The Idea Farm's Blog

The process of getting published for many a fledgling writer has long been murky, and as part of the Idea farms efforts to build a more diverse community of authors and create more pathways to publishing, we’ve  made this handy article to provide you with resources that might help you be seen. Below are some opportunities we think will help you to get yourself out there and on your way to recognition. We've broken them down into categories for people who already know their own comfort zone. HORROR Tenebrous Press TP's mission is to drag the malleable horror genre into newer, weirder territory with stories that are provocative, intelligent and terrifying, delivered by voices diverse & unsung.  Horror Society Horror Society is a small but personal place where you will find news from the independent and mainstream horror scene, upcoming movies and DVDs, events and conventions, reviews, interviews, on-set reports, and more. If you truly want to be a part of this ever-growing s...

  The Jane Austen Writers' Club: Inspiration and advice from the world's best-loved novelist, by Rebecca Smith (New York Bloomsbury, 2016). While creative writing manuals use examples from twentieth- and twenty-first-century writers, The Jane Austen Writers' Club is the first to look at the methods and devices used by the world's most beloved novelist. Austen was a creator of immortal characters and a pioneer in her use of language and point of view; her advice continues to be relevant two centuries after her death. Rebecca Smith examines the major aspects of writing fiction such as plotting, characterization, openings and endings, dialogue, settings, and writing methods. Smith shares the advice Austen gave in letters to her aspiring novelist nieces and nephew and providing many and varied exercises for writers to try, using examples from Austen's work.

Obtaining permission to use text involves a four-step process:  1. You must clearly and specifically identify what material you want to use and how you want to use it. Your first stage is to identify the material you want to use and the rights you will need. Commercial Use : If you are seeking permission to use text on behalf of an advertising agency or a company selling a product or service, your use is more likely to be categorized as a commercial endorsement, which will trigger additional legal issues.  2. You must send a permission request letter to the publisher or rights holder. Your permission request letter should give the details about the text you want to use, how you expect to use it, and the permission you want. There are two different types of request letters you can use: • One simply informs the rights holder of your needs and expectations that you and the rights holder will later complete and sign a separate permission agreement. • The other serves as both a...

15 Best Writing Blogs for Writer’s to Follow These are some of the best writing blogs from thousands of blogs throughout the internet. These blogsites offer varied information from grammar to submitting your work to publishers. They are helpful to up-and-comers as well as more established writers. 1.   Daily Writing Tips Daily Writing Tips - Daily Writing Tips as the name suggests publishes daily articles to help writers enhance their skills. Daily articles on grammar, business writing, spelling, misused word s, writing basics, writing quizzes, vocabulary, punctuation, fiction writing, freelance writing, and more! 2. Writer's Digest Magazine | Write Better, Get Published, Be Creative New York, US Writer's Digest is the No. 1 resource for learning better writing and getting published. Writer's Digest seeks to inspire and inform writers and help them succeed in all their publishing endeavors. 3. Advice to Writers | Writing Advice Blog Los Angeles, California, US 4. Live Wri...

Writing is a means to communicate with a global audience. But how does one manage to write successfully for a broad audience when creating content? Below are some strategies or tips to correct common errors when creating content. The Hurried Edit Everyone has time management concerns and maybe you’ve reread your piece so many times that you’re confident you’ve caught all the mistakes. But taking enough time to thoroughly proofread your post or article is critical. It is essential to good writing. Understand the importance of formatting The structure of your post is important in holding a reader’s attention. Many readers scan or skim articles rather than read them word for word. A big block of text makes this habit difficult and may repel readers.  Tips:  Use bullets and numbered lists when appropriate. These formats are easy to scan and keep readers engaged with the text. Edit to ensure you have relevant information in your article Format links effectively Keep paragraph...

Author, Kurt Vonnegut  In 1956, Vonnegut, though a published author, was one of the 16 million other World War II veterans struggling to put food on the table. His money making solution at the time was a board game called GHQ, which utilized his understanding of modern combined arms warfare and distilled it into a simple game played on an eight-by-eight grid. Vonnegut pitched the game diligently to publishers all year long according to game designer and NYU faculty member Geoff Engelstein, who recently found those letters sitting in the archives at Indiana University. But the real treasure was an original set of typewritten rules, complete with Vonnegut’s own notes in the margins. With the permission of the Vonnegut estate, Engelstein honed the original rules, straightened out the lumps in GHQ’s endgame, and created art and graphic design. Now you can purchase the final product, titled Kurt Vonnegut’s GHQ: The Lost Board Game, at your local Barnes & Noble — nearly 70 years afte...

A legal battle between the Andy Warhol Foundation and the photographer Lynn Goldsmith over a portrait of Prince is at the center of a pivotal discussion about copyright. Blame the appeals court judgment from 2021 declaring that Andy Warhol had no right to appropriate someone else’s photo of Prince into one of the Pop artist’s classic silk-screened portraits.  On May 18, 2023 the Supreme Court sided with a photographer in a dispute with the Andy Warhol Foundation over the late artist’s use of her photos as the basis for his own series of portraits of Prince. The justices issued a narrow interpretation focused on one of four factors used by courts to determine the “fair use” of a copyrighted work and the “purpose and character” of the use. The factors include “the nature of a copyrighted work,” “the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole,” and “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted wo...

