Category: Blog

Five Reasons to Submit your Work!

Katlyn Kaminskie

By: Katlyn Kaminskie

In this post I will talk about a few reasons why submitting your work to a magazine or just in general submitting your work is a really good idea for any aspiring artist.

  1. Submitting your work to a literary magazine or submitting your work anywhere for that matter is good exposure for an aspiring artist or writer. Even if its just a small magazine, your work will still be out there in the public eye and you never know who will see it.
  2. Submitting your work to possibly get published will most definitely improve your work. Whether the piece is accepted to the be published or not it will make you look at what you are creating differently, once it is published with your name attached people will begin to associate you with what you created. Sometimes when you submit your work places you will also receive feedback on what to improve which greatly helps you as well. A good example of this is when you write an article for a website, once you submit it you receive feedback on whether or not the topic is appropriate and how you can make the article better but if it never was submitted your ideas would never be shared and you would not how to convey them in a better way.
  3. Whether what you have created is published in a magazine or not it is good experience for you the creator. How is your work not being published good experience you may wonder, well like I said before it helps you improve your work in a multitude of ways. Also, I personally feel that submitting your work helps improve your confidence which is key in any situation, and submitting your work means you were confident enough to let a stranger read it which is very important in this type of field, which leads me to my next reason.
  4. Be proud of the work you create! It is something you thought of on your own and took the time to create, no matter what anyone says you put time and effort into the piece, and you should most definitely be proud of it. If you are proud of it then there is no harm in others reading or looking at it. You love and are most likely very passionate about this skill you have so own it!
  5. We want to see, read, or listen to what you have created! Like I said before be proud of what you have made, while it may not always feel like it others do enjoy what you have created especially a literary and arts magazine like Elektraphrog! The more submissions we receive the better and we would love to help you!

10 Tips to Performance Poetry

Amanda Finsel

First off, let’s note that performing poetry is not for everyone. Sometimes a poet’s heart is simply in the written work, or the idea of the stage is too daunting to attempt. Other times a poet desires to incorporate another facet of poetry into their work such as performing it.

When it comes to reading poetry in front of an audience it is very different than other types of public speaking or theater. It can be a truly rewarding experience to share your thoughts and emotions with an audience.

So let’s talk about 10 helpful tips to performance poetry and how to better enrich your experience as a performance poet.

These tips can provide you with a framework to spoken word poetry as well as encouragement to be creative!

Every writer has a voice and spoken word poetry is another way to use yours. Let’s get started!

1. Speak up! It’s important to note that any piece you read in front of an audience you have selected for people to hear…so make sure they hear it!

2. Don’t hide behind your paper or microphone. At most places where you will be performing your work, there is a microphone. Try not to hide behind it or behind your paper. It is okay to walk around the area with the microphone in one hand or lean away from the microphone to emphasize a word. Don’t think you are confined to the small square right behind the microphone.

3. Find a friendly face. Nerves are inevitable but one thing that can alleviate some of the nervous feeling is finding a friendly face in the audience. A friend, a family member, or even a teacher could be a perfect face to look to during the beginning of your poem to make you comfortable.

4. Don’t oversell it. Try to avoid being extravagantly animated or over the top in your performance. Don’t try to force the audience to be entertained. Try to keep it natural and comfortable for both you and the audience.

5. Use a piece you like. When deciding on what to perform, pick a piece you enjoy reading. Pick a piece you are familiar with and have completed. Pick a piece you are confident in and proud to share.

6. Don’t think of it as a formal speech. You don’t have to treat it as a formal speech. You can dress casually and treat it more like a party with friends. Think of it as a comfortable atmosphere.

7. Know your audience. If you are in a pub with fellow adults your age, you might read a poem about your last heartbreak and use some unapologetic words to describe that partner, but, if you are in a coffee shop that may have children around, it’s probably best to avoid such things as profanity. This is when it’s important to know your audience. Be respectful to who may be listening to your poem and make sure that your topic fits the event.

8. Don’t edit as you perform. It is not required to have your poem memorized to perform it; it is actually more likely that you will have it printed out on paper. If so, try to refrain from editing your work as you read it. If there is a word misspelled try not to tell the audience there’s a typo. If you don’t like a line as you are reading it, don’t stop in the middle to correct yourself. Make sure your work is as completed as possible before you perform it so you won’t be tempted to edit it.

9. Focus on delivery; make the audience see the words. Since performance poetry is something that the audience listens to instead of reads, make sure the audience can experience what you’re saying. You’re telling them the story behind your poetry. Use different and interesting speaking tactics to make it entertaining and keep their attention. For example use articulation, inflections, tone, facial expressions, and hand motions.

10. Don’t forget to practice. Practice helps you to know what you are saying so that you don’t trip over your words. Practice helps you to feel confident in your work and to own it. Practice makes perfect!

