Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i The Writer

Roll up your sleeves, scribes. This month we’re spring-cleaning our prose. We’re embracing revision, not dreading it. Our drafts are going to emerge from our linguistic boot camp leaner, cleaner, lighter, and swifter. We’re going to Marie Kondo our mansucripts. If a single word, a meager semicolon in our work doesn’t bring us joy, it’s getting the boot. And when we eject all the nonsense that’s weighing down our drafts, they’re going to sing so sweetly even the staunchest, grouchiest, Grinchiest of editors won’t be able to resist them. When I say nonsense, I mean it quite literally: We must scrub out the elements in our manuscripts that make no sense in the context of the story. If we are trying to get to an inciting incident quickly, it’s a…

I was scrolling Twitter recently, as one too often does when facing a tight editing deadline, when I spied a tweet more offensive to me than anything I’ve ever read on the site, and that’s saying something. The tweet in question was a response to one of my favorite editors, who had advised writers to use spellcheck and proofread for grammar before submitting an essay for publication. The guy answering her wondered why this was necessary. “If my idea is good enough,” he demanded, “why do I need to worry about grammar? That’s your job.” As a longtime copy editor, I felt personally affronted by the tweeter. Not “worry” about grammar? The nerve. Clearly this dude was just lazy, I thought. I began dashing off a snide response but then…

My general rule is: It’s OK to break the rules once you understand why the rules exist. Don’t just break them to break them. I’ve had editing clients who think their characters would speak in a certain voice that demands grammar goof-ups, but often this is lazy writing, not characterization. If you just don’t want to put in the time or effort to determine if it should be lay or lie, affect or effect, then you’re not going to do the work to uncover your characters’ motivations, either.…

A FOGHORN BLAST. FOOTSTEPS. LIGHT, HURRIED. A SECOND SET OF FOOTSTEPS, HEAVIER, MORE MEASURED. A DOOR HINGE CREAKS. FOOTSTEPS, FASTER THIS TIME. A GUNSHOT. A SCREAM. A BODY HITS THE GROUND. THE GUN DROPS. FOOTSTEPS HURRYING AWAY. In radio drama, a sequence of sounds like this one tells a story. The listener can see the progression of events in the mind’s eye, filling in location and detail. The choice of these sounds, their arrangement, and what was left out in this particular sequencing can tell more than one story, depending upon the choices made by the actors, director, and sound artists. History of the form Radio drama (and comedy, variety, music, and soap opera) was an entertainment staple between the late 1920s and early 1950s, when 82% of households depended…

Five years ago, poet and essayist Julianne Palumbo founded the online literary magazine Mothers Always Write to offer readers insightful pieces about parenting and to give mothers and fathers and writers a place to gather and create community. Now, she works with fellow editors Michelle Riddell and Sarah Clayville to publish parenting experiences from birthing infants to embracing the empty nest. “We’re looking for word choice and form and use of figurative language so strong that we feel like we’re actually there with the writer,” Palumbo explains. “We want pieces that create an emotion we just can’t shake.” Tone, editorial content “We get a lot of writing about really interesting mother issues,” she says, “but they’re not all written in a literary way. We believe how the words are arranged…

Information in this section is provided to The Writer by the individual markets and events; for more information, contact those entities directly. F = Fiction N = Nonfiction P = Poetry C = Children’s Y = Young adult O = Other F THE WRITER SHORT STORY CONTEST Regularly hosted by The Writer magazine. Max 2,000 words. Submit via online portal only. Deadline: Check website. Entry fee: $25 for first entry, $15 for every additional entry on the same transaction. Prizes: First place receives $1,000 and publication in The Writer magazine. Second place receives $500 and publication on The Writer website. Third place receives $250 and publication on The Writer website. Contact: The Writer. writermag.com/contests F N P AMERICAN LITERARY REVIEW AMERICAN LITERARY AWARDS Offers three prizes for short fiction, creative nonfiction,…

Some copy editors regard grammar checkers the way humans view robots in the Terminator movies: with deep suspicion. I like these tools, as long as you don’t develop a dependency on them and you don’t take everything they take as gospel. Recognize that apps lack contextual cognizance, and they sometimes make weird suggestions. (A grammar checker once urged me to replace “breakfast” with “lunch” or “dinner” to avoid repetition of the word “breakfast” twice on one page. Um, no.) Yet grammar programs catch small typos effectively, such as repeated words or errant letters. Saving face on a few minor errors is worth the minor hassle of ignoring 25 other supposed “errors.” Scrutinize each recommendation carefully and institute the changes you agree with.…

When I polled writers for their grammar questions, a prolific author whose work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and Narratively raised an excellent point. “I’m a dyslexic writer,” she told me. She noted she has spoken with other writers with learning disabilities who feel shamed in traditional literary spaces when they admit to difficulties with grammar. The writer said she hires copy editors to look over her writing. Since this method may not be accessible for every correspondence by a writer with a learning disability, other possibilities may include: Asking a friend with strong grammar skills to proofread Investing in a grammar checking app (though remember, these are fallible) Using speech recognition software to dictate your work vs. typing it yourself You also could consider mentioning…

Right from the first line, Peter Kispert’s fiction grabs your interest and refuses to let go. It’s easy to see why his debut short story collection, I Know You Know Who I Am, earned raved reviews and a place on several best-of lists for 2020. Although these stories share a common intriguing theme of deception, each one is also a standalone treasure in its own right. Kispert impressively crafts well-developed, affecting stories that are full of depth and sharp prose. Readers will find themselves savoring each one. Kispert works as an editor at HarperCollins and is currently writing his first novel. Common theme I started writing stories that were about liars, and I was able to broker that with issues of queerness and my own struggles. This is a book…

This isn’t actually a grammar question so much as a personal choice. Most often it depends on the style guide you prefer. The Associated Press Stylebook, an industry bible that dictates more of my behaviors than the actual Bible, does not use the serial comma unless the meaning of the sentence would otherwise be lost (“My passions include making art, music, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches”). The other major guidebook, The Chicago Manual of Style, employs the serial comma, arguing it clarifies most sentences. Ask what the editor prefers and stick with that. There’s no use trying to convert someone else to your side – serial comma usage preferences are as polarizing as religion and politics.…

MY EARLY-CAREER STORIES FELT LIKE SUCCESSES – the settings were rich, the characters well-described, the action robust. Feeling ready to submit them for publication, I showed one of my “final” drafts to a college professor who’d published a few mystery novels. He carefully read the first two pages, then took out his pipe and wagged the stem at me. “This story’s in love with McDonald’s.” “Huh?” I said, to which he replied, “It’s gobbled up too many Big Macs. It’s all flabby. You’ve got to shake out all those excess words,” he said, flapping my pages around to demonstrate. “What’s left will be the real story.” I sulked for weeks, but he was right. It was my version of the advice Stephen King shares in On Writing, where a submitted story…

Most writers, myself included, are highly competitive people. Our constantly climbing ambitions – both on and off the page – are a huge part of what drives us. Our dreams keep us going through the slog of our manuscripts’ murkiest middles, and our belief in ourselves, and in the value of our work, helps us continue putting ourselves out there despite the rejections, disappointments, bad reviews, and vulnerabilities that this writing life entails. A strong competitive streak can power a writer’s success – but it also can go hand-in-hand with distracting or destructive envy. Even the most celebrated authors sometimes covet what another writer has. After all, we’re all human, and no writing career is easy, smooth, or perfect – even those that appear so to others. It’s OK to…