Fans, friends, and trolls–publishing my first piece on Tablet

February 12, 2013February 12, 2013beccakinla authors, magazines, online, publishing, respect, review, reviews, secular, words, writer, writing, writing process Tags: author, blog, blogger, blogging, blogs, Chareidi, chareidi-bashing, comment, comments, fans, friends, jewish, magazine, non-sequitur, online, publishing, respond, sexism, sexist, troll, trolls, women, writer, writing 11 Comments

So, Tablet published a piece of mine this week. It’s been a crazy experience.

In the first place, writing the piece was a bit out of my comfort zone. While I usually write fiction, this is a personal essay. In brief, the story is about confronting my inner teenager as I’m approaching 40 and relates an episode where I thought a younger man was checking me out in a cafe.

Trolls don’t only live under bridges.

The subject matter was outside the editorial policies of the chareidi magazines that comprise my usual stomping grounds, so I had to find an alternative publisher. Afraid I might embarrass my husband, I almost decided not to publish it at all, but he assured me that he didn’t mind. And when I shared an early draft with writing friends, the strongly positive reaction encouraged me further.

Tablet accepted my query, then the completed essay. They had it up in a matter of days. Whoa. It didn’t leave me much time to prepare myself. And, boy, did I have to prepare myself.

You see, there’s a lot of differences between a Jewish, but broad-spectrum, online magazine like Tablet and print magazines in the chareidi world. The biggest difference is the comments section.

In a print magazine, there is no comments section. Continue reading →

On Writing About Writing: a guest post by Miriam Hendeles, author of Mazel Tov, It’s a Bubby!

January 24, 2013January 24, 2013beccakinla advice, blogger, blogging, blogs, family, words, writer, writing, writing groups Tags: advice, binah, binah magazine, bubby, fun, grandmother, humor, jewish, mazel tov it's a bubby, miriam hendeles, oma, wacky, writers, writing 2 Comments

Miriam’s Book!

Today’s guest post is from my partner in ~~crime~~ writing, Miriam Hendeles.

What do writers write about? We write about our lives and our families. Some of us write about our struggles and triumphs. Others write about philosophies and opinions; hope and dreams.

We tell stories, and conduct interviews; we compose lists and craft essays.

We even write about “Writing.” Now what is there to tell, conduct, compose and craft about Writing?

So much. We can write about the writing process, solutions to writer’s block, publishing opportunities, strategies for success, online writing techniques, SEO, PLR and myriad other acronyms. Bloggers and gurus craft advice to the masses on how to become the most polished, pithy, and popular Writer. You see, many writers choose to write about Writing, because if we write about Writing, we know we are guaranteed an audience, comprised of the following loyal and faithful readers:

Writers. Wannabe writers. Bloggers. Publishers. Agents. Editors.

But when we do not write about Writing? Then who is our audience?

Random Interested Persons of Non-Writing topic.

For example, Continue reading →

3 Tricks for magazine writers: How to write on a theme and still make your deadline

January 21, 2013beccakinla advice, magazines, submissions, submit, words, writer, writing, writing process Tags: article, assignment, brainstorm, children, cluster, contest, deadline, graphic organizer, help, ideas, idiom, issue, journal, kid, literature, magazine, need idea, prewriting, pun, secret, story, theme, tip, title, topic, trick, what to write, word play, words, writer, writing Leave a comment

Before you start to type, you might want to try one of these 3 things.

One of my writing jobs is penning teen and tween stories for Jewish magazines. Before getting this gig, I had to learn an important lesson: most kids’ magazines select one theme per issue, and they are only open to stories on those themes. That means you have to write what they want, when they want it–but you’ve got to still tap into your creativity to make your story fresh, fun, and readable.

NOTE: Writing contests (although many are scams, there are plenty of legit ones) and classroom assignments frequently require that submissions/assignments include a specific topic or theme and have a deadline, as well. You don’t have to write for magazines to benefit from these 3 tips.

