The Writers Network News, Pandemic Brain: Thinko, May 2020
In This Issue
One: From the Editor's Desk: Pandemic Brain: Thinko
Two: Ask the Book Doctor—Issues with Short Stories
Three: Subjects of Interest to Writers
Four: Contests, Agents, and Markets
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The Writers Network News
No Rules; Just Write!
Editor: Bobbie Christmas
Contents copyright 2020, Bobbie Christmas
No portion of this newsletter can be used without permission; however, you may forward the newsletter in its entirety to fellow writers.
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Meet Fellow Writers
Do you live in or visit metro Atlanta? Sign up for notices of local (but sporadic) meetings today! Send your name and email address to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com.
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Some links in this newsletter may be shortened with help from www.tinyurl.com, a free service that converts long links to short ones.
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Writer's Quote of the Month
"Write what should not be forgotten." ―Isabel Allende
Most of us have more time to write, now that we rarely leave the house, and for future generations we should record all that we experience, ponder, and question in these challenging times.
Isabel Allende is a seventy-seven-year-old Chilean writer who wrote THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS and CITY OF THE BEASTS. She has been called "the world's most widely read Spanish-language author." Allende has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received Chile's National Literature Prize. President Barack Obama awarded her the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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One: From the Editor's Desk: PANDEMIC BRAIN: THINKO
Dear Fellow Writers:
First I must admit to an error in my last newsletter. Perhaps under pandemic stress I said my son lives and practices veterinary medicine in Fairfax, Virginia. Nope. He and his wife live in the neighboring city of Vienna, Virginia, where he has his veterinary clinic, the Oakton-Vienna Veterinary Hospital. He spells his last name the old family way, Christmus. I changed the spelling of my name after my divorce. Anyway, I burst with pride when I speak of my son. When I was a youngster and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I had only two ideas. I wanted to be a writer or a veterinarian. I fulfilled my first ambition as a writer and editor, and many years later my son, Sanford, without even knowing my childhood wishes, fulfilled my second ambition and became a veterinarian. Talk about joy! On a literary note, one of Sandy’s clients (the person, not the dog) is a well-known bestselling author of thrillers. In the interest of patient confidentiality, however, I cannot reveal the author’s name. Phooey.
After gave the wrong name of the city where my son and daughter-in-law live, many people have mentioned that they too are making stupid little mistakes. I call it Pandemic Brain. We’re stressed out, confused, challenged, and overthinking everything. No wonder we’re making mistakes. I learned a new word, though: thinko. Like the word “typo” refers to a minor glitch in typing, “thinko” refers to a minor glitch in thinking. Now we have an excuse for our mental hiccups as well as a word that describes them.
Last month I tried not to mention the pandemic we all face. Everything we read, see, or experience these days is related to COVID-19 (yes, Merriam-Webster capitalizes it). I hoped my newsletter would be a bright spot not tainted by what was happening all around us.
I can’t be silent any longer, though. I’ve never had to endure such isolation and dark news, and it’s difficult. I envy those who have family members sheltered with them. At least I have a dog, although an aging one, and a cheerful bird, both of which do their best to keep my spirits up. I know everyone else is suffering too, and I feel their pain as well as mine.
On the bright side, though, I am accustomed to working from home, having done it for more than a quarter of a century. Also on the bright side, people must be spending this time writing, because work is flowing in to keep me busy and distracted. Perhaps this tough period has finally delivered some personal time to writers.
If I didn’t have editing work to perform each day, I don’t know what I would do with my day. I can’t spend all my time editing and writing, though, so to my delight, my nieces gave a virtual birthday party to their mother, my sister, who is still vibrant, active, and beautiful at eighty-four. My sister knew her daughters were going to celebrate with her on Zoom, but she didn’t know that after their four-way celebration from three states, more than a dozen other family members would join in from all over, including Australia. What a surprise for her and a joy for all of us. We also have a virtual family reunion planned in a few weeks that will include even more relatives. I’ve played word games with my sister and her friends using Zoom too. I FaceTime with my best friend, my son, and my boyfriend more than ever now. It’s a new world, and we are finding ways to cope.
I hope you too are finding happy diversions and staying safe, staying sheltered, and staying busy writing.
Yours in writing,
Bobbie Christmas Bobbie@zebraeditor.com or bzebra@aol.com
Author of two editions of WRITE IN STYLE, owner of Zebra Communications, director of The Writers Network, coordinator of the Florida Writers Association Editors Helping Writers service, and senior editor of Enjoy Cherokee Magazine
If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, please sign up to get your own subscription. Simply go to https://www.zebraeditor.com/ to subscribe to The Writers Network News. My promise: I never share your address or send out spam.
