March 2014

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.

Alicia Anstead

What are you searching for in your writing?

By Alicia Anstead

What are you searching for in your writing? That’s a question the best editors, writing coaches and our own instincts help each of us answer as we begin, develop, struggle with, angst over and complete – or set aside – our storytelling projects. In various ways, it is also the question at the heart of the articles and interviews in this issue of The Writer.

Features

Pilgrims and seekers

By Linda Lappin

The quest narrative can lead you to a place of power and deepen your story.

Child’s play

By Yvonne Coppard and Linda Newbery

What makes a good children’s book? Two specialists offer insights.

The da Vinci disease

By Don Fry

A coach offers approaches to finishing your projects.

Foe or friend?

By Linda K. Wertheimer

Building a Facebook community may be a boon to your writing life.

Angela Liddon: blog to book

By Megan Kaplon

A food writer finds her way from online to on shelves.

Departments

Write Stuff

Unblocked

By Hillary Casavant

A new book explores the art of overcoming creative hurtles.

Writing Essentials

What’s so funny?

By Erika Hoffman

The ABCs and Ks of writing funny and delivering the joke.

Conference Insider

Word power

By Hillary Casavant

Split This Rock Poetry Festival promotes activism and social justice through writing.

Literary Spotlight

Funny ha-ha

By Melissa Hart

A journal of humor goes for the laughs.

Also in Every Issue

Take Note

Monthly prompts, Catherine Barnett on poetry, green goods for the office, using first person, making it through rough times, advice from writers and more.

Markets

Classified advertising

How I Write

Tamara Faith Berger: “You have to put in the time. It can be a lot of failure, but the failure doesn’t mean to stop.”