I’ve mentioned several times that I’ve been reading Writer’s Digest for years. Since the 1960’s, actually. Back then, my dad bought them for me, setting them on the bed before I got home from school. Sometimes though, he would take me to a tiny magazine and book store on Washington Blvd called Shirley’s, so I could browse.


I still remember the rows of magazines and books, the candy and gum tucked into cubbies in front of the cash register and the gold ornate cash register. I bought Writer’s Digest, the Writer and Seventeen magazine (Hey, I was a bit of a blue stocking, but I liked to be in style while I was doing it. Actually, I think my middle son pegged me right when he called me eccentric, but as a teen I don’t think that was the word used to describe me. Unique? Bohemian? Hippy?) along with a pack of Doublemint gum.


I’m a gum chewer, especially when I’m nervous, so as a teen I was always chewing gum. I still chew it when I’m driving or trying to pass on the candy, cookies, etc. That’s my diet-The Gum Diet.


It works, mostly, when there isn’t a chocolate chip cookie calling my name. So, as I was saying, I’ve been reading Writer’s Digest forever. There has always been something between the covers that speaks to me, helps me with some writing problem I’m struggling with. I’ve torn out articles for all these years and still have many of my favorites. A great many are being reprinted in the archived articles, too.


And I love old things, even, old magazines. If I find an old magazine at an antique store, from the period I’m writing about, I buy it and call it, research. Magazines are so revealing to time periods, clothing styles and descriptions, prices, attitudes and beliefs. Imagine how I felt when rifling through a stack of magazines at a recent antique fair finding an old May 1978 Writer’s Digest. I had to buy it. Then, with one thing and another, tucked it into my magazine rack in my office and forgot about it.


Well, I’m going through my files, magazines, books, and eliminating what I’m finished with or no longer need and came across the tattered Writer’s Digest. I spent an hour thumbing through it and reading several articles. How much has changed, how much hasn’t.


From the magazine: Quote: I have never thought of myself as a good writer. Anyone who wants reassurance of that should read one of my first drafts. But I’m one of the world’s great rewriters. —James Michener


Stamps were 13¢


Writer’s Bookshelf: Letters of E. B. White, edited by Dorothy L. Guth (Harper & Row), The Typwriter Guerrillas, by John C. Behrens (Nelson-Hall)


Lawrence Block wrote the Fiction column. It’s full of useful advice that still works.


Art Spikol wrote the Nonfiction column. Part of his article was telling the reader how to figure out word count an article, which cassette mini-recorder to buy, (the new Sony TC-56, $160-$175) and a discussion about using Mrs., Ms. or whether to reveal your gender when writing an editor.


Ads: Smith-Corona offering Correction Cartridge typing, The Institute of Children’s Literature was looking for people who want to earn money writing children’s stories, Vera Henry was one of 33 Writer’s Digest School instructors, you could save 10% on ribbons for IBM and other typewriters.


The Markets: Magazines: Cycle Times, Family Life Today, Southern Outdoors. Books: Aero Publishing, Avon Books, Harper and Row.


The back page announced: We type manuscripts, beneath some 35 addresses of typists for hire.


The trip back in time put a smile on my face and gave me a moment of reflection, too. The process hasn’t changed, not really. Back then, writers were looking for help getting an agent, finding ideas and inspiration, research advice and how-to books. Just like I am now.


The internet, writer’s magazines and writer’s workshops are full of talk about how difficult it is to get published these days, but getting that book from idea to novel is so much easier than it was. We have the help of the computer to get the writing down, edited and word count, we have the internet to keep us in touch with other writers so we are not so isolated (this is the double edge of too much temptation to waste valuable time, but in this case, dial back your attitude to 1978 for x-amount of hours. Use interruptions wisely, like wishes)


Writer’s Digest helps me, even 33 years later.