Category Archives: For the Writer

Editing Help

Writers Forum President Laura Hernandez wanted to pass along a great editing resource she has mentioned in Queen’s Letters. This is from an e-mail Laura received from Reedsy.

Writing isn’t a solo sport. To help your books and stories reach their fullest potential, you may eventually depend on your most trusted teammates: your editors. On the Reedsy blog, we’re revealing how editors can bring out the best in a writer’s work.

The topics we cover in this guide include:

If you’d like us to introduce you to editors who can help you and your book, reply to this email with some information about your project — our team would be more than happy to make some personalized suggestions.

Happy editing,

Martin, Blog Editor @ Reedsy

 

Writers Forum is open to submissions for the blog or the newsletter.

Type of Material and Guidelines for e-newsletter and Website Submission: 1.) Your articles on the art or craft of writing. 2.) Essays on subjects of interest to writers. (200 words can be quoted without permission but with attribution.) 3.) Book or author reviews. 4.) Letters to the Editor or Webmaster. 5.) Information on upcoming events, local or not. 6.) Photos of events. 7.) Advertise your classes or private events. 8.) Short fiction. 9.) Poetry.Please submit copy to the editor at writersforumeditor@gmail.com . Electronic submissions only. Microsoft Word format, with the .docx file extension, is preferred but any compatible format is acceptable. The staff reserves the right to perform minor copy editing in the interest of the website’s style and space.

Correction: Riverfront Playhouse Looking for Writers

Correction: the email address at the bottom of yesterday’s post was incorrect. Please use the link in today’s post to send your inquiries and submissions. Thank you.

Riverfront Playhouse is calling for submissions for Playwrights’ Night Out. Deadline 10/15/2021.

Thank you for making the effort to do something that could be exciting and rewarding. Comedy, tragedy, drama, whatever you want. Only six 20 minute shows will be chosen and you will be part of the rehearsal process. There may be more shows if some show take only ten minutes.

Give us what you have.

YOU MAY BE PRODUCED!

Rules for Playwright’s Night Out

1.      No author will direct his or her own play.
2.      All plays are 20 minutes or less.
3.      All plays are for readers’ theater only. Lines should not be memorized to allow for changes in the rehearsal stage of production.
4.      Try to avoid frivolous cussing.
5.      Try to keep your cast less than 20.
6.      Please make at least one edit of your play before submission.
7.      There will be no costuming.
8.      Keep props to a minimum.
9.      This is sort of a table read on stage. Listen for vocal nuance, facial expression, body movement during rehearsals.

Contact Jennifer Levens for more details at  theatermaven2@gmail.com

 

Writers Forum is open to submissions for the blog or the newsletter.

Type of Material and Guidelines for e-newsletter and Website Submission: 1.) Your articles on the art or craft of writing. 2.) Essays on subjects of interest to writers. (200 words can be quoted without permission but with attribution.) 3.) Book or author reviews. 4.) Letters to the Editor or Webmaster. 5.) Information on upcoming events, local or not. 6.) Photos of events. 7.) Advertise your classes or private events. 8.) Short fiction. 9.) Poetry.Please submit copy to the editor at writersforumeditor@gmail.com . Electronic submissions only. Microsoft Word format, with the .docx file extension, is preferred but any compatible format is acceptable. The staff reserves the right to perform minor copy editing in the interest of the website’s style and space.

Riverfront Playhouse Looking for Writers

Riverfront Playhouse is calling for submissions for Playwrights’ Night Out. Deadline 10/15/2021.

Thank you for making the effort to do something that could be exciting and rewarding. Comedy, tragedy, drama, whatever you want. Only six 20 minute shows will be chosen and you will be part of the rehearsal process. There may be more shows if some show take only ten minutes.

Give us what you have.

YOU MAY BE PRODUCED!

Rules for Playwright’s Night Out

1.      No author will direct his or her own play.
2.      All plays are 20 minutes or less.
3.      All plays are for readers’ theater only. Lines should not be memorized to allow for changes in the rehearsal stage of production.
4.      Try to avoid frivolous cussing.
5.      Try to keep your cast less than 20.
6.      Please make at least one edit of your play before submission.
7.      There will be no costuming.
8.      Keep props to a minimum.
9.      This is sort of a table read on stage. Listen for vocal nuance, facial expression, body movement during rehearsals.

Contact Jennifer Levens for more details at  theatermavin2@gmail.com

 

Writers Forum is open to submissions for the blog or the newsletter.

Type of Material and Guidelines for e-newsletter and Website Submission: 1.) Your articles on the art or craft of writing. 2.) Essays on subjects of interest to writers. (200 words can be quoted without permission but with attribution.) 3.) Book or author reviews. 4.) Letters to the Editor or Webmaster. 5.) Information on upcoming events, local or not. 6.) Photos of events. 7.) Advertise your classes or private events. 8.) Short fiction. 9.) Poetry.Please submit copy to the editor at writersforumeditor@gmail.com . Electronic submissions only. Microsoft Word format, with the .docx file extension, is preferred but any compatible format is acceptable. The staff reserves the right to perform minor copy editing in the interest of the website’s style and space.

