Hi Writers,
I'm all set to travel to New York tomorrow to cover the Thrillerfest writing conference. I'm going to be writing live from the conference on this blog as well as special show dailies for our e-newsletter subscribers (sign up via writersdigest.com if you're interested.)

Alas, as I've been preparing to be the ace reporter at Thrillerfest, I've discovered that my voice recording devices are oh-so-last-century, as in, they *gasp* use tape.

Imagine interviewing people who spend their days dreaming up stuff like watches that detonate bombs and pens that are really surveillance cameras and—oops! (@#$#!)—ace reporter has to stop and flip the tape!

So I'm shopping today for a digital voice recording device. I've just about talked myself into an iPod classic with microphone attachment, but I was wondering if any of the other ace reporters out there have recommendations.

Let the recommendations begin! And don't forget to join me all week long for the inside scoop from Thrillerfest!

Keep Writing,
Maria

Hi Writers,
I'm near the end of my trip to New York City. As mentioned in my previous post, I'm accompanying our 2006 and 2007 Writer's Digest annual competitions winners Mary Feuer and Alegra Clarke to meet literary agents.

I've met so many great agents on this trip and learned so much. But I've decided to let Mary and Alegra give you the full rundown in their own words. They're going to be contributing to this blog later in the week when they've had a chance to decompress, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are some pictures of our adventures in agent land.

Keep Writing,
Maria

pictured below:
1. Alegra pitching Michelle Brower
2. Mary, Alegra and Jennie Dunham
3. Mary, Donald Maass and Alegra
4. Mary, Alegra and me at our hotel
5. Annelise Robey, Mary and Alegra lunching

Hi Writers,
Hot off the presses: our August issue featuring cover girl Diablo Cody. Our fab Script Notes blogger Chad Gervich interviewed Cody a week before she won the Oscar for Juno.

If you're a subscriber, this issue—packed with material about breaking into screenwriting—will be hitting your mailbox any day. And if you're not, it hits newsstands 6/17.

I think this is my favorite Writer's Digest cover so far (my previous favorite was Sebastian Junger, December 2006). Anyway, I wanted to share it here with you. Let me know what you think.

Diablo Cody is such a fresh new voice and I'm so pleased that we had the opportunity to share her inspring story on breaking into the world of screenwriting.

Keep Writing,
Maria 

Hi Writers,
Here’s a very recent entry to the WD archives, excerpted from one of my favorite interviewees of all time—Gay Talese. This is from an interview I conducted with Talese and it appeared in the August 2006 issue of Writer’s Digest.

If you were a young journalist starting out today, what would you be doing?
Well, I’d be doing what I’m doing, which is to try to write really well and trust that there are people who appreciate writing that’s very well done. My father, who was a craftsman with a needle and thread, said, “If you do good work, you’ll find that there are people who are going to support it.” Now, you’re not going to get rich necessarily; I mean, maybe you will, but if you’re a craftsman or an artist, you may not be recognized right away. But there are going to be enough people around who are going to appreciate the craft, who are going to appreciate quality work. So if you make a beautiful pair of shoes, a beautiful dress, a beautiful painting, there are some people who are going to have the eye and discernment to say, “Ah, this is quality work.” They’re going to buy it and appreciate it. They’re going to tell you they understand why you took the time, because it’s worth it to do quality work.

Keep Writing,
Maria

Hi Writers,
Welcome to my wild rumpus through the Writer's Digest archives, in which I'm posting an excerpt each day throughout March.

Today's exhibit: a circa June 1981 WD Interview with poet/bestselling novelist Erica Jong, who had no Fear of Flying (interview by John L. Kern).

WD: What are the differences in disciplines between writing poetry and prose?

JONG: They are very different and they don't conflict with each other. There is a sense that poetry comes from the intuitive part of the brain. It is much more pleasurable and euphoric than writing a novel. You feel that you are tapping into the source of unconscious creativity. Nearly every poet that you talk to will tell you that it is, in a sense, an automatic process.
  
Writing a novel is a much more conscious thing. It's a daily job. You go to your desk at nine in the morning and work until three or four. I would say that one day out of ten you feel euphoric and the words just fly off of your fingers. The other nine days you wonder how the hell you are going to move your heroine from one place to another and what adventures will take place along the way. You find that a good part of your day is taken up inventing and devising and that most of the time you don't think it is any good.