Sometimes, I get the heads-up on what story the editor wants on what theme a month in advance. But sometimes it’s a lot less. How do I come up with a story on short notice? Continue reading →

How Texans lost their accents and the newly religious found one

January 18, 2013January 19, 2013beccakinla research, word, words Tags: accent, american, assimilation, authentic, baal teshuva, becoming frum, Benor, BT, Bunin., change, character, code-switching, dialect, drawl, english, FFB, genuine, immigrant, in-group, jewish, language, regional, sarah, setting, southern, texan, texas, united state, variety 1 Comment

How do we place a person? Partly by the way they talk. But the accents that we use to locate people are constantly in flux.

Apparently Texans are losing their distinct accents. Still others have mastered mainstream American dialects as well as their own distinct drawl and codeswitch according to the demands of the situation, a recent study at the University of Texas asserts. The L.A. Times article on the subject explains some of the reasons, which include exposure to mass media and immigration to Texas from a variety of sources.

The article piqued my interest in part because I happen to be reading Sarah Bunin Benor’s new book Becoming Frum, which contemplates the ways the newly religious adopt the language and cultural markers of Orthodox Jews. Like with the Texans discussed above, some use of the in-group dialect is conscious, while other use is not. But in either case, it marks the users of certain types of speech as members of a distinct group.

What this means to writers: A sprinkle of regional dialect or in-group word choice can help establish a character in the social landscape of our story/book and make them sound authentic. But misuse of language based on out-dated understandings of a community could annoy readers just as much as heavy-handed overuse. Pretty soon, we might not be able to write characters with Texan drawls anymore without sounding ridiculously retro. It’s good to have a handle on these nuances of language use before jumping in to this writing strategy.

2 Major differences between writing a picture book and writing short stories

January 6, 2013January 16, 2013beccakinla advice, authors, book, books, children, children's books, editing, editors, illustrations, literature, manuscript, picture books, publishing, revision, stories, submissions, submit, words, writer, writing, writing process Tags: author, book, change, changing, children, code-switching, cut, difference, edit, essential, folktale, genre, illustration, kids, length, literature, narrative, picture book, retell, revision, short story, snip, storytelling, submission, tradition, write, writer, writing 2 Comments

So the folktale project turned out to be an eye-opening experience for me.

Am I a writer, or a barber?

When I first started writing for kids, I didn’t really understand the difference between short stories and picture books. I’d submit short stories to book publishers, and picture books to magazines who published short stories. Selling Raizy and being guided through revisions by Devorah Leah Rosenfeld, the editor at Hachai, schooled me in the differences between the two media. After a couple years, I started writing regularly for children’s magazines, and her lessons allowed me to jump between the two formats.

2 Major differences between picture books and short stories:

1) The length differs significantly in the two formats. Oddly, an entire picture book has about half the words (sometimes less) as a short story for a kids’ magazine.

2) The illustrations in a picture book replace almost all the description. And the only words that could appear in a picture book text are ones that drive the narrative forward. When I learned this lesson, my picture book writing attained a sharpness that it had previously lacked.

Continue reading →

But what about my Voice!?! What a writer should do when an editor asks for “a few changes.”

December 11, 2012January 16, 2013beccakinla advice, book, books, editing, editors, frustration, good news, publishing, revision, stories, submissions, words, writer, writing, writing process Tags: advice, article, author, change, editor, help, revision, story, sub, submission, voice, writer 1 Comment

Hey, buddy! What about my voice?

Last week, I got an email from an editor (she’ll be the heroine of this story, but will remain nameless nonetheless). She asked me to make one change–one very small change–to the story that I had submitted.

Because I trust this editor–she’s very good at what she does and has built a friendly relationship with me–I said I’d make the teeny-tiny change she’d requested.

And then I panicked. Continue reading →

Rebecca Klempner

Author page of Rebecca Klempner

words

Fans, friends, and trolls–publishing my first piece on Tablet

On Writing About Writing: a guest post by Miriam Hendeles, author of Mazel Tov, It’s a Bubby!

3 Tricks for magazine writers: How to write on a theme and still make your deadline

How Texans lost their accents and the newly religious found one

2 Major differences between writing a picture book and writing short stories

But what about my Voice!?! What a writer should do when an editor asks for “a few changes.”

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