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8 Mini Grammar Studies in Modern Music
August 12th, 2016
Music is a great way to remember specific details. When you take a closer look at the lyrics in certain songs, you can easily remember tricky grammar devices and spend less time looking things up. This list will not only include songs demonstrating grammar gaffes, but will also cover examples of lyrics that show proper use of grammar. The trick is remembering what’s wrong and what’s correct. Hint: if it’s pop, maybe don’t trust it.
Read Column →LURID: Last Seen Wearing - Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains Databases
August 11th, 2016
There’s a story familiar to all of us, across cultures and through history, the story of someone who was there and then was not, of the person who relinquished their lifetime role as lover, sister, husband, grandpa, neighbor, colleague, or daughter and joined the always-swelling ranks of the Missing. She popped out to the liquor store for a packet of cigarettes, didn’t take a coat, never came back.
Read Column →Buy Your Villain a Birthday Present: 5 More Development Exercises
August 11th, 2016
About two years ago, I put together a short list of character development exercises, curated from various blogs, social media platforms and podcasts. Since the Internet is basically a limitless resource for such things, it seemed like a decent idea to pull together a few more.
Read Column →Darth Trump and Princess Hillary: How Claudia Gray's 'Star Wars: Bloodline' Mirrors the 2016 Election Year
August 10th, 2016
Header images via Nightflight and Twitter This election year is a memorable one. With the Republican National Convention proving that politicians can indeed stoop to new lows and the Democratic National Convention demonstrating that the Left would rather bicker than unite, it’s looking like the next few months will be for the record books.
Read Column →Can I Survive ONE Choose Your Own Adventure Book?
August 10th, 2016
My experience reading Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid was probably a lot like yours. I picked up a book that seemed more exciting than a regular book, made about three choices, and then saw my character consumed by fire. I picked up another one, made about three choices, and my lifeless corpse was flung into outer space. But that was decades ago. Surely, now, as an adult, and as an adult who reads a lot and understands what writers are trying to evoke in children, I can survive one of these things. Right?
Read Column →A How-To (and Why) Guide for Writing in a Retro Layout
August 8th, 2016
Photo: Wtshymanski / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain Remember how computer screens looked back in the 1980s?
Read Column →What Makes the Original 'Ghostbusters' So Special?
August 8th, 2016
I finally went to see the new Ghostbusters movie, and like many fans of the original, I left fairly disappointed. I really wanted to like it—the idea of a new team of Ghostbusters, one filled with some of the funniest women alive, sounded great to me. Just what we needed to make the old franchise shiny and relevant again. Sadly, the film failed to deliver on its considerable promise.
Read Column →I Am So Evil - The Problem With Devilish Bad Guys
August 5th, 2016
One of my all-time favorite bad guys from literature and/or movies has to be Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. Sgt. Hartman is horrible. He's a venomous, sadistic monster, full of hate and language that makes even this Jersey girl blush. He slings racial and homophobic slurs like he's Jackson Pollack, aiming nowhere and everywhere simultaneously, coating every nearby surface with his bile and vitriol. There's nothing to like about him as he barks insults and punches Marine recruits in the gut. Yet I adore him.
Read Column →How to Persevere in Your Writing
August 5th, 2016
I heard somewhere that you have to write a million words before you write anything worth reading. Some say it was the late, great, David Eddings who said this, some attribute it to Ray Bradbury, others still to Elmore Leonard or John D. McDonald, and I’m sure, before long, another literary great will claim the honor. It doesn’t matter who said it, what matters is they are right. Sort of. You do have to write a lot of words before you write something worth reading, but not a million. It actually works out to far more than that.
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