Columns

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

January 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. This month, you get only 14 words, but there are no limits on structure or number of sentences.

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Blogging and the Law: Five Issues You Need To Know

January 31st, 2014

Last year, Cath Murphy wrote a column on how to be an awesome blogger. Keeping a blog is a great idea for writers. It helps your routine of keeping up a daily word count, it helps you be social with readers and other writers, and it can be a useful platform for your fan- (or potential fan-) base.

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Culling The Classics: Moby-Dick

January 30th, 2014

Image by Tony Millionaire This was a terrible idea. The Book Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, by Herman Melville (Richard Bentley [Britain]/Harper & Brothers [US], 1851).

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Too Close to Home: The Dangers of Choosing an Editor

January 30th, 2014

"Honey, where'd you put my book?" "Which one? The Stephen King?" "No! Gah! The one you're editing!" "Oh. It's downstairs. I just finished a few more pages. Don't mind the red ink — there's a lot of it."

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Screenwriting: Speed Dating The First Five Pages

January 29th, 2014

Spec screenplays these days should have the reader at ‘Hello’.  Even a few years ago, a screenwriter could afford a leisurely introduction, setting up the basics of their story’s Who/What/Why/Where/When over the first ten to fifteen pages.

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Storyville: How to Write a Book Review

January 28th, 2014

In today’s column, I will talk about how to write a book review. I know that many of you are avid readers, and whether you simply want to put something up on your blog, send your criticism to a small journal, or get paid professional rates to publish lengthy narratives about fiction that moves you, there are some essential components to focus on. Here are some suggestions on how to write a compelling review, how to excite your readers and get them to seek out the books you love, as well as some techniques that have worked for me in the past.

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How Journalism Can Help Polish Your Fiction

January 27th, 2014

What do Ernest Hemingway, Tom Wolfe, Chuck Palahniuk, Raymond Chandler, O. Henry and Stephen Crane all have in common? Before they were the adored giants of fiction we know today, they were all journalists. Yet for some strange reason, many kindhearted, lit-loving fictionist wannabes, the daydreamers who hope to one day publish novels or poetry chapbooks on par with Steinbeck and Salinger, tend to overlook journalism as a viable means to those ends.

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I’LL KILL YOU! Amazon, Goodreads, and the Death of Criticism

January 27th, 2014

It starts as a Facebook Wallpost: -Why did you only give my last book three stars on Goodreads? -I liked it, but it wasn’t my favorite of your books. -How dare you, you fucking ungrateful little shit! I gave you FIVE STARS for your last book. FIVE. FUCKING. STARS. -I told you I liked it, there were certain things that didn’t jell for me.

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How to Become a Freelance Writer in 900 Simple Steps – Part 1: Risky Business

January 24th, 2014

Let's be clear: I am not a freelance writer—yet, and I don't yet know how to become one. This is the first in a series of articles in which I drag you, dear reader, along with me as I try to figure out how to set up a freelance writing business. Over the past 2 years, you've come to me for grammar advice and random musings on craft, but join me now as I attempt to enter the business world as a freelance copywriter. Let's get started.

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Bella Swan and the Art of the Audience Surrogate

January 24th, 2014

Cathedra Image licensed under Creative Commons by Barnett Newman There are few characters in modern fiction regarded with as much vitriol as Bella Swan. Although she's unlikely to need an introduction, Miss Swan is the protagonist of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series (bear with me just a moment; I can hear the collective groan at the mere mention of the T-word). Besides an undeniable clumsiness, Bella is known for having few defining personality traits of her own.

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