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WRITERS' Journal

Table of Contents
March/April 2009
Volume 30, Number 2

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

     You begin your research of a topic on the Internet for that Thursday newspaper article. Minutes later you find yourself in a maze of Websites that seems endless. You decide you have enough information, so you stop your research and begin your article. Your outline of facts suddenly causes you to smile. Before the Internet, you would have had to spend days retrieving information that you now do in minutes. While at the library, you would have taken extensive notes and assiduously attributed your facts to books and magazines with article footnotes. Now few writers use footnotes. Instead, writers have URL addresses scattered about in articles. Is it necessary? Read what Johnny Gunn says on page 22.

     I love to read dialect in a story. Why? Because I can get a better grasp of the age, education, location, era, and other attributes of a character by how that character speaks. Our language and how we use it can say a lot about ourselves. MaryAnn Duffy has some tips on how you can use dialogue to show readers more about your characters. See her informative article starting on page 41.

     Perhaps you started your book for preschoolers when your child was four. More important matters seemed to invade your life for a decade until now, when you have a chance to continue your ten-year-old project with even more zeal. Suddenly you feel you are a bit out of touch with the markets and you wonder which would be best to approach with a your manuscript. On page 46, prolific authors and mentors Lawrence and Suella Walsh will enlighten you on the best way to fit your children’s book to a proper audience.

     See page 4 for a letter from a reader who found it hard to believe that a winning story was the best of what we received. Our entire staff is onboard with Betty’s response on page 59. I never tire of this dilemma.

     One of our editors thought the fiction story “Enlisting the Enemy” was an author’s response to the recent election. This piece was written two years before the 2008 presidential election. Interesting, don’t you think? It is curious how some fiction can be misconstrued when taken out of the era in which was written. Oh, by the way, WRITERS’ Journal doesn’t publicly side with any particular race, creed, or political party.

Leon Ogroske, editor

Columns

 4       .....Readers' P.O.V.

 6       .....Marketing Helps, Janet Elaine Smith
           A One-Book Whirlwind

 7       .....Massaging the Muse, Lynne Pisano
           Spring Brings...Renewal, Recycling, and Weather!

 8       .....Effective Screenwriting, by Christina Hamlett
           Foreign Exchange, or Will It Wow 'Em in Machu Picchu?
           "My plot is dark and sort of creepy," the screenwriter explained in her cover letter. "It probably won't appeal to American audiences, so maybe you can use your contacts in the U. K. and try to sell it for me over there."...

 10      .....Computer Business, by Angela Render
           Pretty Posts, Happy Guests—Part Three of Three
           As I mentioned in my previous article, one way to attract and keep loyal readers is to make the blog a pretty place to be. If you've been keeping up with the WRITERS' Journal column "Photography Techniques," then you're also full of ideas on how to supplement your clever words with stunning images. The problem comes when you try to put those digital shots or high-resolution scans onto the Web. Fear not; with a few simple tricks and a free and easy bit of software, you can have your blog or Web site dressed for prime time....

 12      .....Photography Techniques, by Ronald D. Kness
           Steady as She Goes
           Of course, we are not talking about sailing in this column, but discussing the world of optical image stabilization. this technology has been around since first introduced in 1995; however, it just recently made its way into the amateur photographer's market of lenses and cameras....

 57      .....For Beginners Only, by Dawn Rachel Carrington
          Make Your Talent Work for You
          You've always wanted to stay at home and write, but can you really survive?...

 59      .....Words...Tools of Our Trade, by Betty Garton Ulrich
           How Would You Solve This Problem?
          A reader hopes we'll respond. Mr. Rob Smythe got his wish (see his letter in the Readers' Point of View column, page 4). He hoped his letter would "stimulate discussion and perhaps suggest a topic for an article" in WRITERS' Journal. And indeed, it has—on both counts. Therefore, my column this time is on the subject raised by Mr. Smythe. He was unhappy with the grammatical errors in a first place contest winner; "The Wedding."...