Best wishes,

Amanda Finsel

Changing the Way You Write With These Five Tips

Patrick Chiodo

by Patrick Chiodo

Every writer out there knows what it is like to have writer’s block or struggle to find enough words to meet the word requirement. Writers who reread their work to proofread might realize that their work might be a bit too boring for some, or some readers might just lose interest halfway into their work. You can’t inform the readers of what you want to inform them if your work is too boring for them to continue. That’s why I have given a few ways to help a troubled writer be able to make their piece a work of art. Using these tips are guaranteed to help enhance your work.

1.Improv on paper.

Sometimes your best ideas or lines can come from the top of your mind. Brainstorming and planning are, of course, essential in writing good works, but using a reaction that you get that just hits you when writing can be a blessing.

2. Consider your target audience.

If the piece is for kids, maybe steer clear of big words. If the work is a formal piece, use a copious amount of diction, but don’t use too much or some might just think that you are showing off your wordplay.

3. Add humor when appropriate.

Everyone loves humor, so if it fits in naturally, use it. I have always found that if you open, say, the next topic in an essay with a joke that relates to the topic, then people will enjoy the work more often than opening with a run-of-the-mill fact.

4. Make sure your grammar and punctuation are correct.

If your work has mistakes in the grammar, the reader will believe that the work that they are reading was not done by a professional.

5. If writing dialogue, repeat it to yourself to make sure it sounds natural.

The way we write isn’t always the way we speak. This goes both ways. If you are writing a character’s dialogue, but you don’t want them to speak like other’s in your story, then you should establish the character’s backstory. Say the character is from the deep South, then when they are speaking, they should be saying “Ain’t” or Y’all” instead of “Isn’t” or “Everyone”.

A Poetic Problem

djohn151

By: Danielle Johnson

“Cinderella dressed in yellow,

went upstairs to kiss her fellow,

by mistake she kissed a snake,

how many doctors did it take?”

Chances are you have heard this childhood rhyme on the playground, and although it was catchy back then, it is not exactly what you are looking for when you read poetry. Rhyming is not a must when writing poetry and many people often obsess over trying to make their poetry rhyme that the rhymes can often feel forced. In addition rhyming can also take away from the point of the work, when done incorrectly. In this article we will discuss the different types of rhyming and how to effectively use them in your poetry.

There are three main types of rhyming that we will be touching on in this article : slant rhymes, true rhymes, and eye rhymes.

Pure rhymes are the most common types of rhymes that everybody wants to use in poetry, they often tend to be the type of rhymes that feel the most forced. Examples of pure rhymes are know, low, glow, row, etc. These types of rhymes when overused or forced often take away from the poetry. Generally speaking this is the type of rhyming can be very distracting to the main point of the poem, and should be avoided  unless you are confident that it will not distract the reader from the point of your work.  An example of a pure rhyme is:

I am an ember,

watch me glow,

though you may not remember,

watch as my flame will grow.

Eye rhymes are words that look like they should rhyme but do not actually rhyme. Examples are through and thorough.  This type of  rhyming is best to use for visual pieces, or poetry not meant to be read aloud.

We are through,

but I just want to be thorough.

I have fallen out of love with you,

this I know to be absolute.

This rhyme looks very aesthetically pleasing and is a very clever and well thought out way to use rhymes that will not feel forced or be distracting to the reader.

Lastly, we come to slant rhymes. These are rhymes that almost rhyme but don’t quite rhyme.  Like  serenade and greed, or serenade and serendipity. They are the most clever types of rhymes and they definitely will not cause hangups with the reader.  An example of this in poetry is:

A serenade on a quiet night,

watch them with a serene but keen interest.

Never forget my intent,

Darling you have to invest in me now.

Overall, it is generally best to avoid using true rhymes in poetry unless there are special circumstances in which the poem would not be the same without these rhymes. Hopefully this quick overview of rhyming has helped to show the different ways you can rhyme in poetry while also avoiding your work sounding like a nursery rhyme. With this information authors can try different ways of writing poetry that will not seem overdone, forced, or confusing to the reader.

Is This Real Life

mlieber2

by: Max Lieberman

 

When you think of a literary magazine, you may think of fiction; you may think of different poems and stories but nonfiction writing is also a large section of these magazines. There are magazines like Brevity that are strictly for non-fiction writing. So what do you write? What do you say? Well, you can use your life experiences to teach others how to overcome obstacles and or help teach a moral. Another thing you can do is write reviews and or interviews. Just from that short list there are already many things you can write about, but the one that might seem daunting is using life experiences to teach others.

When attempting this style of nonfiction writing, you first need to think of what you want to show or teach. Do you want to teach about determination and perseverance or about courage to come out and say something. For example, things I could write about are how playing team based video games have helped my communication with others or I could do something more serious with how coming out gave me a different perspective on people and on the world. Those two topics are totally different and teach totally different things, but they help show different sides of people that usually we do not get to see. So when thinking about a topic think about something that is going to stick with people, something they will remember.

