Columns

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.

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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? 

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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.

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I'm Tired of Genre Fiction. Gimme the Weird Stuff.

August 24th, 2017

Header image: Begotten A few years ago I read and reviewed Blake Butler’s 300,000,000 for Electric Literature. I couldn’t get my head around it. At times during my reading I felt lost, weirded-out, even physically ill. My review speaks to this confusion, like someone walking out of a haunted house that’s actually haunted. It thrilled me, but I wasn’t sure if I liked it.

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8 Tips to Help You Kick Ass in Online Fights

August 23rd, 2017

You've been there. A friend of yours posts that she's about to watch a movie. You "like" the post and drop your two cents. Three seconds later, some random person calls you a fucking idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about. If that doesn't happen, then maybe you tell someone who posted about Black Lives Matter being the true root of all racial unrest in the country that maybe the douchenozzles with the Nazi flags are to blame.

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Three Things Nobody Told Me About Having a Children’s Book Published

August 23rd, 2017

My publisher was concerned about gorillas taking their clothes off, possibly for money, I think. Stripping gorillas must be a big problem in some parts of the country, because this seemed like a deal-breaker. My first children’s book was originally called Gorillas A-Go-Go, but that title wasn’t going to fly. The A-Go-Go part implies stripping, someone said.

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This Can't Be: Realism and Genre vs. Reality

August 22nd, 2017

In his seminal story “The Nose,” Nikolai Gogol posits “[s]trange events happen in this world, events which are sometimes entirely improbable.” If you’ve never read “The Nose,” it’s about an official from St. Petersburg whose nose is cut off and goes on to live a life of its own. It converses. It walks around. It rises in social rank to a station higher than that of its owner. It’s not a realistic story. This is the kind of work that we need now.

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Storyville: Eight New, Mashed Up Sub-Genres

August 21st, 2017

So, what are some new kinds of stories you can write—strange hybrids that might stand out from the pack when sending your work out? Let’s take a look.

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Woodshedding for Writers

August 21st, 2017

Header: lil artsy via Pexels Woodshedding comes up all the time in interviews with guitar players. Doesn’t matter if it’s Brian Wilson or Mastodon’s Brent Hinds, most every guitar player will talk about this concept. What is it?

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How a Close Reading of 'Catch-22' Recreates the College Classroom

August 17th, 2017

When one of us professional English majors finally escape from university life, we do tend to get nostalgic for how books are read when they’re assigned. It’s not always easy to engage with a text on your own, especially when it’s an older book or one that’s a challenge. Once you’ve re-read the Harry Potter series for the umpteenth time, you might think your brain could use a little flexing. So you sit down with James Joyce’s Ulysses and realize it’s nearly impenetrable.

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