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Culling The Classics: "The Awakening"
November 19th, 2014
Last month I sent out a call on Twitter for November "Culling The Classics" suggestions to get a feel for what the public was dying to see culled, what classic works of literature people were really curious about but didn't want to invest in without a bit of confirmation that the read wouldn't be a waste of time. I got one reply. Thanks for voting, Shantel.
Read Column →Lessons From My Grandmother
November 19th, 2014
Two things brought me true joy as a child: dressing up like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, and spending the day at my Grandmother's (coincidentally, also named Dorothy). I lived in a ranch style house, so I was mystified by her house's basement and entire second floor. It was so much space for one person! All three floors were piled high with beautiful furniture, clothes, and antiques, which I considered to be fancy toys at the age of five.
Read Column →Product Review: Longform
November 18th, 2014
We live in a truly amazing technological era. I've already forgotten about the time before, when you couldn't literally ask Google a question and get an answer in seconds. Unfortunately, information comes fairly cheap these days, and you have to take anything you read online with a grain of salt. You could be reading an article about the benefits of a high salt diet, for instance, only to discover it wasn't an article at all, but a paid advertisement by Big Salt PR men, made to look like an unbiased piece of journalism.
Read Column →Death by Canonization: Against Literary Criticism's Mortal Sin
November 17th, 2014
Okay, boys and girls. Today, I want to rant to you about one of my greatest frustrations in the study of literature. While I've discussed this issue using different terminology in the past (hero worship, justification bias, etc.), today I'm going to borrow a phrase from David Foster Wallace: death by canonization.
Read Column →Read and Repeat: Finding the Perfect Comfort Book
November 17th, 2014
Grab the hot chocolate and a fleece blanket. November is an ideal month for curling up inside with a book, but most people don't lunge for the Chicago Manual of Style when they've had a long day. Comfort is often defined as a sense of being at ease, or the opposite of stress. Daniel Miller describes the sensation in The Comfort of Things as being attained through the presence of familiar objects.
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Scandal! 6 Writers with Page-Turning Lives
November 14th, 2014
Shy. Reclusive. Introverted. These badges are often stuck on us writers as a group. We’ve long been typecast as putting so much energy into the characters we create that our own lives are dull in comparison. Well, guess what? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges! As a reminder of how we can be as wild and crazy as other artists, here are six writers who lived fast, kicked ass and gave their friends, lovers and biographers something to write home about.
Read Column →Edit My Paragraph! Episode Six
November 13th, 2014
First up this episode we have gingermutt with the following paragraph:
Read Column →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.
Read Column →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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