Join me tomorrow when I realize why my job description listed: "must be able to lift 20 lbs."

Keep Writing,
Maria

Hi Writers,
It’s the 2nd week in my archival excavations and I’m beginning to worry, just a little, about booklice ... but it’s well worth it for all the great stuff I’ve been finding.

Today’s exhibit: An excerpt from a 1966 Q&A with Truman Capote [from the January 1966 issue of Writer’s Digest. Interview conducted by Roy Newquist]

Newquist: What obligation, if any, do you feel the writer owes the subject matter he works with and the public for which he writes?
Capote: I think the only person a writer has an obligation to is himself. If what I write doesn’t fulfill something in me, if I don’t honestly feel it’s the best I can do, then I’m miserable. In fact, I just don’t publish it.
    The only obligation any artist can have is to himself. His work means nothing, otherwise. It has no meaning. That’s why it’s so absolutely boring to write a film script. The great sense of self-obligation doesn’t enter into it because too many people are involved. Thus the thing that propels me, that makes me proud of my work, is utterly absent. I’ve only written two film scripts and I must admit that in a peculiar way I enjoyed doing them, but the true gratification of writing was completely absent; the obligation was to the producers and the actors, to what I was being paid to do, and not to myself. The only really gratifying thing is to serve yourself. To give yourself free law, as it were.

Newquist: If you were to give advice to a young person intent on a literary career, what would that advice be?
Capote: People are always asking me if they believe that writing can be taught. My answer is, “No—I don’t think writing can be taught.” But on the other hand, if I were a young writer and convinced of my talent, I could do a lot worse than to attend a really good college workshop—for one reason only. Any writer, and especially the talented writer, needs an audience. The more immediate that audience is, the better for him because it stimulates him in his work; he gets a better view of himself and a running criticism.
    Young writers couldn’t get this even if they were publishing stories all the time. You publish a story and there’s no particular reaction. It’s as though you shot an arrow into the dark. You may get letters from people who like or didn’t like it, or a lot of reviews that really don’t mean anything, but if you are working in close quarters with others who are also interested in writing, and you’ve got an instructor with a good critical sense, there’s a vast stimulation.
    I’ve never had this happen to me, but I know it must be so. I’ve given various readings and lectures at universities, so I have had some first-hand observation of it, though I never attended such a workshop myself, but if I were a young writer I would. I think a college workshop would be enormously helpful and stimulating.

Newquist: In looking at today’s creative arts, literature in particular, what do you find that you most admire? Conversely, what do you most deplore?
Capote: I find that a very hard question to answer. I really don’t deplore anything, because I like all creative actions just as actions themselves, whether I personally enjoy them or not. I can’t deplore them just because I don’t think they are right. Now, none of this “beat” writing interests me at all. I think it’s fraudulent. I think it’s all evasive. Where there is no discipline there is nothing. I don’t even find that the beat writing has a surface liveliness—but that’s neither here nor there because I’m sure that eventually something good will come out of it. Some extraordinary person will be encouraged by it who could never have accepted the rigid disciplines of what I consider good writing.
   
This excerpt was pulled from a much longer interview. I really do wish I could share the entire piece with you, it's amazing, but there are rights issues I need to be careful about. I’ll explain further at the end of my archival wanderings in late-March.

Check back tomorrow for the continuation of my big dig.

Keep Writing,
Maria

Hi Writers,
There seems to be some blogosphere chatter surrounding a quote from the Laurell K. Hamilton interview in our April issue. So I'm posting that particular Q&A here. The full interview will be available on our website next week.


Do you work on only one series at a time?
Yes, especially when the Merry series was new. I'd written five Anita books in a row so Anita's voice was very strong. Merry's voice was hard to stay in and the Anita voice kept intruding. So I had to be very careful at the beginning. When I was working on Merry I had to not be thinking about Anita and vice versa.
    A Lick of Frost is number six. Sometime around book four, the world begins to solidify and it's not as much work to do the voice of the characters. Book four seems to be the magic number for me. And somewhere between books six and eight, it just gets to work.    
    One of the things I did before I started Merry was research mystery series, because at that time there were no fantasy series that had gone past five books. A lot of writers seem to get bored with their own series between books five and eight. One of the reasons I didn't do a straight mystery series is because I thought I'd get bored. That's why I have fantastic elements; I thought it would keep me interested, and it has.

Stay tuned for more.

