Columns

10 Mistakes (Almost) Every Rookie Writer Makes — Part Two

June 24th, 2016

You've taken classes and workshops. You've worked and reworked your fiction, revising from feedback, honing your craft. And now, at long last, you're ready to send your fiction out for consideration by agents, editors, and publications. But whether you're a bright young thing with the world on a string or a worldwise elder with stories to tell, these ten craft issues will make you look like a rookie—and they'll keep you stuck in the slush pile. 

Read Column →

How Harlan Ellison's 'Watching' Predicted Film Twitter, or Why Film Criticism Will Save the World

June 24th, 2016

Known for novels, short stories and screenplays, Harlan Ellison also worked as a film critic. Writing for Cinema Magazine, the Los Angeles Free Press, Starlog and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, he built a contrarian reputation, panning such classics as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars while propping up novelties like Big Trouble in Little China. His writings over two decades, collected in 1989 as Watching, presciently anticipate “Film Twitter”.

Read Column →

Storyville: What Literary Fiction Can Teach You About Genre Fiction

June 22nd, 2016

I just got back from teaching at the University of Iowa at their Summer Writing Festival, which is always a great time. My classes—Dark Fiction: Writing Horror and How to Write a Popular, Successful Genre Novel—both went over well. And I feel like so much of this topic, where genre fiction meets literary fiction, is fresh in my head, so let’s sit down and talk about this. More specifically, how can literary fiction teach you about genre fiction?

Read Column →

The Medicated Writer

June 21st, 2016

The first suicide was the hardest, but by the third, I began to realize that if I was to be a writer, I had to learn to let people go.

Read Column →

All of the Articles I Didn't Want to Write

June 20th, 2016

One of my favorite quotes about writing is by Don DeLillo, and it refers to the draft as a “hideously defective, hydrocephalic and noseless” infant. That is exactly how I've felt about certain pieces I've been commissioned to write over the years, not just when they were drafts, but when they were grown adults as well.

Read Column →

What Works & What Doesn't: 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'

June 20th, 2016

Welcome back to What Works & What Doesn't. If you've been following this series of columns, you'll know we're poised to examine the dynamics of Act III, which occupies anywhere from 20 to 30 pages of your script and wraps the story up, even if—and this is important—the audience isn't necessarily "happy" with the results.

Read Column →

Storyville: Contemporary Superheroes Through the Eyes of a Pre-Teen

June 13th, 2016

I was never into comic books as a child. I can remember getting up early on Saturday mornings though, to watch Johnny Quest. I can remember rushing home from school to catch Speed Racer. And there are some foggy memories of Ultraman as well as Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot. There was the original live-action Batman, with Adam West, of course, and then later, the animated Super Friends, my introduction to the Justice League of America.

Read Column →

10 Lessons Learned From My First Grown-Up Writing Job

June 13th, 2016

Last month I had, for one week, a real, honest-to-god, grown-up writing job. It involved some writing, and a whole lot of editing. Some social media stuff. Getting stuff in from other writers. The whole bit. I learned some shit. 1. Editors Earn Their Pay I’ll admit, when the gig came along, I saw dollar signs.

Read Column →

Anne Frank: Editor Extraordinaire

June 10th, 2016

On June 12, 1942, a little girl named Annelise Frank received a diary for her birthday. It was on the small side, covered in a red and white checkered fabric, and it would go on to contain some of the most famous diary entries ever written. 

Read Column →

Beyond Dickens: 8 Picaresque Novels For The Modern Reader

June 9th, 2016

A solid definition of the picaresque novel is rather hard to come by. The term “picaro,” taken from a 17th century Spanish word, typically describes a low-born hero or rogue who uses his wits to wander through various branches of society without truly belonging to any of them, moving from adventure to adventure. The picaresque employs an episodic narrative structure that still works well today, even though many readers may associate it with the past. A dose of satire is the final part of the equation.

Read Column →