Columns

Why I Have to Write, Even While Working Full-Time

August 16th, 2018

Header image by dreamguy, via Free Images I tell people I have a job and a half. My full-time job, the one that pays the bills and keeps me fed and able to see my doctor, that’s the one where I spend 40+ hours every week (plus commute). That’s my day-job, and that’s my priority right now. That’s what I do.

Read Column →

Analyzing the Three-Act Structure in Tolkien's 'Fellowship of the Ring'

August 15th, 2018

As the old adage goes, good things come in threes — and it’s no coincidence that this includes J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous Lord of the Rings trilogy. To celebrate the publication of The Fellowship of the Ring in late July of 1954, we’re taking a look at how Tolkien used the three-act structure to create a masterpiece. There’s no author who towers over one genre like Tolkien does with fantasy — so we might as well analyze the best, right?

Read Column →

Folding Real-Life Detail into a Fictional Narrative

August 13th, 2018

When I finished reading Dan Simmons’ The Terror, a fictionalized retelling of the disastrous Franklin Expedition of 1845 (and the inspiration for the very expensive-looking AMC series starring Jared Harris and a bunch of British actors with fantastic cheekbones), I thought two things: First, whatever happened on that ill-fated journey through the Arctic wastes, most of the real-life crew wasn’t systematically torn apart by a Yeti-like creature impervious to bullets. Simmons definitely made that part up.

Read Column →

Primer: What You Need to Know About Steve Alten’s ‘Meg’ Series Before Seeing the Movie

August 10th, 2018

Today Jon Turteltaub’s The Meg swims into theaters, based on Steve Alten’s bestselling Meg series about Carcharodon megalodon, an extinct (OR IS IT???) shark species that could grow up to 100 feet long.

Read Column →

How Did Comics Become a Social and Political Battleground?

August 9th, 2018

My brother asked me if I liked writing about comics on LitReactor. “Not really,” I said. He was surprised because in my day-to-day, I talk about comics a lot. Too much. You know how you have a friend who compares every real-life event to The Simpsons? I can be like that, but with comics. Even when it’s extremely inappropriate, like the comparison of juggling a cup of coffee and spilling it to Spider-Man kinda, sorta killing Gwen Stacy, who was perhaps the love of his life.

Read Column →

6 Books to Stoke Your Inner Cyclist

August 8th, 2018

Image by Andreas Just Cycling. It means so many different things to so many different people. To some, it means riding a cruiser bike with a wicker basket along the Pacific Coast. To others, it's old-timey dress up parties with waxed moustaches and those seemingly unridable bikes with the big wheels. It can be a no-fuss way to get to work. It also refers to a sport. Most people know something about it. There was Lance Armstrong and those yellow wrist bands. There was scandal.

Read Column →

From Creepypasta to Doubleday

August 7th, 2018

I started writing just for kicks. No big dreams. No small ones either. I wanted to write a single short story for some internet pals. This August, my second book drops from the massive machine of Doubleday and Blumhouse Books. Weird. Creepypasta to self-publishing to Doubleday. That’s not a template. Or if it is, I’m not sure how to use it. I think you could go in any order or dodge any step; each has different merits, but I’m not sure there would be much worth in trying to measure them against one another here.

Read Column →

5 Essential Character Traits For Ourselves, Not Our Creations

August 6th, 2018

Image by Robbie Ribeiro Writers often talk about the traits we want our characters to have and how to bring them out, but not enough about the traits we ourselves should have in order to be successful wordsmiths.

Read Column →

Celebrating Kafka: 5 "Kafkaesque" Scenes in Books & Films

August 3rd, 2018

In the ninth episode of Breaking Bad’s third season, a therapist tells Jesse Pinkman that Jesse’s situation is “Kafkaesque.” Poor Jesse agrees, saying that it’s “totally Kafkaesque” — even though he obviously has no idea what the therapist is talking about.

Read Column →

Teaching My First Writing Class

August 3rd, 2018

There was a time when I thought I would never teach a writing class. It was about 7 years ago, and I had just finished my MA in creative writing. I was nowhere near close to having my manuscript ready for publication and feared I'd gotten a useless degree. I told myself that if I wasn't able to get my own work published I wouldn't be able to help anyone else with theirs. But learning to write isn’t just sitting in a classroom or joining an online group; sometimes it can be hanging out at a diner with another writer.

Read Column →