Keep Writing,
Maria

Writer’s Digest magazine is pleased to announce the addition of four famous writers to its Writer’s Workbook line-up: Steve Almond, Susan Shapiro, Dorianne Laux and M.J. Rose. Writer’s Workbook is a popular eight-page section of Writer’s Digest magazine that offers lessons and tips for working on specific aspects of writing, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry and marketing.

Steve Almond is the author of two story collections, My Life in Heavy Metal and The Evil B.B. Chow; the novel Which Brings Me to You (with Julianna Baggott); the nonfiction book Candyfreak; and his new essay collection, Not That You Asked. His provocative how-to fiction advice first appeared in Writer’s Digest’s February 2008 issue.

Susan Shapiro is a Manhattan-based journalism teacher who has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Glamour, People and Salon. She’s the author of the memoirs Five Men Who Broke My Heart; Lighting Up and Only as Good as Your Word: Writing Lessons From My Favorite Literary Gurus. Her tried-and-true nonfiction lessons debuted in Writer’s Digest’s April 2008 issue.

Celebrated poet Dorianne Laux’s poetry commentary debuts in Writer’s Digest’s June 2008 issue. A poet-in-residence at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, she’s the author of Facts about the Moon as well as three collections of poetry from BOA Editions: Awake, What We Carry and Smoke, and co-author of The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry.

M.J. Rose, the newest addition to Writer’s Workbook, shares her savvy marketing tips in Writer’s Digest’s, beginning with the August 2008 issue. The bestselling author of nine novels, including The Reincarnationist, she founded the first marketing company for authors, AuthorBuzz.com, and writers flock to her popular marketing blog, Buzz, Balls & Hype.

Writer's Digest is the world's leading magazine for writers, founded in 1920. Writer's Market, the bible for writers seeking to publish their work, was first published in 1921. Together, they form the foundation of a wide range of informational, instructional and inspirational offerings for writers. Today those offerings include books, magazines, special-interest publications, educational courses, conferences, websites and more.

-From the Writer's Digest magazine family (Art Director, Kathleen DeZarn; Editor, Maria Schneider; Managing Editor, Kara Gebhart Uhl; Online Managing Editor, Brian A. Klems).


 

Hi Writers,
All good writing starts with a goal, either modest or lofty. I issued a challenge last week on this blog—to post your writing goals for 2008.

80 writers answered my goal call. With the help of my editors, I’ve picked 10 of those lists to highlight. The following 10 writers win a Writer’s Digest subscription! And their 2008 goals follow: 


My Writing Goals for 2008:
PUBLISH SOMETHING.
That sounds very simplistic. Like I could step out the door and throw pages into the wind and have them show up at Barnes & Noble printed and bound. I have the stories written, now I need to keep myself in the chair to edit them. Then, terror of all terrors, I have to let go of my babies and let someone else take them, first an agent then an editor. Discipline is the key, it's time to buckle on the armor and toughen my resolve. A good friend told me the other day that I have to play to win. I think she meant the lottery but the statement goes along with writing. So my goals are as follows.
1. Edit
2. Submission
3. Move to the next story.
4. Rinse and repeat.
-Terri Kleinberg


My writing goals for 2008 are:
1. To write like there's no "tomorrow" or "sometime" or "later"
2. To recognize that a writer living in her comfort zone is not experiencing new things and has little or nothing to write about
3. To FINISH the myriad projects that are written, planned or hiding in my desk drawer or imagination
4. To take the advice of my brilliant daughter, whose birthday message to me was, "If you don't write your story, no one will ever read it".
5. To be courageous in the face of my Internal Editor (that picky, over-critical bitch) and write because I cannot not write
-Sandre Moore


My goal to 2008 is to write something non-academic. I've been working on my MLIS for over a year and all I ever seem to write is term paper after term paper. I have 1 1/2 more years to go and wonder if I'll ever write creatively again. I want to find my creative voice that disappeared deep inside somewhere. When I find some free time I love to pick up a WD issue and dream about writing like I used to. I'd like to write poetry again and start a play I have been working on in my head. I love that WD offers writing prompts...If only homework didn't have to come first.
-Kalyn Shubnell


