Can
Take You Around the World
I
receive numerous e-mails each week from would-be writers who think that travel
writing must be the most glamorous lifestyle in the world. And frankly, it is an
awesome lifestyle. But it is a hard way to make a living. If you are considering
a career in travel writing, this article may be of interest to you. In it I will
answer the most frequently asked questions that appear in my inbox. I will share
some background as to the kinds of pieces I have sold and how I lived while
selling them. Then I will give you some advice on how to get started....
21
..... I'm an Author Now, by Linda Dominique Grosvenor
Maintain Your
Fan Base and Privacy
The
hardest thing for published authors to believe is how much actually having a
book on the shelves legitimizes them to the people they know and meet on a daily
basis. Once you have a published book, people no longer see you as someone with
a dream, but as a person who is living it. They'll think you're selling
thousands of copies, sitting on stacks of money, and vacationing in the
Riviera—even if you're not. With this newfound celebrity, you will begin to
network, meet a host of people, and exchange business cards and other
information with them. Although you want to appear approachable, as an author
you still need to take a few precautions....
23
.....Everything I Need to Know About Writing (Dialogue) I Learned at the
Movies,
by Douglas Mauldin
Talking the
Talk with Hollywood's Help
Good
dialogue is like obscenity: It's impossible to define, but we know it when we
see it—or don't see it. Yet, despite the fact that we use it every day of our
lives. it remains one of the most difficult things about writing fiction....
41
.....Immortality in the Details, by Brian J. Noggle
Erase Your
Fiction's Expiration Date
Are
you writing a story with a short shelf life, or an allegory on human nature for
all time? Regardless of what you intend to write, the details you include might
inadvertently determine whether you're an Erle Stanley Gardner; whose Perry
Mason novels remain accessible and relevant decades after he wrote them, or a
Justin Thyme, whose works connect with this year's audience but will seem as
dated as a Baltimore Orioles world championship in ten years....
42 .....Writers' Notebook
ClearType
Tuner, by Colin G. West
If and When,
by Iris Alderson
44
.....Bitter Fruit, by Mark Munger
The
Confessions of a Self-Published Novelist
If
you're like me, you've read the advertisements in this and other literary
magazines containing bold proclamations of success enjoyed by famous writers who
self-published some, if not all, of their work. Names like Virginia Woolf and
Herman Melville are bandied about, hung high over our heads like so many bunches
of ripe grapes ready to be plucked and eaten. I'm here to convince you that,
while the fruit , at times, of self-publishing the Great American Novel can
indeed be sweet, the pursuit of those grapes is a labor-intensive,
ego-demolishing downright dirty business that is not for the faint of heart or
the thinly resolved....
46
.....Figures of Speech, by Glenn G. Dahlem
So What?
Everyone
who has ever taken a high school or college English class has heard of figures
of speech. Students, no doubt, learned that these are the important tools of
fiction authors, poets, article writers, playwrights, and speechwriters. They
further learned what simile, metaphor, and personification
are, and that rhyme frequently occurs on poetry line ends. If these students
had an exceptional teacher, they also learned that alliteration is like a
thyme on the fronts of words.....
Fiction
27
.....Between Going and Gone, by Jesse Ross
H. M. Winner
of 2005 Short Story Contest
28
.....The Proper Stranger, by Evelyn Gerry Eastman
H. M. Winner of
2005 Romance Contest
30
.....Spitball, by Lisa King
H. M. Winner
of 2006 Fiction Contest
36
.....The Eye of God, by Robert B. Smith
H. M. Winner
of 2006 Horror/Ghost Contest
October 20, 2006 Write to Win! Winner
38 ....."The Case of Turtle Fountain" "Walking around the...," by Cynthia Marotteck
Poetry
50 .....Every Day With Poetry, by Esther M. Leiper
"Edith
Sitwell—Sitting Pretty?"
When
or How does a monumental ego help a poet? How much success is based on a cult of
personality as opposed to excellent writing? How private or public should one
be? There's no "one size fits all" answer because poets (like
everyone) are such a varied lot. Moreover, with few exceptions, most must earn a
living at something other than their craft. My husband and I owned a store while
nurturing our creative side by writing, ghosting, book doctoring, and editing on
the side—which we now do full time. In addition, Norma Sundberg's book An
Odd Fable from CyPress Publication, contains my color illustrations....
54 .....Esther Comments On..., by Esther M. Leiper
The
Winners—August 2006 Poetry Contest
The
three top winners in our August 30th contest have two things in common: each is
free verse and each is told in the first person. Otherwise, they are dissimilar.
The First Prize Winner is ugly but memorable, the Second Prize Winner describes
a mystic experience, and the Third Prize Winner uses "nonsense" words
(which are really not so nonsensical) to describe a unique and lovely
experience. This piece—despite surface lightness—seriously explores the
power of imagined and cleverly spliced words and is delightfully inventive.
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