Writing Short Stories and Articles: How to Write Successfully for Magazines and Newspapers

by Adèle Ramet

This practical book shows readers how to produce manuscripts to fit a specific slot, advises on how to adapt a style to suit different markets, and how to utilise research material to write facts and fiction effectively.

Genres: Writing

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 23, 1998

Reviews

[K. Morral · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a useful introduction, though with a bias to the Short Story - far more of the pages are dedicated to short stories than to articles.

The chapters on the short story are focused on stories for 'Womens' magazines, seemingly with a focus on romance and lifestyle. This may be because this is the main market for short stories, but it is worth noting that there are other reasons to write a short story. Some of the essential points - how to plan a twist in the story, understanding the characters, action and dialogue - can be carried across, but as a writer interested in other topics I was slightly put off with the clear bias.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Adele Ramet can write anything, of any size, with an equally uninspired style. So she moved into self help section.

[Robert Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was going to give this book 2 stars, but that it really wouldn't be fair to do that just because I picked up a book that was unsuitable for my needs. But having said that, there are plenty things that annoy me about this book.

For a start, the book was originally published in 1998, with this edition dating from 2004, but it doesn't feel like the content has been brought up to date at all. There are references to the battle between PCs and dedicated Word Processors; sure won long ago? Then there are far too many references to floppy disks, which had to have been superceeded by 2004? Conseqently, when I encountered figures indicating how much one might expect to be paid for a story, I din't know whether these were 1998 prices or 2004 prices, and there is no proper reference system to indicate either way.

I get the impression that the author is personal friends with some of the magazine editors, and just picked their brains for much of the material in this book. I also get the impression that each chapter of this book, and in some cases, different sections in each chapter, had their origins in articles published in various places, and had subsequently been bound together into one volume without any regard for the overlaps in material - and there are lots of overlaps.

Still, the essence of the material seems to be interesting and helpful, apart from the appalling idea of searching out and deleting the best part of one's article; surely the best plan would be to bring the rest of the article up to a better level!! Anyhow, I'm sure that the author is much wiser than I am in these matters, and if not, is very well meaning, so whilst I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, ever, it was not too unenjoyable a read.