Columns

8 Reasons to Avoid the Novel and Focus on Short Stories

March 23rd, 2017

I was twenty when I started writing seriously. “Seriously,” as in I wanted to write, publish, and get paid for it. In my mind, monetary compensation was the dividing line between this being a hobby and a career. So, I did what I assumed was the next natural step in being a writer and wrote a book. Man oh man, was that a huge mistake. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Concepts like basic story structure and character development were barely familiar to me.

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Why the Fµ¢% Not? Thoughts on Profanity for Writers

March 22nd, 2017

Writers, by trade, deal in words. Word count, word choice, cents per word – we live by them. So there’s something particularly fascinating to me about the concept that certain words are taboo, off-limits, or “bad.” I’m talking about profanity. (Or curse words or cuss words or swear words or bad words or dirty words or obscenities… so many words for the words on the naughty list.) How much thought do we – and should we – put into our use or avoidance of these words?

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9 Imaginary Gizmos For Writers Someone Needs To Hurry Up And Invent Already

March 22nd, 2017

Most writers are of the opinion that the last thing we need is another gizmo. Another screen, another device, another drain on our time. But I think most writers are being a tad narrow-minded. I think they'd be apt to embrace technology if it offered us some things we could actually use.  The Consumer-Level Self-Publishing Machine It's 2017. We have consumer-level 3D printers! This was something that I couldn't have ever imagined being possible. Now I can process and extrude materials to make a pile of crap at home!

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Storyville: Writing Contemporary Magical Realism

March 21st, 2017

Today I’m going to talk about magical realism as a genre (or sub-genre) and how I define it. There are a lot of different influences as far as this voice, but I want to focus on contemporary examples and ways that I think you can incorporate magical realism into your writing. DEFINED A literary genre or style (associated especially with Latin America) that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction.

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The Dos and Don'ts of Book Tour: An Author's Survival Guide

March 21st, 2017

Authors don't seem to talk about this sort of thing very much. The survival thing. We like to talk about craft and meaning. Inspiration. Lofty goals. We post pictures of ourselves at events. We humble brag. We try to look cool. Act cool. Be cool. Sometimes being an author is like being stuck in that dream where you're endlessly walking down a crowded hallway and you can't find your classroom. Sometimes, it's like being in high school. And if you're an author yourself, I think you know exactly what I mean by that.

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How Resident Evil 7 Can Make You a Better Horror Writer

March 20th, 2017

Roger Ebert once said, “Video games can never be art,” which hopefully the majority of us can agree was an insanely idiotic statement to make. However, Ebert also said the following about Freddy Got Fingered: This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels.

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Hack Dad’s Revenge: Boredom

March 20th, 2017

Originally, this month’s column was supposed to be about earning money as a stay-at-home parent/writer. But, the thing is I’m pretty much doing everything on spec these days and I’ve pitched two articles, submitted a novelette, and a short satirical article to a humor website over the last six weeks, but I haven’t heard anything back from any of them. This is what happens when you’re not under contract, though. You spend a lot of time writing and hoping someone will buy some of it.

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10 Japanese Authors You Should Read

March 17th, 2017

Image via Culture Japan Years ago, while working at a tattoo shop, I stumbled across a book of tattoos by Horiyoshi III. My obsessive mindset set me on a long journey to learn all I could about Japanese tattooing. Then came the rest, and that included Japanese literature. To my surprise, not many readers are familiar with the outstanding writing that is produced in that country.

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10 Things I Learned About Writing and Publishing From Managing a Porn Store

March 17th, 2017

Image via I used to manage a porn store in northeast D.C. I worked there for two years and it was the best writer job I ever had. There were whole blocks of time where I could read and write while I sat behind the counter. It was a blessing to get paid to practice my craft.

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5 Comics Every Crime Writer Needs To Read

March 16th, 2017

Crime writing and comic books have a long history together. Most crime fiction fans know that Sin City, A History of Violence and Road to Perdition all started as comic books before they hit the big screen. Ian Rankin has even written a graphic novel.

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