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Typos: Funny or Foul?
July 22nd, 2014
ill-eagle via Whall I read everything—signs, cereal boxes, fine print—and I often notice how seemingly obvious errors and typos tend to go unnoticed by just about everyone. The occasional typo or error is no sin, but considering how easy it was for me to find examples of typos in my everyday life for this article, I do start to wonder:
Read Column →The Curious, Poetic Lives of the Rossetti Siblings
July 21st, 2014
There are thousands of poets in the world, both living and dead, who don’t receive their fair share of notoriety. Among their ranks are Christina Rossetti, author of “The Goblin Market,” and her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Dante’s works have not weathered the decades as well as his sister Christina’s body of poem—being full of references to Arthurian myth and heavy Medievalism—but his strange biography is intriguing enough to warrant a quick glance back into Victorian London.
Read Column →On Kicking Ass: How To Write a Fight Scene
July 18th, 2014
Header image via Afonso Lima This may sound strange, coming from a person who writes for a living on a site dedicated entirely to the craft of writing, but sometimes words fail us. We’ve all found themselves in situations where there’s nothing left to say. Somebody presumes to put hands on you and yours, and they aren’t hearing any arguments. So what then? How do we communicate when our differences can’t be resolved with a conversation?
Read Column →5 Silver Linings of Having A Day Job
July 18th, 2014
Let's face it: having a day job sucks. But sometimes life puts us in a position where we have to work outside our writing career, and we can either waste time bemoaning this fact, or we can make the best of it.
Read Column →The Importance of Journaling
July 17th, 2014
Photo Credit: TheFancyLamb It all started when I was eight and I got a super cool diary for Christmas. It was soft and squishy to the touch, covered with drawings of teddy bears, the pages were rose scented, and it had a lock on the side so my sisters couldn’t read it. Most importantly, it was the first place where I felt comfortable writing down my thoughts, even if they were simply, Joey tried to hold my hand today and I hated it, or Homework is fun.
Read Column →Poetry Fun-0-1: America the Beautiful
July 17th, 2014
O say, can you read by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed as a poem-turned-anthem, Whose broad themes and bright lines through a rhyme scheme so tight, O'er the airwaves we've heard before many sporting games? And masses unaware there was poetry there Gave proof through the night that their love was still there; O say does that star-spangled poem yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Read Column →Lawyers: Pros or Cons? Part 2 — Why You Should Love Lawyers
July 16th, 2014
I blame the bad reputation of lawyers on two things: ambulance chasers and American popular culture. Having worked in a jurisdiction with limited compensation claims and advertising of personal injury cases, moving to North America was a bit of a shock. Lawyers… advertise? No win, no fee? Lawyers need to beg for work on billboards in Vegas?
Read Column →Lawyers: Pros or Cons? Part 1 — Why Lawyers Suck
July 16th, 2014
Q: “How many lawyer jokes are there?” A: “One. The rest are true stories.” Lawyers have a rotten reputation. On that point there’s no argument. But I’m here to tell you why writers in particular should view lawyers as a human form of the plague and avoid them at all costs. No, I take that back: they’re not quite as bad as a disease that causes buboes full of blood and pus to break out all over the body and kills its victims in a matter of days. I misspoke.
Read Column →On Research: The World is Full of Experts
July 15th, 2014
I don’t know if anybody really tells writers this anymore, but if anybody tells you to “write what you know,” kick them in the shins and run away. I seriously can’t imagine any worse advice to writers than “write what you know.” Maybe “always write from the point of a view of a monkey,” or “only write when you’re super drunk.”
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