If I were a Writer...

[astro]

Based on kleph's post here (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showpost.php?p=993696&postcount=550), I thought it would be interesting to guage what people think are great magazines or journals.

So, If you were a writer, which magazines would be at the top of your wish list? Where would you love to see your work printed?

For me, I'd say that Kleph hit it on the head. If I were a writer, I'd love to have my work posted in Wired. One of the old-school tech mags.

What about you?

[kleph]

well, its not that i really have ever had a fetish about being in wired. they are notoriously cheap toward freelancers. but making a sale outside of my usual little circle of publications is a pretty big deal for me.

i mean, ego wise, it will be nice but wired only has a 500K circulation. getting my byline on the front page of the Dallas Morning News sunday edition - now that gave me a serious the hard on.

[Boobmeister]

I'm going to write a novel one day, and I wont even care if it gets published .... it will be more about self satisfaction, and pursuing a childhood dream .....

[astro]

Yeah, I guess a lot of magazines would be cheap towards freelance writers. I guess I was just trying to capture the romantic 'pinnacle' of writing ambition. Not being a writer, however, means that I don't really know what writers aspire to.

Front page of the dallas morning news sounds like it'd be a huge feather in your cap, though :D

[kleph]

just under one million readers. and the competition for the real estate above the fold is brutal. in some ways, this 1A story (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/07/MNG60G468K1.DTL) for the San Francisco Chronicle was a bigger deal since i was a freelancer, not a staffer.

but for real ego boosting, the location of the story mattered less than kicking the shit out of the competition. but those days are long past, now.

no, wired is a good mag and, i hope, a regular string for me. but if we were talking dream story placement i'd have to say Texas Monthly or Harpers.

and, boobmeister, you are roaming in the territory of my 2007 new years resolution but i'll save that for then.

[Girl.]

In terms of prose, I'd love to have something printed in Meanjin.

[Jimma]

I'd love to be published in Monster Trucks Monthly.

[kleph]

I'd love to be published in Monster Trucks Monthly.

you gotta work to make the dream reality.

[Xythan]

Philosophy Now (http://www.philosophynow.org/)

Time (http://www.time.com/time/)

National Geographic (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/)

New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com/home.ns)

Reader's Digest (http://www.rd.com/)

Any other major periodical in any field I end up specialising in...likely a science journal or maybe even something to with short stories...

[kleph]

well, readers digest typically offers condensed versions of previously printed work. time and national geographic typically rely on their stable of known freelancers and won't take much from outside of that unless it is exceptional.

philosophy now will require having previously published work in the field also, and, as a philosophy grad who once looked out upon the barren wastes of academia, the competition there is rough.

so the strategy in all these cases is simple: get printed.

it will proably not be for much if anything but the key is to get you shit out there. write something for your local paper or for some slightly-more-than-your-household circulation magazine. write for zgeek. pirate will give you credit.

then, take that experience and move to the next level. and so on.

the most important thing to do is to keep writing. you don't become a good writer by posting about how much you would like to do it, you have to put in hours each day of it. and not just livejournal posting. coming up with a topic, doing a bit of research, writing it down and going through the editing process and then having the product.

the sad truth is that it is a hell of a lot easier to talk about writing than it is to write. which is why a dream list like this typically goes nowhere.

[Xythan]

Well, come join us in the e-Intelligentsia Party (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56365) thread...you'd be most welcome kleph...

[kleph]

thanks. but, well, a forum thread is a good spot to develop an idea but it's a bad place to develop writing.

this is why i will post my 'writings' (and photos) on my blog (http://www.kleph.com/blog/) but keep my 'observations' in the threads. a lot of times i can develop an idea here that helps me work through the writing process for the piece i will put on my blog. but thats no substitute for the slog of the writing and editing of putting a decently written piece of work together.

and, of course, all this is separate to the writing i do for my work.

[Lady V]

I'm going to write a novel one day, and I wont even care if it gets published .... it will be more about self satisfaction, and pursuing a childhood dream .....

www.nanowrrimo.org

Write a novel of 50,000 in a month, just for the sake of writing it. No on ehas to read it, no one jugdges it, it isn't a competition.

Fantastic idea. I did it last year and managed to get the novel finished in time. Would love to do it this year too. It's always better when you know someone else is doing it, so you can compete and keep each other motivated

[FOC21]

When I was younger, about 15-16 I did a lot of my own writing a lot of short stories and I started a novel but then other things became important...

I would like to get back into it one day but this time it would be non-fiction instead of fiction.

If I was to ever turn professional with my writing I would like to see some of my writing be published into Business Ethics Quarterly, just because with the assignments I have done I have used that journal as a reference and I found it to be a very interesting read.

[kleph]

www.nanowrrimo.org

Write a novel of 50,000 in a month, just for the sake of writing it. No on ehas to read it, no one jugdges it, it isn't a competition.

this is an interesting exercise but it completely avoids the labor of writing. getting out 50,000 words is rough but getting out 50,000 words that say something and tell a compelling story is full time work.

if you want to do something impressive, take that manuscript this year and completely re-write it in one month. if you can do it, i promise you, the work will be startlingly better.