Columns

Finding Story Inspiration in Strip Clubs

March 1st, 2016

If you want to get the feel for a town, the strip clubs are a good place to start. Whether it’s the aggressive upselling in New York, the down-home friendliness in Nashville, or the head-spinning possibilities in Prague—mix men, naked women, and local ordinances, and you’re going to understand the spirit of a place pretty quick. Of all the places I’ve traveled, my favorite strip clubs are in Portland. I like them so much I decided to set my second book there, in a fictional vegan strip club.

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UPDATED WITH WINNERS - LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown: Leap Year Edition

February 29th, 2016

Flash fiction: A style of fictional literature marked by extreme brevity Welcome to LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown, a monthly bout of writing prowess. How It Works We give you inspiration in the form of a picture, poem, video, or prompt. You write a flash fiction piece using the inspiration we gave you. Put your entry in the comments section. One winner will be picked and awarded a prize.

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5 Unconventional Gifts for Writers (to Sharpen Craft and Productivity)

February 29th, 2016

Looking to buy a gift for the writer in your life? I’m going for something a little different here—you won’t find a book or many of the conventional gifts that ordinarily adorn these lists. I’m focussing on tools that have helped sharpen my craft and productivity, often indirectly. Remember you don’t need an excuse or a special day to inundate writers with presents—you can buy a gift at any time! And yes you can even buy a gift for yourself. Let’s get started.

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10 Tips on How To Find or Form the Critique Group of Your Dreams

February 29th, 2016

Writers everywhere know that there’s comfort in the solitude that is the typical writing process, but it is often when we come out from behind the screen and connect with each other that we are able to make our stories great. There comes a point in every writer’s process where it becomes imperative that they receive some sort of outside feedback on a draft. For unagented writers, there is no better way to get that kind of in-depth feedback than through a critique group.

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Doctor Strange Will See You Now: An Introduction

February 29th, 2016

Image via Entertainment Weekly Now that Ant-Man has definitively proven that Disney can turn even the most obscure Marvel characters into box-office gold, the cinematic universe is finally expanding to include one of the more interesting if less famous Avengers: Doctor Strange. Although integral to the team in the comics, the good doctor has made few appearances on screen other than a lackluster animated direct-to-DVD adventure and a best-forgotten TV movie in the ‘70s.

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Here's How Much Buzzfeed Book Quizzes Know About You

February 26th, 2016

Hi, I'm Pete. I'm a Mario Bros.

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'City of Rose' Book Tour Diary: Los Angeles

February 24th, 2016

Please forgive the selfie indulgence in the banner. I couldn't help myself. But when I left New York, it was -10 degrees with the wind chill. And the first three stops on my tour—Portland, Seattle, San Francisco—were pretty comfortable in comparison, but Los Angeles was like magic. Sunny and 73 degrees. I was staying in my friend's apartment in Silver Lake, off Sunset, and I spent a day wandering around in a t-shirt, eating fish tacos, and drinking weather-appropriate iced coffees.  It was pretty great.

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Why 'Moby-Dick' Matters

February 23rd, 2016

illustration by Robert Kent, from the 1930 Random House edition of 'Moby Dick,' courtesy Plattsburgh State Art Museum Call Me Dumbfounded. I pitched this idea for a column to LitReactor’s dedicated editors knowing that, if they accepted it, I’d be reading Moby-Dick for the fourth time. Rattling off reasons why Moby-Dick still mattered? A snap!

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'City of Rose' Book Tour Diary: San Francisco

February 23rd, 2016

The San Francisco leg of my tour included a pretty big milestone: I finished the final draft of my third novel, South Village, and got it off to my publisher. Earlier than I intended, too.  South Village is due March 1, and my plan was to finish and file by the flight home. But between the amount of time I was spending on planes and in airports, and the huge chunk of free time I had in Seattle, I blazed through it. 

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What Works & What Doesn't: 'Pulp Fiction'

February 22nd, 2016

Welcome once again to What Works & What Doesn't, a monthly column dedicated to the craft of screenwriting. For this installment, we're going to look at the architecture of a scene in its entirety, in particular how action (or scene descriptions) and dialogue are used to generate beats, which in turn move a scene along toward a climax.

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