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Two: ASK THE BOOK DOCTOR: Issues with Short Stories
By Bobbie Christmas
Q: I tried writing novels, but I found I was better at writing shorter things. I wrote some short stories, but they all come out as if they are a view into a certain event or something. They don’t really have a beginning, middle, and end. Are they still considered short stories?
A: You probably are writing what is called slice-of-life stories, and some, but not all, markets that accept short stories also accept slice-of-life stories and considers them short stories.
Q: I have a short story, science fiction, that uses fictitious drugs. I know of two science fiction stories that have done the same. One author put a trademark symbol after the name of the drug he created. One did not. Is using the trademark symbol solely a style thing, or does it offer some type of protection against derivative work?
A: I presume the author used the trademark symbol to give the name an air of authenticity. I doubt any author would go to the trouble to legally trademark a name of a fictitious product, so I doubt that it provides any protection greater than the automatic protection provided by the Sonny Bono copyright law. That law says you automatically own the rights to any material you create.
Most book publishers, and therefore most books that feature collections of short stories, adhere to Chicago style, which does not use trademark symbols. Such symbols are appropriate for advertisers, however, which is why you’ll see them in print ads as well as on product containers. Chicago style simply capitalizes brand names with no need to indicate that they are trademarked names.
Remember that in prose, and especially in fiction, symbols, asterisks, and footnotes distract readers. Strong writing does the opposite. It keeps readers embroiled in the mood and illusion of the story.
Q: I am working on a short story, and in it I mention two televisions shows. TV Guide puts quote marks around the names of shows. I was unsuccessful in finding what The Chicago Manual of Style recommends, but someone told me not to use quote marks in a story. Which is it? For example,
Jay Leno finished his monologue on “The Tonight Show.”
Jay Leno finished his monologue on The Tonight Show.
A: Be careful in assuming that what you see printed in one place will be right for all places. Periodicals usually use Associated Press style, but book publishers use Chicago style, so I’m glad you asked this question.
According to The Chicago Manual of Style, television programs are italicized, but a single episode in a series is set in roman and enclosed in quotation marks. It gives as an example the following: “Casualties,” an episode in The Fortunes of War, a Masterpiece Theater series. In case the italics don’t come through in this form, the following words are in italics: The Chicago Manual of Style and The Fortunes of War.
Q: Three people—one fellow writer and two avid readers—read my short story and provided feedback. They all love the story, but all said they didn’t like ending.
I ended it the way I did because it made more sense to me. Even though it wasn’t a happy ending, the protagonist was content with the way things turned out.
I want my stories to entertain and satisfy readers, but I don’t feel right ending a story in a way that I personally think is a cheesy cliché. Should I write something I wouldn’t read myself, just because others like it? Can I even trust the response of such a small sample of readers, even though their independent feedback is resounding and consistent?
A: Examine your motives. If indeed you are writing to sell your work, you have to consider the market. If you write for yourself without hope of selling your work, you can write endings as unpleasing to the public as you wish, because the public will never see those stories.
You are the god who created your story. You can control the outcome, depending on your goals. The endings of many movies have been changed when focus groups did not like the first ending. Some movies have become blockbusters that might have otherwise bombed, if the ending had not changed.
Before revising the story, though, get feedback from a larger group, at least ten people. If the majority still gives negative feedback on the conclusion, it is time to consider a change.
Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com or BZebra@aol.com. Read Bobbie’s Zebra Communications blog at https://www.zebraeditor.com/blog/.
For much more information on these subjects and hundreds of others of vital importance to writers, order PURGE YOUR PROSE OF PROBLEMS, a Book Doctor’s Desk Reference Book at http://tinyurl.com/4ptjnr.
Bobbie Christmas’s award-winning second edition of WRITE IN STYLE: How to Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing is available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/y7ppcdkd or buy it directly at https://tinyurl.com/y7p9xkbb.
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Three: Subjects of interest to writers
MEMBERS WRITE
Michele Sheldon wrote, “I've been reading your newsletters for years and love them. I look forward to each one arriving in my inbox. [In the October] newsletter you state to email you if I'd like a copy of your report titled “Bobbie's Ten Commandments of Creativity.” I would like this please, if it's still available.”
I attached report to an email when I responded, “It’s still available. Many people have asked for it, so it will be available for a long time.”