Now when writing for these topics you want to be descriptive but also concise. You don’t want to be rambling about Aunt Sally for a whole paragraph. You want your readers to easily go through and understand everything that is needed for the time and situation. Let’s use the video game topic as an example. I am not going to explain every little detail about a game. I am going to give you just enough information, if any, to give you context for the story.

The last thing you need to look out for is also in the execution. You want to make sure your message gets across without actually stating it. It looks and reads nicer if you let the reader take what they want from your experience, because many people can get different things from writing. So even if it isn’t what you exactly wanted, but it is in the same vane or still a good thing, don’t sweat it. Also do not forget with practice comes perfection. So with these simple things, you will be a pro when it comes to nonfiction writing for literary magazines.

Easy as Pie

Miranda Olsen

The Short Story

Miranda Olsen

Most people have probably read a short story in their lifetime. Whether it was for school, in a book, or possibly even a magazine, the idea of writing a short story, which some see as a “mini-novel”, can appear daunting and difficult, the reality is-it’s easy as pie. Here are five easy tips to help you get started.

#1 Start With A Bang. Have your story start in the middle of a chase, during a storm, during a verbal or physical fight. This is called a “hook.” Having such a scene will literally hook your reader in. If you start with a hook, it will draw your reader in and make them more inclined to read more and find out what happens. Use good imagery and detail to make it feel real. Example: “Jack kept restarting his boat engine, occasionally looking up at the storm clouds above him. Lightning and thunder were inching closer to him. The waves began to grow. Jack was with his sister Sarah, who looked just as afraid as he did. They were only sixteen years old, and immediately regretted stealing the boat. What was supposed to be a nice day on the water had suddenly turned into a nightmare. Lightning began to strike closer now. The oars in the boat were old and rotten, yet Jack tried his best to use them. He used all his might to propel the boat forward but the growing waves would not allow it. The seas were angry. Jack did not know why. Worst of all, he did not know how to soothe them. The boat was beginning to tip and the two children looked to each other for guidance, but found only fear and confusion. A large swell washed over the boat, soaking them both to the bone.”

#2 Don’t Forget Dialogue. For a short story to be fast paced, exciting, and well flushed out, it needs dialogue. What is dialogue? It’s speech between characters. Dialogue can easily become too fake sounding or too boring. To better help write dialogue that mimics real speech, eavesdrop on some conversations. What do the people say? Do they use slang? Here’s an example of simple dialogue:

Jack looked at Sarah and sighed.

“The engine isn’t working,” Jack said.

“Well. fix it!” She replied.

“I can’t! It’s broken!”

“I don’t want to die out here,” Sarah said, sobbing.

#3 Keep It Short. The shorter your story, the more punch it will pack. Keep your writing under 5,000. Anything more than that is sort of rambling on. Keep your story fast paced and exciting, and you can’t really do that if your story is going over 5,000 words. Despite it’s short length, it needs to have certain elements that make it work. Have a hook to draw your reader in, have rising action to build to a climax, have falling action to lead to a resolution, and have a good ending. Try not to kill off your characters if you can help it, but feel free to end with a plot twist or some sort of mystery.

#4 Give Your Characters Some Backstory. What do your characters look like? Does Jack have a small build, or a big build? Hair and eye color? Is Sarah beautiful or plain? Do your characters have any distinguishable features like scars or moles? Flush out your characters and give them a good backstory. What is their home life like? Why are they the way that they are? Keep your cast of characters small, two to three should keep the story on track. Jack and Sarah are stuck out at sea, which makes a great scenario. A man and a woman. “Adam and Eve.” It’s a great scenario for you, as an author, to flush out those two characters. Use dialogue to increase or decrease tension, maybe throw in some romance? Two people, especially a man and a woman make for a great short story.

#5 Practice, Practice, Practice. Your first draft is not going to be perfect. It will have flaws-but that’s okay. Go back and read it out loud. Does the dialogue sound natural? Is the story fast paced enough? Is the story too plain, or too complicated? Does it sound like a real situation or is it meant to be far fetched? Your story won’t be final until your second or third draft. And if you don’t like it after all that work-write a new one! Write different stories about different topics. Have fun and be bold. The possibilities with writing are endless, that’s the magic of it. With pen and paper or a laptop or tablet, you can create new worlds, new characters, and new legends. But if you want to write a story that really moves someone, that’s interesting and fresh, that’s easy to understand yet complex , you need to practice, practice, practice!

