Columns

How Stress Assassinates Creativity

April 10th, 2014

Is writer's block real? The answer depends on how you define "writer's block." So long as we don't assume it is some mythological disease out to damn poor writers, we can find reasonable definitions and solid answers on where writer's block comes from. The simple truth is that some situations make creativity more likely, while others make it almost impossible. The worst enemy of creativity is found in stress.

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10 Social Media Words That Need to DIE!

April 10th, 2014

Like all bad (and good) trends, there comes a point when people continue to use social media buzzwords long after the recommended expiration date. Here are a few that need to be cleaned out of the lexicographical fridge. 1. Bestie What does it mean? Bestie is short for “best friend” as in: My 14-year-old cousin spends hours on her iPhone texting her bestie, Fran. Why it should die:

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9 Great Poop Reads: Taking Literary Structures From Classroom To Bathroom

April 9th, 2014

My junior high English teacher measured reading assignments in something he called Poop Reads.  I had an interesting education. Ask me about it sometime. Buy me a drink first and you'll hear some stuff. There's a story about a speech and debate teacher's pregnancy that's still hard to tell without slipping back into the voice of an embarrassed 8th grader.

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Storyville: Putting Your Life in Your Fiction

April 8th, 2014

There is really no way to avoid letting your real life experiences seep into your writing. I mean, think about it. The emotions, they are your own. The experiences, the ones that really ring true, probably come from actual moments. But I’ll assume here that most of us have not killed a man, or been to Mars, or chased fireflies off a cliff, or lived in a stone tower making tiny mechanical birds. So how do you insert your real life experience into your fiction? Here are some tips on how to do that.

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Library Love: America’s Athenaeums

April 7th, 2014

Several months ago, I was wandering around Portsmouth, New Hampshire when I walked by a brick building with its doors swung open to visitors. Deciding to look inside, I discovered one of the most beautiful libraries I’d ever seen. The books on the shelves were bound in old leather, and covered topics from botany to nautical lore. Portraits lined the walls, and the smell of parchment permeated the air. Not a bad find for what started out as a Starbucks run. 

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Footnotes: The Weird, Horrific Birthplace of 'True Detective'

April 3rd, 2014

Marty Hart and Rust Cohle are the new poster boys for many things: obsession, nihilism, turning empty beer cans into little aluminum creeper men. If you look up, they're even poster boys for this column, surely the most significant accomplishment yet for these backwoods Louisiana cops. Among all other things, however, Marty Hart and Rust Cohle — as well as True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto and the dark, twisted fantasy he created for HBO — are the new poster boys for the weird and the horrific.

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Tom Spanbauer: A Primer, and A Review Of His Latest Novel, 'I Loved You More'

April 2nd, 2014

I've been planning to write this for months, and I've done everything I could to put it off. The reason for that is because I am afraid to write it. No matter what I write, I'll never get across the thing about Tom Spanbauer's writing that touches me so deeply.  The sensation of reading his books is that, while you're reading them, it's like he's placed his hand on your chest, the warmth and pressure and intimacy of it reassuring you that you are alive, and you are not alone. 

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Five Great Literary Pranksters

April 1st, 2014

Poetry Association of America initiating controversial program Fly-Over Poetry Drones. Watch / listen for us over your house in April! —Joyce Carol Oates, via Twitter @JoyceCarolOates

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

March 31st, 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 similar. 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.

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Incest Is Best: A Look at One of Society's Greatest Taboos as Presented in Fiction

March 31st, 2014

Alright, sports fans. It's time to get ready! The return of the Game of Thrones series on HBO is nigh upon us. Season 4 is set to take flight (like a dragon - get it??) April 6, and based on the trailers (and the fourth book in Martin's series), it's set to be a good one. There will be battles fought, undead creatures slain, and plenty of mayhem. We'll see Tyrion, Joffrey, Sansa, Jon Snow, and...and...and... ...Oh, yeah. Cersei and Jaime Lannister, too.  Ugggghhhh...

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