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Our watchful-eyed fellow editor, Cynthia MacGregor, sent this dangling modifier in:
From an article from “The Conversation” (whatever that is), reprinted on the Snopes site:
In the day after the January Iranian attack on U.S. military bases in Iraq, reporter Jane Lytvynenko at Buzzfeed documented numerous instances of old photos or videos being presented as evidence of the attack on social media.
Cyn notes, “An attack on social media? What is the world coming to?! LOL”
She also sent this headline with another dangling modifier: Decision to Let Cruises Sail at Pence Meeting Called ‘Scandalous’ [As written the meeting (rather than the decision) was called scandalous.] I told her I’d like to have attended that scandalous meeting.
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EDITING TIPS
ONE SPACE, AND HOW TO FIX IT
Once again I must reiterate the rule about spacing only once at the end of a sentence or after a colon. Yes, many of us who are “of the age” originally learned to type on a typewriter. The rule back then was that we had to type two spaces after an end mark. Ever since the advent of the computer, though, the rule has been to space only once at any time. Nothing calls for two spaces! Despite all the literature that details the one-space rule (see, for example, https://tinyurl.com/ydfjaueo), I still keep getting manuscripts that have two spaces between every sentence. It’s an easy fix, though. If you have already typed your manuscript with extra spaces or if you simply can’t break the two-space habit, here’s my solution from PURGE YOUR PROSE OF PROBLEMS:
ONE SPACE AFTER PERIODS—AND AN EASY FIX
Chicago style (preferred by book publishers) and Microsoft dictate that punctuation at the end of a sentence (periods, question marks, and quotation marks) should be followed by only one space. Colons also should be followed by only one space. This spacing differs from what some of us learned in school, especially if we learned to type on typewriters, but computers changed the norm, plus academic and business styles do not always align with Chicago style, which is the style that book publishers use.
Yes, typography is a small detail, but using two spaces can imply that the author is not of the computer era. Break the two-space habit.
In addition, if you plan to self-publish and intend to set your book in justified type, you absolutely must delete the extra spaces before going to press, or the extra spacing will make the printed book look awkward.
Use my Find and Refine Method™ to find and delete all the extra spaces, and the task takes only a few seconds. Use the Find and Replace function. Put the cursor in the dialogue box for Find What and press the space bar twice. With the cursor in the Replace box, press the spacebar once. Push the button that says Replace All, and in moments, the computer makes the changes for you.
I sometimes have to run the function more than once to ensure I catch all the extra spaces in clients’ manuscripts. Run it until the computer says it has made zero replacements, and the job is finished.
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EASY ACCESS TO BOBBIE’S BLOGS
Read creative writing tips as well as some of my personal experiences. Access the Write In Style blog here: https://www.zebraeditor.com/blog/
On the other hand, for my relationship-related blog, see my blog titled “Neurotica: Crazy Stories of Love, Lust, and Letting Go.” If you like to read about disastrous dates and ridiculous relationships, I’ve got a ton of them, and they all happened to me. Some are funny, some are a little sexy, some are sad, and all true. My latest addition is a little scary, because it happened when I was only six years old. Read it here: https://neuroticastories.blogspot.com.
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2019 BOOK AWARDS
Which book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction? Who won the Man Booker Prize? What book landed the National Book Award? If you are curious about which books won awards in 2019, one website lists them all. https://tinyurl.com/ya7ftbea
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Get news, writing-related cartoons, immediate updates, and other good stuff for writers.
Like and follow Zebra Communications at https://tinyurl.com/ydyn3pcu.
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CMOS ONLINE Q&A
This month someone posed the following question to The Chicago Manual of Style Online:
Q. I am convinced “the prophet Isaiah” in CMOS 8.93 is a typo. So my question is: Really? Is “prophet” really down in “the prophet Isaiah”? Or “apostle” in “the apostle Paul”?
To get the answer to this question and many more based on Chicago style, go to http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/latest.html.
THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE sets the standard in book publishing for issues such as punctuation, capitalization, and much more. If you write fiction or nonfiction books, you will want to know about Chicago style or be sure to use a professional book editor intimately familiar with Chicago style.
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MANUSLIP TIME: ITEMS IN A LIST
Sometimes writers are unaware of writing awkward or easily misinterpreted sentences and headlines. The result can sometimes be funny, and I call them manuslips.
Lists can challenge writers. When handled incorrectly, odd or funny things can be the result. Here are some manuslips that illustrate my point.
He was wearing a tweed coat, yellow gloves, and a soft-brimmed hat and cane. (As written, he was wearing his cane and it had a soft brim. Potential revision: He carried a cane and wore a tweed coat, yellow gloves, and a soft-brimmed hat.)