Lessons From ‘The Freebird’s Dilemma

Today I share the most important lesson that I learned from writing ‘The Freebird’s Dilemma.’

I wrote “The Freebird’s Dilemma” in 1992 as a submission to Bridges, the Los Medanos College literary publication. That was the year that I first took a lit class. I was also in a supportive writing group that included my lit instructor, Madeline Puccioni. That was the year that I started writing seriously.

I also learned my most astonishing lesson of all from writing “The Freebird’s Dilemma”.

The submission guidelines were simple and direct. Twelve-point Times New Roman font. Double spaced. Ten pages maximum.

I wrote the story making maximum use of my experiences working on trail crews in Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks. I also used my experiences of feeling trapped in the town I lived in and really wanting to be back out in the wilderness. And I threw in a romance. I figured that couldn’t hurt, but that part was total fiction. Mostly. Rachel was based upon a single mom that I did know at college, but there was no romance in the real relationship.

I wrote the story. I edited the story. I got it down to twelve pages. And then I didn’t think I could cut out any more. Anything else that I cut would eliminate what I thought was critical information for the reader to have to understand my characters. I thought that it was going to be a twelve-page story, and that was that.

I explained my problem to Madeline.

She grinned and said, “Welcome to the world of writing! Ten pages means ten pages. Those are the submission guidelines, and there are no exceptions. Trim two pages, or it won’t even be read.”

This was the second most important lesson I learned from this piece. Submission guidelines are not suggestions. Not even when your friendly teacher and writing group coach is the one enforcing them.

The day before the submission deadline, I had a long afternoon break on campus. I sat in the cafeteria with a cup of coffee and looked my manuscript over one more time. The story opened with exposition of Joe and Rachel’s background, explaining how they had gotten to the point they were at in their relationship. I realized that the exposition made for a slow start, so I tried to find ways to tuck that information into other places in the story. Shuffling material around didn’t help me trim two pages, though. I could not let go of my need to make sure this background information was in the story.

Continue reading →

March 4 is National Grammar Day

National Grammar Day

March 4 is National Grammar Day in the United States. Established in 2008, it is a yearly celebration of the nuts and bolts of the English language.

In honor of National Grammar Day, author and podcast host Mignon Fogarty has a piece on the Top Ten Language Myths.

Who is Mignon Fogarty? Form her website:


Mignon Fogarty is the founder of the Quick and Dirty Tips network and creator of Grammar Girl, which has been named one of Writer’s Digest’s 101 best websites for writers multiple times. The Grammar Girl podcast has also won Best Education Podcast multiple times in the Podcast Awards, and Mignon is an inductee in the Podcasting Hall of Fame. Mignon is the author of the New York Times best-seller “Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing” and six other books on writing. She has appeared as a guest on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and the “Today Show” and has been featured in the New York Times, Business Week, the Washington Post, USA Today, CNN.com, and more. She was previously the chair of media entrepreneurship in the Reynolds School of Journalism in Reno, NV. She hates the phrase “grammar nazi” and loves the word “kerfuffle.” She has a B.A. in English from the University of Washington in Seattle and an M.S. in biology from Stanford University.

You can read a short piece on her Top Ten Language Myths at her blog, Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips, or you can listen to her podcasts on them for more details. I will post a link to a playlist of them below, but first, I will give you Grammar Girl’s Top Ten Language Myths, in reverse order:

  • A run-on sentence is a really long sentence
  • You shouldn’t start a sentence with the word ‘however’
  • ‘Irregardless’ is not a word
  • There is only one way to write the possessive form of a word that ends in S
  • Passive voice is always wrong
  • ‘I.e.’ and ‘e.g’ mean the same thing
  • You use ‘a’ before words that start with a consonant and ‘an’ before words that start with a vowel
  • It’s incorrect to answer the question “How are you?” with “I’m good.”
  • You shouldn’t split infinitives
  • You shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition

Be sure to read Mignon Fogarty’s explanations for these, or even better, listen to her podcast episodes for more details. You can listen to the Grammar Girl episodes for each of these top ten at the playlist that Mignon Fogarty has posted exclusively to Spotify. You can also find each of the episodes wherever you might already listen to podcasts, such as Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Podbean.

Come on back and post your thoughts on these language myths in the comments.

 

Writers Forum is open to submissions for the blog or the newsletter.

Type of Material and Guidelines for e-newsletter and Website Submission: 1.) Your articles on the art or craft of writing. 2.) Essays on subjects of interest to writers. (200 words can be quoted without permission but with attribution.) 3.) Book or author reviews. 4.) Letters to the Editor or Webmaster. 5.) Information on upcoming events, local or not. 6.) Photos of events. 7.) Advertise your classes or private events. 8.) Short fiction. 9.) Poetry.Please submit copy to the editor at writersforumeditor@gmail.com . Electronic submissions only. Microsoft Word format, with the .docx file extension, is preferred but any compatible format is acceptable. The staff reserves the right to perform minor copy editing in the interest of the website’s style and space.