 60       .....WRITERS' Journal Market Report, by Laurie Graziano
            March/April 2009 Market Report Plus, Steve Gomen of Golf Fitness Magazine
            When researching various markets, it is important to analyze the possibilities available in each. Otherwise, this oversight can cost you numerous writing opportunities. For instance, general interest magazines cover a broad selection of topics and include lifestyle sections, and lifestyle sections reflect lifestyle magazines. So, if you have an idea for the lifestyle section of your local magazine, a little revision can tailor the article for a regional life style publication. More readers, more distributions, more pay!....

                   Markets: Golf Fitness, Modernism, Metropolis, Flower, Science, Western Shooting HOrse, Southern Beauty, Powerboat.

Feature Articles

 15       .....The Long and Short View, by Glenn G. Dahlem
            Make Your Writing Come Alive
            A writing technique that often can enhance the impact of poetry and fiction is the so-called long and short view (L/SV). Just what is L/SV? It's a break or change of pace in the flow of a poem or story in which the narrator either views a geographically distant object or daydreams about a past event. In either case, the object observed or past event recalled has no obvious connection to the theme or story line of the literary work....

 20       .....Beware the Bad Agent, by Trish Edmisten
            The Real Truth about Phony Agents
            An offer of publication, to see his or her name in print—it's every writer's dream. It's the reward for months—and sometimes years—of hard work. So, how does an author go about achieving that dream? Anyone who's intimately familiar with the publishing industry will be quick to offer this piece of advice: Get an agent....

 22       .....Internet Journalism, by Johnny Gunn
            Can You Spell Corroboration?
            As a writer, I was taught immediately the importance of corroboration, a word that too many people calling themselves journalists have either forgotten or find easy to forget in today's world.... 

 22       .....How to Be a Time Traveler via Historical Research, by Karen Martin
            Avoiding Inaccuracies When Gathering Historical Information
            Horatio Alger taught me how to do historical research. Or, to be more precise, reading about the life of the nineteenth-century author taught me how little I knew about researching a historical subject, and that spurred me on to learn how to discover what was really true about the past....

 41       .....How Does Your Character Sound?, by MaryAnn Duffy
            Linguistic Tips for the Fiction Writer
             If the first rule of fiction writing is to show, not describe, how do you show who your character is through dialogue? A little linguistics research can help. The linguist thinks about how spoken and written English are affected by age, geography, education, and socioeconomic background. Knowing where your characters fit linguistically and showing it through dialogue will add a deeper dimension to each personality in your story. A twenty-year-old Southern Californian should not sound like a forty-year-old Northeasterner. Here are some tips to help you create linguistically appropriate dialogue for rounder characters.....

 42       .....Writers' Notebook
           Humor Writing Hint/Help/Tip/Pointer..., by Anne Louise
           Agents..., by Francine Silverman
            Cartoon..., Heiser

 44       .....Seven Bad Habits of Highly Unsuccessful Writers, by Scott Nicholson
           Give Your Manuscript a Fighting Chance
           While writing, editing, representing, and publishing are all highly subjective skills—or even arts, depending on your definition—repeated exposure to certain unsuccessful traits make them easy to identify. In short, it's much easier to find what is failing than to explain what makes a piece of writing succeed....

 46       .....Writing Novels for Children, by Lawrence and Suella Walsh
           Know the Categories
           What is the difference between a picture book and an easy-to-read? Do children in the same age group read both early chapter books and middle-grade novels? Is the sentence structure the same for middle-grade books and young adult novels? If you don't know the answers to these questions, you will have a difficult time selling books for children....

Poetry

 48       .....Every Day With Poetry, by Esther M. Leiper-Estabrooks
           Writers Need Readers
           If someone told me that he or she wanted to be a writer, I would ask, "What do you write?" This was before I understood that this is a sick, trick question. Most wannabe writers crave the supposed fame and glory of being successful but aren't wiling to undergo the discipline of quiet sit time with a piece of paper and straining brain. On woman told me she had thirteen pages in a shoebox in her closet—and she was over forty!...

 53       .....Esther Comments On..., by Esther M. Leiper-Estabrooks
            The Winners, August 2008 Poetry Contest
            This particular contest included many high-quality poems, which made judging challenging. What a variety of poets entered! Who are you all, each with a different personality and background, yet bound by love of words? Old, young, city dwellers, country fold—offerings came from many backgrounds and life experiences. The outdated image of poets being old or dead had never been less true.....