 

The Powers of Proofreading

Olivia Murphy

By Olivia Murphy

Are you the kind of person that picks  apart your writing so much that it  lowers your self-esteem?  Do you have a hard time believing in yourself? Well instead of picking apart all of what you think you’re doing wrong, focus on what your strengths are.  Go line by line and pick out the strongest points of your paper then think of ways to expand. When you are trying to prove a thesis the more examples the better. One of the most common errors a writer can make this having too many spaces and having  run on sentences. In Addition to these setbacks people often write more  just to get to word  count try not to just keep writing in adding unnecessary sentences just to get to word count.

iI is important to focus on what the point of your paper is  rather  than  focusing on the fact that you haven’t   gotten  to word count. The words will come to you if you take a break.  If you have more than one person read over your paper before turning it in it can be very  beneficial. Sometimes other people notice small errors that we wouldn’t notice ourselves, having an extra pair of eyes helps. I suggest going the writing center after you’ve proofread it yourself.  They can be extremely helpful in any stage your writing.  I also would recommend using Grammarly it is a program that helps you edit your paper.

Additionally, if you have a friend in your class you can also proofread and edit each other’s papers.  when you are proofreading your own paper try to  keep  the negative thoughts out of your head such as “I’m going to get a bad grade on this and “there is no way I’m going to finish this. In the long run, the hard work pays off  and if you  put your mind to it you can  write an “A” paper.

Autocorrect vs. The Word…World!

Matthew Wheeler

By: Matthew Wheeler

Through the early years of smartphones and thanks to Apple, auto correct has been either a life saver or a relationship killer depending on what situation you’re in. Throughout the past decades of heart break, hook ups, friendships and quick hello’s, something is bound to happen. Your text conversations go VIRAL. Volunteering for a cat shelter can auto-correct to say that you’ve “punched” instead of “touched” a cat, a cookout can go from frying up the patties to frying up the panties. It really does cause the embarrassment of one another and just wish it never did happen in the first place. Sometimes depending on the type of friend you have, websites like “Damn You Auto correct” can make a big “you-know-what” out of you.

But it’s all not bad with auto correct. You always need auto correct in times of love and admiration, whether your using up all the data to send your girlfriend that very, deep and sensational text message that you’d rather give to her right then and there and not in real life. It keeps you and her happy, and makes you think of her in rough times when you aren’t side by side. Auto correct also helps when you just have that one perfect story right on the tip of your tongue, and needs to get jotted down as soon as possible. Auto correct easily fixes up your mistakes and with just a quick rundown of your story, your good to go for future reference.

Autocorrect has since gone though updates and completely new words, like YOLO to yo-yo, or swag to bag. It also has spread to every single smartphone known to man, and no matter what smartphone you do use, you can always force your auto correct to shut it self of completely, or just change one word to a random, completely out of the ordinary word, just so you can get a laugh making your parents wonder “Why is this one word coming up with this other word”?! Don’t worry, something will confuse us millennials son. See?!

Friday’s Films: The Greatest Showman

Miranda Olsen

The Greatest Showman

Miranda Olsen

“The Greatest Showman” is a 2017 musical film based on the life of P.T Barnum, directed by Michael Gracey, starring Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, and more. Original musicals are notoriously difficult to green light, and the project was announced years ago in 2009. The Award winning songwriting duo Pasek and Paul were chosen for the film (having previously worked on La La Land). The film features the story of P.T Barnum, the son of a tailor, who has big dreams. He meets a young socialite named Charity, and falls in love. Their class differences get in the way, however, they keep in touch through letters. Phineas, P.T, refuses to give up on their relationship. Years pass, and he ends up marrying Charity, despite her father’s disapproval, and they move to New York City.

 

Life is no cherry pie, though. Phineas loses his job, and is forced to find a new one. He cheats the bank out of real collateral, and gets a loan to open a Museum of oddities. Even in Victorian times, however, morbid curiosities are still only appealing to a niche audience. Barnum’s children suggest he sell tickets to see something alive. Barnum realizes he still wants to show oddities-just living oddities. He gathers giants, dwarfs, tattooed men, albino’s, and more. He renames his museum Barnum’s Circus. Despite bad reviews and violent protestors, Barnum and his performers triumph, and even though their Circus building burns down, they switch to tents, and continue to perform for the masses. The film is visually stunning, with an extremely talented cast who had backgrounds in music, such as Jackman, Efron, Williams, and Zendaya. With a mere budget of $84 million, the film has now grossed over $400 million, and is officially the highest grossing live-action musical of all time. As someone who writes screenplays, I noticed the clever dialogue and the smooth transitions into song. Transitioning from speaking to singing is notoriously difficult to blend in a way that’s not awkward or cheesy. The Greatest Showman does a fantastic job. The writers for the film were Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon. Bicks wrote much of the hit show Sex In The City, but Condon worked on The Twilight series and the live action Beauty And The Beast. It is his work with Disney that allowed such magic on the screen of The Greatest Showman. This film is magical, musical, and without a doubt-worth a watch.