  If you are a professor or graduate student, you know more about your field of study than most of the writers giving written sermons on opinion pages, Quora pages, Sub-Redditt’s, Twitter feeds, and possibly bookshelves right now. Your research and education informs your point of view. You know what you’re writing about — but commentators might know better how to write for a general audience. This means that the voices who have the most to contribute to public discourse are often getting drowned out. If this is something you struggle with, here are some writing tips to reach a broader audience: Don’t approach your introduction like it’s the warm-up before you get to the good stuff. Approach it like your only chance to attract your reader into your thoughts. Your lead is your opportunity to engage your reader: You’re conveying that your words are worth the reader’s effort. If you have writer’s block, look at the opening paragraphs of a practiced columnist, someone like Maureen Dowd ...

Caren Beilin's novel  Revenge of the Scapegoat , winner of the 2023 Vermont Book Award for fiction, is both comical and tragic.  Revenge is marked by repetition, with an ending that mirrors its beginning. And the substance for its action is the restoration of objects from the protagonist's past that she hoped would never return. The Vermont Book Award, given out annually, "shines a light" on a book and focuses readers' awareness on work they may have otherwise missed. Iris, an adjunct college writing teacher in Philadelphia, thinks of herself the family scapegoat. When she was in her teens, she received two letters from her father that she saw as encapsulating his hatred for her. Now 36, she's left all that behind — until one day both letters reappear in a UPS package from her father. While Dad says he was decluttering the family home, Iris sees the letters as if they were a message from the Unabomber. She depicts them as "things that had torn through me...

  Monday’s Supreme Court showdown in NetChoice v. Paxton and Moody v. NetChoice will determine whether states can forbid social media companies from blocking or removing user content that goes against platform rules. The state laws at issue also allow individuals to sue tech companies for alleged violations. The Florida and Texas laws are loosely written, but officials from both states say the laws will keep social media sites from unfairly muting conservatives and others. Social media platforms have insisted for years that they don’t discriminate against right-wing speech. Signed in 2021 by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida’s SB 7072 prohibits tech platforms from suspending or banning the accounts of political candidates in the state, with violations carrying steep possible fines of up to $250,000 per day. It also allows individual social media users to sue platforms if they believe they have been unfairly censored or “deplatformed.” The Texas law, signed in 2021 by Gov. Greg Abbott, m...

Poetry has been used as a glorious expression of sentiment, an avenue for creative idiom, and a of sharing thoughts and emotions throughout the ages. Today, through online communities and blogs, a collection of stanzas can unite people all over the world. Whether you’re a aficionado of classic poetry or more into the modern age, here are blogs and communities perfect for taking pleasure in verse. Deep Underground Poetry This free platform lets you share and publish poems, lyrics, short stories, spoken word and performance poetry. You can also meet other poets, writers and spoken word artists, get critique and improve your writing, take part in poetry competitions and host your own. Every comment you make has a link to your own submissions. Leaving interesting, helpful critique is a great way to get more people to read your work. My poetic side My poetic side was created for the poetry community. Select the "Community" tab to read full poems written by other community members ...

Kevin Palomino - Journalism Scholarship Winner WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2023 -- The National Press Club, the leading professional organization for journalists, has chosen  Kevin Palomino  of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, as the recipient of its Lewis Scholarship for Spring 2024. The scholarship provides housing and a $4,000 stipend to support a student journalist of color interning at a news media outlet in Washington, D.C. Established in 2022, The Lewis Scholarship was founded by the family of former Washington correspondent Robert "Bob" D.G. Lewis. It is awarded to one undergraduate student journalist of color each fall, spring, and summer semester. Students must secure a journalism internship in Washington, D.C., to be eligible, along with  other requirements . "The Lewis Scholarship provides me with an opportunity to grow as a journalist," Palomino said. "During my internship this spring, I plan to use my lived experiences as a first-generation DACA student to diver...

  A sweet love story about the twilight years. If Haruf (who died November 30, 2014 at age 71) hadn't titled his previous book Benediction (2013), that might have been perfect for this one. It's a slim novel of short chapters, and it would seem to bring the cycle of books about small-town Holt, Colorado, to a close. This isn't a dark night of the soul but one filled with hope and with second chances. Here's how it opens: "And then there was the day when Addie Moore made a call on Louis Waters." Addie is 70, a widow, and she was close with Louis' late wife. She and Louis don't really know each other that well, other than as nodding acquaintances, but she has a novel proposition: she wants him to sleep with her. Not to have sexual relations, but just to have someone with whom she can talk and share and make it through the night. He appreciates the risk she's taken in making the request, and he agrees, though on their first night he's filled wit...

  According to a NewsLab study, 80% of journalists use social media in their daily work 1 . Journalists told us that they’re using social media to complete a variety of work-related tasks, including story promotion, networking, sourcing information, and receiving PR pitches. Naturally, time management becomes a challenge and social media burnout is imminent. On top of the rising demand for content output, journalists are expected to be always listening and always engaging. Monitoring the latest news and user-generated content and promoting their own stories on social media can take up a large amount of time in a journalist’s day.   So how can journalists find and maintain a balance between staying on top of the latest news, connecting with their audience, and getting everything else accomplished? When you’re checking social media platforms daily for your job, how can you tell when you’ve reached your mental limit? To help you recognize some signs of social media burnout a...