A Question

Eveningsdawn · Dec 7, 2006

Forgive me if this is the wrong part of the board, and feel free to move it, but I have a question.

A friend of mine, doing research, found very old copies of a magazine called The Writer. It is very, very funny in places, including an article called How To Write A Letter that was full of purposefully bad advice... from 1900 ("Write first perpendicularly, and then horizontally", if I remember right, and "Do not answer any questions posed, it encourages them to ask more"). It includes something called "Gossip About Writers".

My favorite part? It's still being published, and has been published, continuously, since 1887.

My question: Has anyone else heard of it? Is it still any good as a writer's resource? We looked briefly at the 2006 copies, but it was 10 pm and we had to get out of there. Frst glance it looked pretty good - but what's the word on the streets?

Isanthe · Dec 7, 2006

I bought several issues in 1995-96 and enjoyed them. I thought they were better than, say, Writer's Digest. The advice was still pretty basic and I outgrew the magazine after a while.

I can't vouch for what it's like now.

Others may disagree with me, but I now much prefer to find advice and inspiration online. I prefer to put my magazine subscription money towards markets that I am interested in selling to.

Carmy · Dec 7, 2006

I subscribed to it years ago and though it was a good magazine.

These days, most of the information in magazines like The Writer and Writer's Digest is available for free on the Internet.

KTC · Dec 8, 2006

Carmy said:
These days, most of the information in magazines like The Writer and Writer's Digest is available for free on the Internet.

Yes, but nothing beats sitting in your favourite chair with a hot cup of coffee and your favourite magazine. I buy magazines all the time. Hey, I'm in them...I feel I should support the ones I love. I too like The Writer. I remember a time when I enjoyed it often in the 90s.

Linda Adams · Dec 8, 2006

I still subscribe to it and find it a useful magazine (I can't say the same for Writer's Digest, which I just let lapse). They did have a big face lift several years ago, which is why you might not spotted it at the bookstore. The Web site is http://www.writermag.com

Lady Cat · Dec 8, 2006

I have a stack of back issues of The Writer (I'm such a pack rat!) from years ago when I used to buy it on a regular basis. Like most magazines I found some of the advice pretty good and some of it not so good.

I used to read and re-read writing magazines (The Writer, Writer's Digest, Fiction Writer). It was a great way to procrastinate. Now I do more actual writing, which seems to be working out better for me.

scarletpeaches · Dec 8, 2006

KTC said:
Yes, but nothing beats sitting in your favourite chair with a hot cup of coffee and your favourite magazine. I buy magazines all the time. Hey, I'm in them...I feel I should support the ones I love. I too like The Writer. I remember a time when I enjoyed it often in the 90s.

You can read?!

Unique · Dec 8, 2006

I have a huge stack of The Writer that was generously offered by someone on this board. I read them and when I'm finished, those that don't apply to me personally, I take to the library. They disappear >poof< within days. Someone is finding them valuable. If they didn't, those magazines would still be sitting there til we threw them away.

steveg144 · Dec 8, 2006

I subscribe to it. The info is, as someone else noted, "the basics", but let's be honest, lots of folks need to be drilled constantly in the basics, and lots of others who think they're "beyond all that" need refreshers from time to time. Plus I feel good subscribing to an institution that's been around for so very long providing assistance to aspiring writers.

aka eraser · Dec 8, 2006

I bought, read and enjoyed copies of The Writer in the 70s. But like WD and others, the advice tends to get recycled and redundant. Plus they keep saying the same thing over and over.

Oh, and they're repetitive as well.

piscesgirl80 · Dec 8, 2006

There's a lot of good advice in it, but I've noticed a lot of factual errors in the past couple of issues, such as putting colleges in the wrong states (although how you do that with a college that has the state in the title, I'm not sure) misspelling famous authors' names, etc.

Freckles · Dec 8, 2006

My local university library has a slew of back issues of both The Writer and Writer's Digest. I've been devouring (sp?) them, and it's really helped me in my freelancing endeavors!

PeeDee · Dec 8, 2006

I've never heard of it, but I don't generally do much with writerly advice magazines. I have a copy of something somewhere with things like How To Improve your Novel: 10 Easy Steps! and mostly, it does nothing for me.

I'd love to read The Writer if it were like a writerly versionof The Onion. That would be fun.

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 8, 2006

I picked up "The Writer" every-so-often at the newstand, but I've never subscribed, as I did "Writer's Digest" for many years. I think I based my decision on how useful it was by the size of the magazine, which was always much smaller than WD. (Although ads make up for most of the size differential.)

MidnightMuse · Dec 8, 2006

I just buy it for the pictures.

Oh, wait . . .

Evaine · Dec 10, 2006

"First write horizontally, then vertically."
The Bronte sisters did that - and if they were particularly short of paper, they wrote diagonally as well!

Eveningsdawn · Jan 25, 2007

*reminds self to look back at her threads once in a while*

Thanks, all! I got a subscription for Christmas and I like it a lot. Is it kinda basic, yeah. But it's what I need and want right now.

WildScribe · Jan 25, 2007

I know you've already got it, but I wanted to add that I found it interesting, although I was, for some reason, not really tempted to subscribe. I pick it up at B&N sometimes, though.

A Question

Eveningsdawn

Just Sing.

Isanthe

Carmy

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Linda Adams

Soldier, Storyteller

Lady Cat

scarletpeaches

Unique

Agent of Doom

steveg144

Crusty Polemicist

aka eraser

Fish Whisperer

piscesgirl80

Friendly Neighborhood Fish

Freckles

Oooh, the Rainbow Connection

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

MidnightMuse

Midnight Reading

Evaine

Eveningsdawn

Just Sing.

WildScribe

Slave to the Wordcount