My goals:
1. Finish what I've started! I've let 20+ years of procrastination, another load of laundry, a research question to answer draw me away from my writing. I can't let another 20 years drift. I'm on chapter 7 of my romance novel and oh by gosh, by golly...it's time for mistletoe, holly and me to type THE END.
2. Stop thinking that because I've done research or bought a new journal or picked up the latest How to write book that I've written! It's fun buying that new journal and following research leads, but baby...got write!
3. Keep up my confidence level. I am good. I am good! I have something to say in a unique way!
4. I've asked Santa for a Writer's Digest subscription—winning one would be a great surprise!
Thanks! Happy Holidays!
-Trish Glavin


My goals are more about attitude. I'm already on board with discipline, so I vow not to give materials away or write for free any longer—there must be some quid pro quo with whatever I do.
1. To not be obnoxious with marketing and promotion (I can't stand those pushy authors,) so, be circumspect about self-promotion and use it with the utmost taste whether that is at conferences, online or in e-list groups.
2. Network more but with the intention of making true relationships. I do this now, but this year I will really listen instead of poised waiting my turn to speak.
3. Edit my student's (I teach e-courses) work kindly, by always providing a plus before I stress the minuses and needed corrections.
4. Lower the bitching quotient around my husband and up the "good things" comments about this career. He's making more sacrifices than I am.
-Andrea Campbell


Goals for 2008:
1. Find ten minutes every day to daydream. No pen or paper allowed.
2. Take myself out on a date every Tuesday night. Agenda: explore my creativity in new, interesting and solitary ways.
3. Subscribe to and support the literary magazines I like best, and who I hope will support me.
4. Read every story in the Best American Short Stories of the Century.
5. Begin, fearlessly, to write my novel.
6. Write more letters to friends and family.
7. Call my Gran whenever I think about her, and ask her to tell me her stories.
8. Be mindful of my physical health, and treat my body like the instrument it is: if I feel like crap, I probably won't be writing.
9. When there is a social engagement I *really* don't want to go to, I'll go anyways, and take a pocket size moleskin and a pencil stub with me.
10. Show up at my writing desk every day, keep my eyes open, and try to be useful.
-Christie VanLaningham


My modest goals:
1. Win a Nobel Prize for Literature (for my unpublished works that the Nobel Committee hears about and requests to see)
2. Top the New York Times Bestseller List for the last six months of the year (need to get the book rushed to publication for its brilliance in the first six)
3. Chat with Oprah about how much she loves my book
4. Build my custom-designed writing retreat in Colorado overlooking the mountains.
5. Get a law passed that flays alive anyone who thinks it's okay not to pay writers, claiming they should work for free to get "quality clips." Later amend law to pouring lemon juice on them after flaying.
6. Hire someone to talk to all the people introvert me does not deign to speak to now that I have much moolah from #2. I vant to be alone to create art my dahlings.
7. Pull a J.D. Salinger at the end of the year and refuse all interviews. I need no stinkin' publicity.
8. Allow myself to be coaxed out of Salingerhood to do another interview with Oprah.
-Tricia D. Grissom


Whenever I was depressed in 2007, I would go to the library and pick up Writer’s Digest. Getting a subscription would be a monthly gift of hope for my dream of becoming a writer. My writing goals for 2008 are in two categories, SAFE- writing I know how to do, and RISKS—writing that makes me sigh and scares me.
SAFE:
1. Start a monthly newsletter for my company.
2. Write and Field Test a new curriculum to train direct support staff.
RISKS:
1. Read two bestsellers every month by different authors. Then analyse each for overall plot, character development, surprises, twists, complexity of the storyline, voice (written in first, third person...), dialogue, beginning and closing chapters....
2. Stop rewriting the first chapter of my current novel and either throw it out and start something new, or finish at least chapter two by February 1st and the entire book by May 1st.
3. Lose 50 pounds. Don't laugh! This is a writing goal because I will write for one hour and then actively walk and process for the next hour. Two hours on actively working toward my goals will definitely be therapy for my body and soul.
4. I will actively market my work.
-Mary Ulrich


1. Write regularly.
2. Revise ruthlessly.
3. Release repeatedly (i.e., submit for publication).
-Sherrie Lorance


My writing goal before the curtain closes on 2008 is a rejection letter. Just one simple, beautiful rejection letter and my year will be a complete success. How? That letter would have been made possible by a series of events that started with my organization (finally) of all those seemingly random bits of story and unformed characters in my “Ideas” folder and ended with a completed work of fiction in my hands.

