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Dissembling The Loner: 5 Books About Outsiders and Introverts
June 2nd, 2016
Harper Lee's Boo Radley may take the cake as the most famous loner in literature, but books present the perfect entry into the minds of introverted people. Sometimes, they're the only way a particularly reclusive writer connects with the outside world. What motivates such behavior? Why do loners choose to be alone? They manage to draw our interest through the things that they withhold.
Read Column →What Works & What Doesn't: 'Showgirls'
June 1st, 2016
Welcome once again to What Works & What Doesn't. Last month, we took a look at the dynamics and general criteria of a solid Act I via Terrence Malick's debut feature Badlands. We'll be doing more or less the same for Act II, and this time around, we're going to look at a movie that almost gets it right, but doesn't quite hit the mark.
Read Column →UPDATED WITH WINNER - LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown: Prince's Poetics Edition
May 31st, 2016
Flash fiction: A style of fictional literature marked by extreme brevity Welcome to LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown, a monthly bout of writing prowess. How It Works We give you inspiration in the form of a picture, poem, video, or prompt. You write a flash fiction piece using the inspiration we gave you. Put your entry in the comments section. One winner will be picked and awarded a prize.
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Hot Summer Reading: 7 Climate Fiction Titles for a Warming World
May 27th, 2016
Summer reading lists tend to figure heavily on formulaic thrillers and "breezy beach reads." But there's no need to turn off your brain when you bake beneath the sun in the months to come—slathered, presumably, in high-SPF sunscreen, which itself may or may not give you cancer. In fact, as the mercury hits its latest all-time high, hurricane season rocks the Atlantic seaboard, and wildfire darkens the skies out West, you may find that during the dog days of Late Capitalism, only a fine work of climate fiction will do.
Read Column →6 Game Development Lessons For Writers
May 26th, 2016
When I read Spelunky by Derek Yu, the book about Yu's development of the game by the same name, I expected to be entertained, elated, and maybe a little lost at times. After all, I'm not a video game programmer. I tried to program Tetris into a calculator in junior high, and those wasted hours and pages of printed code represent the extent of my programming knowledge. What I didn't expect was that the book would have so much good advice for writers.
Read Column →5 Writing Sheds That You'll Want To Build For Yourself
May 26th, 2016
Have you ever wanted a writing space that was completely your own, segmented away from all others parts of your life? Maybe it would be purposefully disconnected from any Internet service, or far enough away from your normal stressors that they could begin to feel distant. These authors created exactly that; a small, private hut or cabin that reflected both their words and personalities in a physical space.
Read Column →Modifier Makeovers: Go From Basic to Belle-of-The-Ball with These Simple Tricks
May 25th, 2016
Modifiers are the accessories of writing: they serve to enhance your basic sentence. Just as your basic outfit should include—at minimum—pants and a shirt, your basic sentence must include a clear subject and verb.
Read Column →Book vs. Film: 'Psycho'
May 25th, 2016
In the world of adaptations, there are rigorously faithful screen versions of novels (Rosemary's Baby, though one integral scene from Ira Levin's book was cut) and then there are films that depart so radically from the source material, they're adaptations in name only (World War Z).
Read Column →Fast Draft Hell: 7 Lessons I Learned (Almost) Writing a Novel in 14 Days
May 24th, 2016
Early on this year I was perusing the Internet for possible writing workshops that might kick my butt into gear, and I stumbled upon a gem taught by editor and author extraordinaire Candace Havens. The class is called The Book in a Month Club, and it promises to help writers write a book in fourteen days, followed by two weeks of revisions. 20 pages a day for 14 days. Quick revisions. Bam. A finished book. In a month. Where do I sign up?
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