On the other end of the table sat a small man with a neatly trimmed mustache in shirtsleeves slightly worn at the cuffs. (Why was his mustache wearing shirtsleeves? Potential revision: On the other end of the table sat a small man in shirtsleeves. He sported a neatly trimmed mustache.)
My father went off into the woods with his shovel, rifle, and dog on a leash. (As written, his shovel and rifle were also on a leash. Potential rewrite: My father went off into the woods with his dog on a leash and his shovel and rifle on his shoulder.)
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You may note that in my manuslips taken from unpublished manuscripts, I always remove the original names of characters so the errors are not attributable to any particular manuscript or author.
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WRITE IN STYLE: How to Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing
Five-time-award-winning WRITE IN STYLE leaves grammar to the grammarians. Instead it uses humor and expertise to show writers how to strengthen their writing style and create a fresh voice. Available as an e-book or printed.
Order your copy today at https://tinyurl.com/y8fp5nym.
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SELF-PUBLISHING VERSUS TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING
Can’t decide whether to self-publish or seek a publisher? Whether to print on demand or lower the cost by printing a large quantity? This free white paper shows you all the options as well as the advantages and drawbacks of each potential method of publishing.
https://tinyurl.com/ycjesrcg
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Four: Contests, Agents, and Markets
EMMA SWEENY AGENCY
https://www.emmasweeneyagency.com/
We accept only electronic queries and ask that all queries be sent to queries@emmasweeneyagency.com rather than to any agent directly. Please begin your query with a succinct (and hopefully catchy) description of your plot or proposal. Always include a brief cover letter telling us how you heard about ESA, your previous writing credits, and a few lines about yourself. We cannot open any attachments unless specifically requested, and ask that you paste the first ten (10) pages of your proposal or novel into the text of your email.
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THE NEWFOUND PROSE PRIZE
https://tinyurl.com/y7vcgukc
You know that long story of yours that wickedly exceeds the word counts for print journals? Or that micro-essay collection you’ve been crafting that’s still too short to publish as a book? These works deserve to exist in print. Now they have a home.
The Newfound Prose Prize is awarded annually to a chapbook-length work of exceptional fiction or creative nonfiction. The work may be in the form of a long story or essay or a collection of short pieces (60 pages max). Other than the page limit, the only formal requirement is that some aspect of the work must inform or explore how place shapes identity, imagination, and understanding.
Submissions for this prize open September 15, 2020. Don’t sent entries before this date.
Deadline: March 15, 2021
Guest Judge: Gabino Iglesias
Awards: First place is publication, a $500 prize, and 25 contributor copies of the winning chapbook. Three finalists will be announced, and all previously unpublished work will be considered for publication as a general submission to the journal.
Reading Fee: $15
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VQR
https://www.vqronline.org/about-vqr/submissions
VQR strives to publish the best writing we can find. While we have a long history of publishing accomplished and award-winning authors, we also seek and support emerging writers. A look at one of our latest issues will show you the diversity of voices we publish.
Genres
Poetry: All types and length.
Short Fiction: Length is from 3,500–8,000 words. We are generally not interested in genre fiction (such as romance, science fiction, or fantasy).
Nonfiction: Length is 3,500–9,000 words. We publish literary, art, and cultural criticism; reportage; historical and political analysis; and travel essays. We publish few author interviews or memoirs. In general, we are looking for nonfiction that looks out on the world, rather than within the self.
General Guidelines
We consider only unpublished work. Please do not submit previously published material, including work published in anthologies, chapbooks, or online.
We only accept submissions online via Submittable. We do not accept submissions via email or post.
Payment
For poetry, we pay $200 per poem, up to 4 poems; for a suite of 5 or more poems, we usually pay $1,000.
For short fiction, we generally pay $1,000 and above.
For other prose, such as personal essays and literary criticism, we generally pay $1,000 and above, at approximately 25 cents per word, depending on length. For investigative reporting, we pay at a higher rate, sometimes including pre-approved travel expenses. For long-form journalism, we often seek funders to support our writers directly, in addition to our own payments.
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Do YOU have news for The Writers Network News? Send it in the body of an email to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com or bzebra@aol.com. Deadline: 18th of each month.
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Send a copy of this newsletter to all your writing friends. Tell them to join The Writers Network F-R-E-E by visiting https://www.zebraeditor.com/ and signing up for The Writers Network News.
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With the exception of Zebra Communications, information in this newsletter is not to be construed as an endorsement. Research all information and study every stipulation before you enter a competition, pitch or accept an assignment, spend money, or sell your work.
The Writers Network News: a newsletter for writers everywhere. No Rules; Just Write!
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