Columns

Edit My Paragraph! Episode Six

November 13th, 2014

First up this episode we have gingermutt with the following paragraph:

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LURID: The Horror of 'Heart of Darkness'

November 13th, 2014

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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Storyville: Avoiding Tropes in Horror

November 12th, 2014

Today we’re going to be talking about tropes, and how to avoid them while writing horror stories. What exactly is a trope? Wikipedia says a trope can be described as  “…commonly recurring literary and rhetorical devices, motifs or clichés in creative works.” These are the standard expectations and formulas, and while they aren’t inherently bad, what we’re looking to do here is avoid the common, the normal, the expected, and the bland. How can you change and innovate your writing?

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A Brief History of Space Opera

November 11th, 2014

When people think of science fiction, odds are good they’re actually thinking of space opera, a subgenre of science fiction. While there are all kinds of futuristic stories to tell, we tend to think of all science fiction as spaceships and lasers. But that’s like thinking only of oranges when you’re actually talking about all fruit, or thinking only of Victoria Beckham when you’re actually talking about the Spice Girls … which none of us do, I’m sure.

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How Male Entitlement Ruins the Best and Purest of Things

November 10th, 2014

It probably says something about me that until early October this year, the whole phenomenon known as alt-lit had flown under my radar, Russian stealth-fighter fashion, which is no mean feat for a literary movement which appears, from the descriptions of those outside it, to be all about self-exposure on whichever social media forum happens to be most public.

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5 Things Bodybuilders Know That Writers Don't

November 7th, 2014

I'd think it was crazy too if I were a normal person. -Jay Cutler, bodybuilder At the risk of going even further to the bro side of things than the title would indicate, I'll start with a little story about FHM.

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7 Things To Expect When You Date A Reader

November 7th, 2014

Readers are known far and wide to be some of the best people in the world. We are empathetic, focused, and always come through for the literary questions at bar trivia nights. Anyone would want to date a reader, right? Well, before you run to your nearest bookstore looking for “the one,” let me give you the lowdown on what to expect when you date a reader.

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The Pitfalls of NaNoWriMo

November 6th, 2014

NaNoWriMo logo courtesy nanowrimo.org All throughout the month of November, you'll likely see numerous articles on NaNoWriMo—or, National Novel Writing Month, during which aspiring and established authors alike attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. You'll see articles of encouragement, offering up various tips and tricks that will keep you on track and help you complete your goal in time.

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Path to Publication 3.3: On Editing, And A Little On Blurbs

November 6th, 2014

Polis Books will release my debut novel, New Yorked, in June 2015, and has contracted me for a follow-up, City of Rose. This is a monthly column about taking a book over the finish line. Before I got my agent, I must have re-written New Yorked a dozen times. At least. Two of those were nearly ground-up rewrites. 

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NaNoWriMo vs. The Three-Day Novel Contest: Pros and Cons

November 5th, 2014

I am definitely a tortoise. If ever I had any doubts on the matter, this past Labor Day weekend cleared them out faster than Hemingway could toss back a martini. Some people are hares. Whether through effort or nature, they have the ability to write large amounts in very little time. I applaud these individuals, but my attempt to become one of them for a temporary period left me exhausted and overly caffeinated. I’m speaking of NaNoWriMo’s Canadian cousin, the Three-Day Novel Contest.

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