Writing
Nonfiction for the Literary Magazine
When
Mark Dragotta and I first started to mold Umbrella Factory
Magazine, we had big goals for our little literary corner. For
starters, we thought we'd foster and develop some of the greatest
fiction writers of the next generation. We, of course, rolled around
ideas of Black Sparrow Press and Charles Bukowski and City
Lights Books and everybody cool in the literary world. We also
fantasized about our new found forum and the daring journalist of
tomorrow.
I
have not been disappointed with the writers of fiction and nonfiction
or the poets we've met over the years.
We
have yet to find our Postmaster.
And
for the daring journalists? The Gonzo dream? Well, it's fallen
short. It's not there. There aren't any crazy journalist out there
who are interested in publishing in our humble magazine. Indeed,
there aren't any less than crazy journalists out there willing to
publish in our humble magazine. And sadly, Umbrella Factory
Magazine is not alone.
At
the onset of our development, I knew nothing of journalism.
Admittedly, I still know very little. I never studied it in school.
The high school newspaper was not of interest to me, the same is true
for my college paper. And sadly, the daily paper comes to the house
everyday, and I do read it occasionally. I'm sometimes dumbfounded
by the poor writing (or editing, I suspect) and I'm baffled by how
without flavor the content is. The paper offers some perspective on
things, but it seldom shakes things up. I think it may be about
something more than just journalism. I think it may have to do with
money, advertising; retaining market share and employment.
Who
cares about journalism in a literary magazine? Well, no one maybe.
And why would a journalist care about a little literary magazine?
And how can these types of publications serve these sorts of writers
and each be beneficial?
For
a trained and employed journalist, the literary magazine is not where
they're going to pour their energies. Why? Literary magazines don't
pay, and writing an article is still work. I would think that even a
rogue journalist, romantic notion if they still exists, will find
other outlets. But for a journalist just beginning their training,
or their career, a rogue adventure investigating something may be in
order. A publication is a publication, after all.
A
writer who maybe has an insight into something and may want to employ
some journalistic tactics may only have a literary magazine as a
potential market.
How
can a literary magazine serve a journalist? Well, an online literary
magazine may have a varied and potentially limitless distribution.
Most literary magazines can be as daring as they want to be because
they often do not fear loss of advertising money. It's a great deal
of freedom enjoyed by the free press which is really free because
there is no exchange of money. With this, as daring, dark, morbid or
dirty as a story might be, a literary magazine may have many—many
less hangups with it. Also, if the story is well written, an editor
of a literary magazine will not edit a story's content because of
censorship or physical size. You may not win a Pulizer Prize, but
you will have readership.
Some
sites to help get a writer into journalistic mode:
Jeremy
Porter's “How Do Journalists and Bloggers Decide What to Write
About”
And to give you an idea of what I would
love to see at Umbrella Factory Magazine:
Investigative Reporting Workshop
is one of the engaging online magazines I've seen. Before
endeavoring an investigated story of your own, read a few from this
magazine. They're well written, well investigated and timely. I
would run any number of these stories on UFM.
