Columns

Using The *Big* Words: Five Tips On Making Jargon And Tech Work For Your Writing, Rather Than Against It

September 12th, 2017

I love work.

Read Column →

The Inauthenticity of a Fuckless World

September 7th, 2017

Original image: Arthouse Studio via Pexels I can still remember the first time I dropped an F-bomb. My friends and I had tied a giant log to a rope hanging from a swing set, and we were spinning it around. I got too close to that spinning, wooden devil, and it blasted me in the face, knocking out my front teeth. In that moment, I used a word I had been very familiar with but had yet to ever utter.  Fuck. 

Read Column →

Ten Reasons I Hate Remakes...And They're Not What You Think

September 6th, 2017

Header image by mahdi chaghari On one hand, I try not to discuss movies with people online because most folks have very strong opinions about everyone else's opinions, and because trying to escape my ultraviolent past is hard to do when someone mansplains a film to me or tries to explain why I didn't "get" a movie. However, from time to time, I engage in movie talk with friends, and one of the most touchy subjects is remakes.

Read Column →

The Sex Scene In Stephen King's 'IT'

September 5th, 2017

When I pitched the idea for this column, I was told it was cool so long as I kept it classy. After I found my monocle, which had fallen out of my eye due to my wide-eyed, shocked expression (“ME?! How could I be NOT classy?!”), I started thinking about how to tackle the topic. With IT coming to theaters, readers and non-readers alike are becoming aware of a piece missing from the movie. I’m talking, of course, about the sex scene. The one that’s (not incorrectly) referred to as a “child orgy in the sewer.”

Read Column →

The 7 Deadly Sins of Struggling Writers

September 4th, 2017

Original image via Pexels I am a working writer, and I’ve been guilty at some point or another of all seven of these sins. I still struggle, but I make an effort to not do the stupid shit listed below. Some of these are rookie mistakes; others are self-destructive and toxic to the literary community. Stopping even one of these behaviors will help an aspiring writer become the writer they are supposed to be. 

Read Column →

"American Girls" Taught Me That Diversity Is The Most Beautiful Thing

September 1st, 2017

The American Girls franchise was radical and so instrumental to my education as a child. I grew up during the good ole days of the OG squad of eight (okay, technically, Kaya wasn’t added until after I was introduced to the gang, but she was my second-favorite, so I count her).

Read Column →

13 Tips on Plowing Through "IT" (or any long book) In A Few Days

August 31st, 2017

Stephen King's IT is a big-ass book. Something like 440,000 words. That's like 75% the length of Atlas Shrugged (561,000 words) or War and Peace (587,000 words). When you’ve read IT, you’ve read almost all of a couple books famous for being ridiculously long. I’m dumb, which is why I decided to read Stephen King’s It for a book club. And because it was a book club book, I had about a week to read it. Okay, I had a month, but I'm not perfect. 

Read Column →

Overcoming the Shame of Self-Promotion

August 30th, 2017

Header image via Unsplash Being a debut author these days, with or without the backing of the Big Five, means doing whatever you can to get the word out about your book.

Read Column →

Why Remakes (including Stephen King's "IT") Stoke Creative Storytelling

August 29th, 2017

Listen, not many people know this, but IT—you know, the new movie based on Stephen King's book, the one with the terrifying trailer—is a remake. I know, it's not something you want to hear. The creativity of storytelling is being killed with all these remakes. If the original IT cannot stand the test of time, how can we expect storytellers to go on, knowing the world simply wants the same story told to them over and over again? 

Read Column →

10 Easy Edits to Improve Your Manuscript Right Now

August 28th, 2017

I routinely edit manuscripts for fiction writers of all genres. When I read their material, I repeatedly see the same technical errors and problematic prose, all of which are easily preventable. Before you send that new short story off on submission or ask a friend to critique your novel, take each page and read it through carefully while following the steps below. Yes, this editing will take a while, but good writing only becomes great writing by investing your time and energy into improving it. And when you're done, your work will really sing.

Read Column →