May 2009

The Writer

The essential resource for writers

Join thousands of successful writers when you subscribe to The Writer magazine. Each month The Writer is full of features you can use to improve your writing, including before-and-after examples of improved writing, more literary markets than ever before, practical solutions for writing problems, selected literary magazine profiles, tips from famous authors and hands-on advice.

This issue is currently out of stock and will not be reprinted.
Features
Freelancing: Peeling off the layers of celebrity
By Michael C. Bradbury
Top celebrity-profiler Betsy Model offers tips on how to get the most out of an interview subject--famous or not. Plus, a sidebar by veteran journalist Norman Lobsenz describing the most common interview problems, and how to get around them.
pg. 30
Freelancing: Prolific from the start
By Roy Stevenson
Our writer, who changed careers and entered freelancing as a novice, managed to get 101 articles accepted for publication in only seven months. His strategies may just help you, too.
pg. 34
Freelancing: The cost-conscious freelancer
By Kelly James-Enger
In today's rugged economy, here are some easy ways to cut your business expenses. Plus a sidebar by Laura Gater arguing that a freelancer's small, low-paying assignments should come last, in favor of time spent on larger, better-paying assignments.
pg. 36
Get Started: 9 signs you're telling, not showing
By Lois J. Peterson
This handy list will stop you from violating the most common "rule" in writing.
pg. 13
Breakthrough: The novel's cure was in throwing most of it out
By Peter Baird
In crafting a novel built largely around his surgeon father and war, the author thought he could simply stitch together his essays. He was wrong.
pg. 14
Off the Cuff: The art of amber hunting
By Thomas E. Kennedy
For this accomplished novelist, spying a beachside treasure is like finding a real story to tell.
pg. 15
Doing what he loves
By Jeff Ayers
Popular crime-fiction writer Robert Crais left behind a flourishing career as a television writer to successfully follow his lifelong dream of novel writing.
pg. 18
Archive: Essentials for a long-term writing career
By John Jakes
Even more than raw talent, you need to employ "the 3 p's"--practice, persistence and professionalism--for success, says this distinguished author of historical fiction.
pg. 22
Laying the groundwork
By Robert Allen Papinchak
Learn from two masters--D.H. Lawrence and John Updike--how to use the openings in short stories to offer guideposts for what follows.
pg. 24
4 myths about point of view
By Susan Breen
A novelist and writing instructor clears up common misconceptions about "the POV beast" to help you elevate the quality of your fiction.
pg. 26
Step by Step: Going deep
By Gary Fincke
A winner of the Flannery O'Connor Prize tells how an immersion approach to memoir topics pays off with telling details and fresh writing.
pg. 28
Great software that won't cost you a dime
By Scott Rhoades
And you don't have to be a techie to put these applications to work.
pg. 38
Business Freelancing: Writing copy for the Web
By Robert W. Bly
From a top copywriter, what you should know about a variety of online freelance assignments.
pg. 41
Market Focus: An insider's guide to flash fiction
By Mary Miller
A member of the flash community offers tips for writing in this experimental genre and a list of print and online places that publish the work.
pg. 46
Literary Spotlight: Canteen
By Melissa Hart
This month's spotlight is on the literary journal Canteen, describing its tone, preferences and contributors.
pg. 48
Departments
Letters
Letters from our readers
Take Note
Publishers roll out book trailers
By Joy Lanzendorfer, others
How publishers are starting to create book trailers on sites like YouTube and MySpace, how some writers start their day, plus other literary notes, an excerpt from a new writing book, and information on conferences.
pg. 8
WriteStuff
Novel-writing insight for beginners
By Chuck Leddy, others
Reviews of "A Novel in a Year: From First Page to Last in 52 Weeks" by Louise Doughty; "My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire" by Michelle Goodman; and "The Subversive Copy Editor: Advice from Chicago (Or, How to Negotiate Good Relationships With Your Writers, Your Colleagues, and Yourself") by Carol Fisher Saller.
pg. 43
Market listings
Writer contests
By Compiled by Martha Lundin
pg. 49
How I write
Mark Bowden
By Larry Atkins
Advice from Mark Bowden, author of "Black Hawk Down," on how to organize the big project and avoid being overwhelmed.
pg. 58
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