Columns

The 2017 One Story Per Week Writing Challenge

January 19th, 2017

Image It started in September whilst I was conducting an interview with Jessica McHugh on the This Is Horror Podcast. Jessica told me of her own one story per week challenge back in 2014, an idea that was spawned by a Ray Bradbury quote:

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Elizabeth Bennet: The Original Manic Pixie Dream Girl?

January 19th, 2017

Oh, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Hollywood's go-to female character. Some would argue it's time for the phrase to go away (and in fact, the man who coined the term has argued exactly that). That it's a tired old trope of tired modern films, and we'd do well to move as far away from it as possible.

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Tech and Product Round-up: Janurary Edition

January 18th, 2017

Welcome all to the first Tech Round-Up of 2017. This month, it's beginning to feel a lot like the future, with self-driven cars and even air taxis on the horizon. But while car and tech companies drive us further into The Fifth Element or Back to the Future Part II territory, one handy browser extension bolsters a service from the "past," making it easier to locate the books you want to read at your local library. Finally, another company merges past and present with a paper notebook digitization service that just might actually work.

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Dystropia: A Family Moves Into THEIR WORST NIGHTMARE!!!

January 17th, 2017

Somewhere situated between Easter Island and Papua New Guinea, perfectly pinned on a straight line between the Great Pyramid and the Nazca Lines lies the Isle of Dystropia, the place where every cliché and worn-out convention sticks out like rubble in the sand. Pawing through the debris, you'll find the trope that may just make or break your story. Each installment, we'll explore a different literary platitude, examining it for its various strengths and weaknesses. Set sail for Dystropia, where you might just learn something about your writing and yourself.

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Storyville: 101 Ways to Make 2017 Your Best Year as a Writer Yet

January 16th, 2017

Ready, set, GO! Set some goals, and go after them. If it’s write every day, do it. If it’s write one story a month, do it. Just take it seriously and go after your dreams. Join some Open Call groups on Facebook. There are several, and they’ll help you find some anthologies and calls you may not hear of otherwise. Join Duotrope. It’s worth the $50 a year, honest.

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Your Lips To Google's Ears: Voice Typing On Google Docs

January 16th, 2017

Let me tell you about this notebook I've got. The notebook itself is nothing special. A Mead 5-Star, college-ruled notebook. What's special about it is that it's full of one-sentence story ideas. Ideas I've written down for the last ten years or so. This isn't a brag. For the most part, the ideas are terrible (one is some illegible nonsense about a geode), unwritable (an entry that simple says "Oak Park") or SUPER terrible ("Journals of Lewis And Clark except L&K are total dicks").

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The 10 Best Book Covers of 2016

January 13th, 2017

It's that time of the year. Time to argue about what the best books were—what was good, what was bad, but most importantly, which ones were the most good looking. 

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It Could Be Worse: Five Nightmare Dystopias

January 12th, 2017

Dystopian fiction always peaks in popularity around an election year. It’s something of tradition to imagine how the opposition will completely ruin the world if they win, one that has only become more popular during the rise of exaggerated partisan journalism. Although it makes for an entertaining narrative, it’s not very likely that the person you didn’t vote for will destroy the world, if only for the fact that they have to live on it, too.

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Writing the Crime Scene: Gunshot Wounds

January 11th, 2017

Perhaps your crime novel opens with a veteran patrol officer being shot in the thigh during a routine traffic stop. Or maybe the rookie detective in your short story takes a bullet to the shoulder to save a little girl from a drug-dealing biker. How long will each character survive without medical attention? Would they be able to walk away from their respective crime scenes? Would they suffer loss of motor control in their damaged limb? Would it hurt so badly that they’d scream in agony? Or would they go into shock and feel nothing at all?

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7 Tools for Keeping Your Writing Resolutions

January 9th, 2017

The new year is off to a rocking start, and you’ve no doubt had a chance to sit down and hammer out some writing resolutions that are sure to make 2017 your most prolific writing year yet. You’ve got the drive and the lofty goals, and we’ve got some tools to help you reach them. If you’re looking to make the most of your writing time, try a tool or two listed below to amp up the momentum and guarantee that you keep every resolution you make.

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