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WRITERS' Journal

Table of Contents
July/August 2007
Volume 28, Number 4

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

Steven Coonts (page 15) encourages us to be original, and, that if we are, he assures us that our writing will be more acceptable. Readers don’t care for the same old stuff; they want new fresh ideas and stories to brighten their lives. Coonts shares with us how he decides what the market might be interested in before he begins to develop a story.

Make your writing more enjoyable by using dialect (page 22) and metaphors (page 44). These two tools that may not be easy to master, but with practice they will add a lot of color to your words.

Backstory can contribute much to your writing, too. It is a technique that gives dimension to your character without going into so much detail as to bore the reader. A bit about your character that might explain why he takes a particular action or why he feels a certain emotion will guide the reader through a plausible storyline. With backstory the reader is taken momentarily into the character’s past. Using backstory allows a writer to succinctly and accurately add believability to an event or an emotion without diverging too far from the story; thus holding the attention of the reader while the writer develops the story. Fiction and non-fiction writers alike can use this technique. Try using backstory the next time you sit down to write and determine whether it is a tool you find valuable.

Our contest winning stories all contain backstory. Find their backstories and decide how they help the reader understand the characters involved.

"Davy’s Dilemma" is the winning story of our Fiction Contest. This delightful story has dialogue, a bit of suspense, and a delightful ending. The Write to Win! winning story falls on the other end of the emotional spectrum with a well-developed war story.

Leon Ogroske, editor

Columns

  4       .....Readers' P.O.V.

  5       .....Massaging the Muse, Lynne Pisano
           Fishing Expedition

  6       .....Marketing Helps, Janet Elaine Smith
           Marketing Motivation: Read a Good Book

  7       .....Vocabulary Review, Carolyn Howard-Johnson
           Synecdoche

  8       .....Effective Screenwriting, by Christina Hamlett
           I'd Like to See More of Your Script
           For the third time in as many weeks, I found myself dealing with a screenplay client who insisted that the ten-page partial she had paid me to review was only the tip of a substantive iceberg. "Things really get cooking by page sixty-five," she insisted, imploring me to let her send the rest of the script so she could prove it.....

 10      .....Photography Techniques, by Ronald D. Kness
           Theme Photography
           Many of us fall into photographing themes of one sort or another. I love to photograph waterfalls and cascades, mountains, desert scenes, flower close-ups, lighthouses, water-powered mills, covered bridges, sunrises, and sunsets....

 58      .....For Beginners Only, by Lois Vidaver
           Opinions Pay 
           Writing opinion pieces for a local newspaper is one of the best ways to break into the writing business. Does it pay? A little research on Web sites will uncover those papers that do. The Buffalo News pays, for instance, along with the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Des Moines Register....

 60      .....Words...Tools of Our Trade, by Betty Garton Ulrich
           The Marvel and Mystery of Memory
          Does it amaze you, as it does me, that some people seem able to remember many details of their lives from as far back as the age of two or three? Or are you one of the people who can do that?...

 61       .....WRITERS' Journal Market Report, by Laurie Graziano
            July/August 2007 Market Report Plus, Brandy Agnew of Ceramics Monthly
            Sometimes, the simplest ideas develop into the most elaborate pieces of literature, One thought gives birth to another thought, and, before long, you begin a creative process that blends fact and fiction into the ultimate composition....

                   Markets: Ceramics Monthly, Ride Texas, Woman's World, ABC Soaps in Depth, Life & Style Weekly.

Feature Articles

 12       .....Expletive Deleted...or Not?, by Dennis E. Hensley
            Alternatives to Ribaldry
            Get into any serious discussion about "realism" in fiction and you'll soon be part of a debate about the appropriateness, or lack thereof, of off-color language. Fans of playwright and screenwriter David Mamet feel that a four-letter word must be used in every sentence of dialogue. Other writers will point out that Hollywood has made six Jane Austen novels into megahit movies during the past ten years, and none have contained graphic violence, gratuitous sex, or cussing and swearing.....

