Columns

5 Problems with the Humble Protagonist

April 22nd, 2015

As an independent editor, I work with a lot of novels over the course of a year, and a lot of protagonists too. Some are straight-ahead heroes and some are antiheroes; most fall somewhere in between. Then there's what I've come to think of as the Humble Protagonist (HP).

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Let's Read About Sex

April 21st, 2015

Everyone who read the above title and clicked away to watch a Salt-N-Pepa video, just know that I forgive you and understand your plight. Regardless of which Salt-N-Pepa video you chose. As for the rest of you, welcome to this column about sex. I'm hoping this qualifies me as a "sex columnist" and maybe even a "sexpert." Two goals met with one column? Not bad.

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The Girl Who Starred In All The Books

April 20th, 2015

With the English translation of Stieg Larsson's first Millennium trilogy novel, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, hitting American bookshelves in late 2008, a publishing trend took its first steps out of the primordial ooze and ventured onward. The release of the second and third books, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, respectively, helped spread this trend further, solidifying its prevalence even today, seven years later. 

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Path to Publication 3.6: Blurbs And Reviews, Incoming

April 20th, 2015

Polis Books will release my debut novel, New Yorked, in June, with the follow-up, City of Rose, slated to follow in 2016. This is a column about taking a book over the finish line. Let's talk about blurbs.  Asking for blurbs is really awkward. 

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Exercises All Writers Need To Do

April 17th, 2015

Once upon a time, there was a romantic vision of writers treating their bodies terribly. Opiates, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, and cigarettes were an integral part of the tortured writer stereotype. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was known for her opium addiction. William S.Burroughs was a heroin addict. Then there are the myriad of writers, past and present, with alcohol issues: Hemingway, Bukowski, Fitzgerald, Poe, Bukowski, to name a few…

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14 Reasons We Love List Articles

April 17th, 2015

In my time as a freelancer, I've written hundreds of list articles. That's not a joke or an exaggeration. Literally hundreds. When I pitch multiple article ideas, the ones most commonly selected seem to be the list articles. And hell, even when I write articles in a non-list form, lo and behold, an editor decides to number my sub-headings and transform my work into a list.

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The Minds of Others: 6 POV Hacks for Fiction

April 16th, 2015

Point of view (POV) in fiction is often one of the hardest elements for new writers to master, with good reason. Regardless of whether you choose the first person (I), third person (he or she), or second person (you) in any of their various incarnations, there are things that you, the author, know that your protagonist cannot. Things, perhaps, you would like your reader to know.

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Brainstorm Your Next Novel with Fiasco - Part 2

April 15th, 2015

Welcome back to Brainstorming with Fiasco! In the previous installment we figured out who some of the characters of our fictional town were and what kind of relationships connected them. Now it’s time to fill in some more Details about the town and what the characters are trying to do in it. There are three types of Details:

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LURID: Death Becomes Her

April 14th, 2015

LURID: vivid in shocking detail; sensational, horrible in savagery or violence, or, a guide to the merits of the kind of Bad Books you never want your co-workers to know you're reading.

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'The Babadook': A Lesson In Subtext

April 10th, 2015

This month, Shout! Factory, that venerable source for outstanding Blu Ray releases of both classic and underrated and/or forgotten horror titles, will release a special edition of The Babadook, one of the most critically-celebrated films of 2014, and one praised by horror fans and casual viewers alike. On the same day as Shout! Factory's Blu Ray release (April 14th), the film will also be available to stream on Netflix, so there's no excuse not to see it if you haven't already.

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