Columns

UPDATED WITH WINNER - LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown: September Edition

September 30th, 2014

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.

Read Column →

Five Real Book Thieves

September 29th, 2014

photo by Simon Lesley Although Markus Zusak may have popularized the idea in his YA novel, The Book Thief, literary theft isn’t exclusive to the realm of fiction. It might be a relatively unusual crime, but every now and then, someone runs sticky fingers through a library catalogue. Although some heists make for an interesting story from a third party perspective, the loss of even a single valuable book can be devastating to a small business.

Read Column →

Book Vs. Film Vs. Unmade Film: "Pet Sematary"

September 29th, 2014

WARNING: Spoilers discussed freely.

Read Column →

6 Novels That Will Destroy Your Good Mood

September 26th, 2014

photo © sylvain.collet via Flickr There are times when life is so full of joy.

Read Column →

Testing Lab: Gifts For Writers

September 26th, 2014

When you Google phrases like "Good gifts for writers" or "unusual gifts for writers" or "what the $^#& do I get this stupid @$$%^@#?" you'll find plenty of advice blogs and heaps of bizarre gadgets, and you'll find several that pop up over and over. But do these gifts actually work? Are they, as MC Hammer put it, 2 Legit 2 Quit, or are they the exact opposite, 2 Crappy 2 Make You Happy? When you buy something for the writer in your life, are you wasting your money in a fun, conversation piece way, or is it in a junk drawer kind of way?

Read Column →

Why The F*ck Aren’t You Reading Matt Kindt?

September 25th, 2014

image courtesy firstsecondbooks.com Why The F*ck Aren't You Reading? is a feature where the columnist spotlights a writer who has a dedicated following and is well known within the writing community, but hasn't achieved the elephant-in-the-room style success of a Stephen King or Gillian Flynn—But they deserve to, dammit! Hopefully the column will help gain the author featured a few more well-deserved readers.

Read Column →

So You Want to Write a Book, Part 1: Ready, Set, GO!

September 25th, 2014

photo by Jacson Querubin via Flickr Last month, in the

Read Column →

5 Things Literary Writers Can Learn from Sci-Fi Writers

September 24th, 2014

Say you're a literary writer. You've worked with famous types, attended plenty of conferences, maybe you even have an MFA. Chances are, there are a few things you don't know that writers of sci-fi (and speculative fiction in general) know that you don't.

Read Column →

Screenwriting: The Emotional Spine

September 22nd, 2014

Film is an emotional medium. Reading a book puts you inside the protagonist’s head, but watching a movie plants you firmly in her shoes. The immersive audio-visual experience of a darkened theater, especially the score swelling through surround sound, is conducive to feeling, not thinking. We read a film not so much by listening to dialogue, but by watching emotions flicker across characters’ faces. We react physically to scares by jumping in our seats, and a dynamic chase sequence gets our pulse racing along with the protagonist’s.

Read Column →

The Joy of Horror Novelizations

September 22nd, 2014

There is an alternate universe where the killings in Halloween are the result of a druidic curse cast by the god Muck Olla, and where E.T. the Extra-terrestrial has the hots for Elliot’s mother. This is a universe where movie novelizations are king.

Read Column →