 For Authors: February 12, 2020 Issue [#9991] |
This week: Charles, Ernest, and Mark Edited by: NaNoNette  
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1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions
| Dear Authors of all genres, I am NaNoNette and I will be your guest editor for this issue. |
| ASIN: 0997970618 |
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Charles, Ernest, and Mark
What do three old authors have in common?
Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, and Mark Twain started out as reporters.
The state of print news is in a bad state. Small newspapers all around the United States of America are closing down. Some only have a print version once a week. Some towns don't have a local, professionally run newspaper at all anymore. If they are lucky and they are a college town, they might have a student-run newspaper cover local news. Ann Arbor, Michigan is one such town where the only daily (online) local news source is the The Michigan Daily from University of Michigan.
A few weeks ago, two old newspapers from prospector times were at risk of closing forever. One did, the other was taken over by a 70-year-old volunteer who works with two other journalists. How come one was saved? It was the newspaper that could claim that Mark Twain wrote there for two weeks. The previous editor in chief said Mark Twain was hiding from the law and spent those two weeks mostly drunk and wrote terrible articles. Here's the catch though. Because he is famous, his short time at the Mountain Messenger helped stop its demise due to the national interest in the story.
One thing you will see when you follow up in the biographies of some authors you like to read, you will find out that many of them have journalism degrees. This is not limited to those authors of olden days. Several authors publishing new books right now have journalism degrees and have worked for newspapers or at least tabloids.
What does this have to do with Writing.Com authors? Everything! Writing for newspaper publication is a little different from outright fiction writing. There are even a few, small grammar differences between news writing and creative writing. Any author here on Writing.Com should be reading their local, national, and world news regularly. All of those things going on can help us to be better authors by taking real life events and fictionalizing them.
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| |  | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#632482 by Not Available. |
| |  | Coming Home (E)
A column for the local paper about our move back to the country and the people we love.
#1157144 by Molly Jean  |
| | | Doing My Part (ASR)
Having learned how the news is gathered, I've stopped buying the daily paper.
#470319 by Kenzie  |
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#2019098 by Not Available. |
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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My last For Authors newsletter "Say What You Mean!" , I received the following replies:
Lucinda Lynx wrote: This is very clear writing. The reader doesn't need to guess, what the text is about. The directions are clear and easy to follow.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Beholden  wrote: Thank you so much for including my story "Pie," amongst the Editor's Picks.
Thank you for writing it so that I could link to it.
hbk16 wrote: These are some frequent misused words in a script. Here are some advice on how to use or not them. Great issue indeed that needs further debates.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Shadow Prowler-Spreading Love  wrote: Thank you for this list. I am guilty of overusing "very" and "really". I'll be sure to work on breaking the bad habit.
An astute reviewer told me yesterday that I overuse "was." I read over my story and she was so right! We all have some of those words that stick to us. Luckily we get to edit and revise.
Dee C wrote: It is said Mark Twain rid himself of the temptation to use "very" by substituting "damn". His editors simply omitted the "damns."
That explains a lot.
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