Columns

Five Applications That Make a Writer's Life Easier

May 16th, 2014

Writers are no longer just writers. In this era, we are writers, marketers, digital media managers, and legal experts. To survive in the rapidly changing publishing industry, we are expected to evolve and take on many different hats and be experts in these different roles.

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It's Made Of SCIENCE: Lasers And Energy Weapons

May 15th, 2014

I'll just say it: There aren't many science fiction stories out there that don't involve lasers in some way.

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Book Breakup: Tell The Story, Break Up With A Bad Book

May 15th, 2014

To finish this column, you’ll have to tell me a story. The story of a book that haunts your nightstand. The story of a book you throw in your bag every day, the same book you toss in your bag for weeks with the best intentions. The story you’ll tell me is the story of a book you’ve loved too long. Bad book relationships have a way of dragging on. So many bad Friday nights with this book. So many uncomfortable afternoons. This book doesn’t treat you right. It’s almost more like being alone than being with a book.

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A Vague, Illustrated History of Modern Book Design in 19 Covers (and 7-10 Taco References)

May 14th, 2014

A book is kind of like a taco – the shell is as important as the contents… though I guess you probably shouldn’t eat a book, right? – Imaginary Uncle Larry. “When you don’t know how to start a column, quote an imaginary uncle, then yourself, then address your audience in a broke-ass Socratic dialogue that references a Rob Reiner film – Me

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Slipping Into Someone Else's Skin

May 13th, 2014

Here's a secret I hope you won't share with anyone: I always wanted to act. When I was young, I danced, took acting lessons. I was too shy for the spotlight, but that didn't keep me from trying on personas, living in imagined worlds. I think this fundamental truncation of my childhood dreams led me to write. I couldn't bring characters to life on the screen or stage, but I sure as hell can on the page.  This is how it's done. You put on their clothes. You breathe their air, taste food through their tongue.

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Five Amazing Superhero Cartoons Canceled Too Soon

May 9th, 2014

It’s a hard truth for writers (and likely artists of all kinds) that sometimes your work will fail. It either won’t be what you envisioned, or it won’t find an audience, or both. Most of the time it will be your fault, and you can always take solace when you look back on it later and realize you will never make that mistake again. But sometimes your best, most brilliant and polished work will fail for reasons you never expected that are entirely beyond your control.

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Believing In the Nonexistent: An Introduction to Fictional Realism

May 9th, 2014

When a writer creates a nonexistent, fictional object, that creation has a life beyond the immediate page. Readers sympathize with or loathe characters, and long to visit fantastical places. Have you ever wished that you really knew Lisbeth Salander or Atticus Finch? Or that Rivendell existed so that you could go there next spring break? Fictional realists argue that theoretically, all of those places and people do exist.

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Book vs. Film: 'The Killer Inside Me'

May 8th, 2014

WARNING: Spoilers discussed freely.

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Screenwriting: Turn Turn Turn

May 8th, 2014

Great art happens in the curves.  Any hobbyist with a grasp of the rudiments can take a concept in a straight line but, whether it's classical ballet, comic books, Formula One or dressage, the measure of a true artist is how they master the turns.

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Fiction Shmiction: How Writing Creates the World

May 7th, 2014

Today's task is pretty straightforward: I want to show you why I believe that fiction isn't just important in the realm of fiction—why stories aren't just stories—why the word "just" is as unjust as you can imagine. Because stories ... stories are everything.

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