 15       .....Selling Originality, by Belinda Anderson
            An Interview with Stephen Coonts
            Stephen Coonts lives in Las Vegas, but he makes regular visits to the New York Times bestseller list. He got there by developing his craftsmanship, and he caught a couple of lucky breaks. But he says the key for himself and many other writer is one word: originality. "Originality sells. Originality establishes careers."...

 19       .....You've Got to Accentuate the Positive, by Ned McIntosh
            How to Sell Manuscripts to Editors
            Is your dream to get published? New writers submitting manuscripts for the first time should scout the competition—always good advice when competing....

 22       .....Writing Visual Dialect in Fiction, by Tony Burton
            Add Color to Your Verbal Paintbrush
           Dialect in fiction can play a powerful part in creating the mood and tone of the story, setting the location, and establishing the relationships between the characters in the story....

 41       .....How to Create a Successful Anthology, by Anastasia M. Ashman & Jennifer Eaton Gokmen
            Advice for Editors and Writers
            Two Instanbul-based American writers share the lessons learned in creating an internationally best-selling expatriate anthology:....

 42       .....Writers' Notebook
           Backfire
           Instead of Ordering Sample Copies...
           Writers Love Bylines

 44       .....Demystifying Metaphor, by Art Edwards 
            One Writer's Journey to Livelier Figurative Language
             Great metaphors are born, not made. this is the conclusion to which I cam after nine years of dedicated fiction writing, all of my attempts at figurative language falling dead in the water (see, I'm not kidding).

 46       .....Capitalize on the Conference, by Christine Anderson
            Five Steps to Postconference Success
            You've arrived home from a writers' conference ready to tackle your latest project with renewed enthusiasm. You drop your bags at the door and kiss your spouse, and then hurry off to the computer. But now what?...

 47       .....Confessions of a Self-Publisher, by Jim Sajo
            Learning Self-Publishing the Hard Way
             Two years ago, I had a great idea. Drawing on my passions for travel, sports, and Italy, I decided to self-publish a guidebook to the 2006 Winter Olympics. Now that the games are history, I'm not sure whether I was so smart after all....

 50       .....Variety Is the Spice of Writing,  by Dennis E. Hensley
            Dressing Your Words
           There is something fascinating about a kaleidoscope. Turn the eyepiece just a little and the whole image before you alters. Turn it again and yet another image will appear. Simply by rotating the colored crystals and mirrors inside the tube, you can form an endless variety of images....

Fiction

 27       .....Davy's Dilemma, by Steve Muscato
            First Prize Winner of 2007 Fiction Contest

 28       .....The NBA, by Gordon Gumpertz
            Second Prize Winner of 2007 Fiction Contest

 30       .....A Showing of Fate, by Jennifer Mackey Stewart
            Third Prize Winner of 2007 Fiction Contest

February 20, 2007 Write to Win! Winner

 38        ....."Run, Soldier, Run"—"The fire burned...," by John S. Pena

Poetry

 51       .....Every Day With Poetry, by Esther M. Leiper
            "A Verse Excursion: Raddled with Riddles"
            The desire and need to use words is compelling, so much so that the beginning of language, along with the first step, is the criterion we use to separate infant from child. Communication is like a spark in the dark; it lights odd corners or scary places while making bright spots brighter. That's where the word raddled comes in, by the way. Sheep used to re raddled, or brightly colored with dye. Each farmer marked his own so one herd couldn't get mixed with another at market.....

 55       .....Esther Comments On..., by Esther M. Leiper
            Winners of the December 2006 Poetry Contest
             How life and death commingle, how honor and responsibility interact, how nothing changes yet everything does under the indifferent gaze of time; from such factors poetry is made. Glib poems offer glib answers. More sophisticated poems present no final answers and therefore situations shown to readers are based on the various loyalties and compromises we live by, making way with good (or evil) intentions.....