Saturday, May 17, 2008

One small step for man

I recently decided not to renew my subscriptions to Writer's Digest and The Writer magazines. The former has always seemed more commercial and basic to me. The latter is more craft-centered but still perennially offers 8 Steps to Better Screenwriting, 10 Ways to Make Your Characters Come Alive. More experienced writers might appreciate the reminders, but that's all they are. You have to navigate a large part of writing on your own. At the very least, writers have to take a formula (10 Steps to Etc.) and make it seem organic.

Frankly, another reason I didn't renew was to free up cash. $81 isn't much over three years, but renewing every three years is a great temptation. Giving up two magazines, I can subscribe to two others more focused on what I write for pay and read for enjoyment. How-to magazines are useful for tracking trends, but so are fiction and poetry magazines.

My biggest subscriptions currently are Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Mystery Scene, Crimespree, and Poets & Writers.

2 comments:

Patrick Shawn Bagley said...

I always try to steer my students away from WRITERS DIGEST and THE WRITER. POETS & WRITERS is the only craft magazine I ever recommend.

pattinase (abbott) said...

You've been tagged for another meme. Sorry.
http://pattinase@blogspot.com/