The Writer - 11.2019

writermag.com • The Writer | 1

FEATURES

November 2019

Volu m e 132 Nu m be r 11

DEPARTMENTS

8 From the Front Lines

Crash and burn

Why recklessness is

good for your creativity.

BY YI SHUN LAI

10 Freelance Success

What the hell is free-

lance success, anyway?

You’re doing OK. Really.

BY PETE CROATTO

38 Literary Spotlight

Hidden Compass

BY MELISSA HART

40 Conference Insider

UW-Madison Writers’

Institute

BY MELISSA HART

IN EVERY ISSUE

2 From the Editor

4 Take Note

42 Markets

47 Classified advertising

48 How I Write

12 Celebrating 20 years of

NaNoWriMo

In its two decades of existence,

National Novel Writing Month has

inspired millions of writers to fi-

nally put their stories on paper, re-

sulting in thousands of published

novels over the years. Here’s a

look back at NaNoWriMo’s history,

from humble coffeeshop begin-

nings to the literal billions of

words it inspires today.

BY GRANT FAULKNER

20 How to be a good

critique partner

Employ these best practices

when you don an editorial cap.

BY ANICA MROSE RISSI

22 He said, she said

Eight ways to make dialogue

matter.

BY RYAN G. VAN CLEAVE

24 Resurrecting your

darlings

Why trash your deleted pages

when you can publish them?

BY MELISSA HART

28 The future for literary

magazines

Six essential issues facing lit

journals – and what’s being done

to address them.

BY TONI FITZGERALD

Contents

24

Cover: Reddavebatcave/Shutterstock