A work of fiction that formed during the course of the year because of a disciplined adherence to a daily writing routine, regular input from fellow writers, and constant revision. A work of fiction that finally appeared “good enough” to send out into the wide world like a kindergartener walking to the bus stop on the first day of school. And like so many hopeful school children making their inaugural school bus rides only to run afoul of the class bully, my work of fiction would have its lunch money stolen and receive its first official black eye.

Then I’ll rework it and put it right back on the bus. And that will be a great success, indeed.
-Karen O'Brien


Feel free to keep posting. And remember to stay true to your writing goals in 2008!
Keep Writing,
Maria
"To thine own self be true" -William Shakespeare

Hi Writers,
I'm on Facebook now, and so is our beloved Writer's Digest, so stop by and say hi if you're a Facebooker!
Maria Schneider on Facebook
Writer's Digest on Facebook

Keep Writing,
Maria

Hi Writers,
Wow, I hate to be a buzz-kill over the holidays, but I read an alarming report in Publishers Weekly and thought it was important to share with you: Court Voids Settlement in Tasini v New York Times

Here's an excerpt:
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has thown out a settlement between freelance writers and publishers reached after a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that publishers had violated the copyright of freelance writers by using their works in electronic databases without their permission. The 2001 Supreme Court decision was reached in Tasini v. The New York Times, a case involving Jonathan Tasini, then president of the National Writers Union, and five other plaintiffs. The appellate court ruling voids a settlement that created a pool of $18 million that was to be paid out to freelance writers in an associated class-action suit.

In the 2 to 1 decision, the appellate court ruled that only writers who had registered their works with the copyright office were eligible to file claims for damage. Since the overwhelming majority of freelance writers did not register their works, the appellate court reasoned that the courts did not have jurisdiction over the dispute and were wrong to approve the class action suit as well as the subsequent settlement. However, in a dissenting opinion, Chief Judge John M. Walker, argued that registering for a copyright was more of a “claim-processing rule,” rather than a “jurisdictional prerequisite.”

If so inclined, you can read background on the case here: Tasini vs. New York Times.

Also, it currently costs $45 (ouch!) to copyright a manuscript. To learn more about copyright, here’s the U.S. Copyright Office website

Until now, Writer's Digest hasn’t recommended writers getting their own copyright, since it was deemed both costly and unnecessary. Unfortunately, we may soon have to change that stance.

Here’s my question for you: In light of this new threat to writers' rights, is it now necessary for writers to get each and every manuscript copyrighted?

Keep Writing,
Maria

Hi Writers,

I've never made a secret of the fact that the WD Interviews are my favorite feature in Writer's Digest. It's a rare privilege to get first-hand advice on the craft and business of writing from some of the finest writers of our times.

We've done some amazing interviews over the years, if I must say so myself. When I went back through our archives recently, I compiled a list, and it was like a who's who of the bestseller lists, including:

•Jane Smiley •Jennifer Weiner •Alice Hoffman •Ted Kooser •Po Bronson •Gay Talese •Jay McInerney •Anna Quindlen •Sebastian Junger •Alexander McCall Smith •John Searles •Augusten Burroughs •Mark Winegardner •Fannie Flagg •James Rollins •Melissa Bank •Michael Connelly •Bill Bryson •Jack Kerley •Caroline Alexander •Margaret Atwood •Marian Keyes •Dave Eggers •Jeffrey Eugenides •Michael Chabon •John Updike •Tom Clancy •Joyce Carol Oates •Janet Evanovich •Ann Brashares

The friendly, fearless editors here at Writer's Digest are pleased to offer our newest venture into the digital divide: The Best of WD Interviews CD

A few of my favorite quotes from past WD interviews:

John Updike: "We're past the age of heroes and hero kings. If we can't make up stories about ordinary people, who can we make them up about?"

Jeffrey Eugenides: "Stay in touch with the first impulses that made you start writing—the pleasure of it and the interest of the story, and not so much the professional side of things. Remain close to that—when you began writing and were intoxicated with it. If you do, the rest will come."

Joyce Carol Oates: "I suggest to my students that they write under a pseudonym for a week. That allows young men to write as women, and women as men. It allows them a lot of freedom they don't have ordinarily."

This is an online-exclusive offer. The Best of WD Interviews is just $14.95 and it's the perfect holiday gift for your favorite writer—even if it's you!

Keep Writing,
Maria