Updated: Mary 15, 2003. My original comments follow the two paragraph below.
The Writer continues to improve. I find that it is rapidly replacing Writer's Digest as the magazine for writers who want to be published. It is written for professional writers for beginning writers (and sometimes intermediate writers--those who have been published a few times but still want to learn).
It is refreshing to see that The Writer has completely shed its pretentiousness. Ditto the fact that the magazine is not overly mercenary. Whether or not you read WD, you need The Writer.
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I've always enjoyed reading The Writer, even when it was more abstract and lit'rary, back in the 1970s. It made a nice counterpoint to Writer's Digest, which was always loaded with so much practical and hands-on information. Back then, you could count on The Writer as a source of lots of warm and fuzzy articles to stoke the fires of creativity (or, perhaps, to lure the muse.
(Actually the muse is fairly easy to lure, and brings ideas by the dozen. Once that happens, you have to figure out what to do with all those great ideas. That's when, in the old days, one would turn to the how-to articles found in Writer's Digest.)
I enjoyed The Writer when I was writing extensively for its competitors. I enjoyed it even when the Editor, Sylvia Burack, chastised me roundly and soundly in 1997 for submitting an article that was a hundred words over limit. (Ouch! But, hey--when I did that with articles I sold to Writer's Digest, the editor had me turn the excess into a sidebar, and paid more. Hm... probably a good example of "Do as I do, not as I say?" But, I digress ....)
The Writer is quite different nowadays, and I have to say that I like the improved version. Prior to the late 1980s, The Writer tended to be a bit affectatious, at times even pretentious. Perhaps this was due to its long association with the Atlantic Monthly?
In any event, the old version of The Writer carried far too many articles on the subject of what I call "literary writing." Articles that said a lot, but showed the reader little that was useful. More of the type of articles that temporarily gave one a warm creative glow of short duration while discussion such things as the mystique of creativity and the whichness of the muse, not to mention the when-ness of lyrical prose and on and on and on ...
... none of which is what beginning writers need much of. Beginning writers can get all the foggy and warm fuzzy stuff from poetry group meetings, PBS biographies of certified literary writers, and simply meditating. (None of which are bad; they have their place, but not in the heads of writers serious about getting published.)
"Okay, Banks, so what do beginning writers really need?"
The short list is:
* Articles that show how someone got into print the first time (or the second time, as selling the second time can be more difficult than the first, in certain instances).
* Articles that tell and show a writer how to write effective dialogue, description, narrative, action scenes, flashbacks, summaries, outlines, and lots more.
* Tips on selling.
* Market listings.
* Articles that show writers what a manuscript is really supposed to look like; how to research a market; how to develop characters; how to plot; and of course more.
Bottom line is: Practical articles that show with examples and describe clearly how to write for publication ... and how to get published.
Happily, the new incarnation of The Writer, under the auspices of Kalmbach Books, is slanted heavily in the direction of practical articles. Today's version of the magazine is more than just a counterpoint to Writer's Digest. It stands alone as a useful source of the sorts of guidance, advice, inspiration, and information that are vital to unpublished or little-published writers.
Highest recommendations!*
*(Even for the few remaining typewriter purists--a group that The Writer courted heavily in the early 1980s, not deigning to acknowledge the legitimacy of word processing until it was absolutely necessary.)
Recommended:
Yes
Primary Reason for Buying: Articles Accepts Freelance Submissions: Yes
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