Columns

Her Breasts Were Too Small: Why A Dose of Feminism is Good for Writers

January 17th, 2014

Originally posted 1/20/2012 What is a female character? Serious question — and too easily misunderstood. Let's be naive for a minute: if my protagonist is meant to represent a male human being, and he meets another character meant to represent a female human being, what does it mean to "sexualize" these characters, and how do I show that they are masculine or feminine in their behaviors? Do I even need to? Have I thought this through?

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LURID: Lifetime (Movie) Achievements

January 17th, 2014

LURID: vivid in shocking detail; sensational, horrible in savagery or violence, or, a guide to the merits of the kind of Bad Books you never want your co-workers to know you're reading.

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12 New Comics To Try In 2014

January 17th, 2014

I tried this feature for the first time last year and I did pretty well. Of my ten picks, eight turned out to be wonderful books that I love so far (and really only one horribly disappointed me – Uncanny X-Force I’m looking at you, kid). One is also a book I am woefully behind on, but hope I will love when I finally catch up (Killjoys), and another is just not my cup of tea, but not a bad book all in all.

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Prose & Conversation: 'Perdido Street Station' by China Mieville

January 16th, 2014

It takes about an hour for Richard and I to discuss a book, and let me tell you, that hour flies by so fast I'm left wondering: what the hell happened? Did we really just talk about slake moths and the Weaver and interspecies sex with creatures that have bug parts for a head? Did we? To find out if we did really discuss all that, read on for our thoughts on the China Mieville contemporary classic, Perdido Street Station.

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Poetry Fun-0-1: Intro to Poetry

January 16th, 2014

I like poetry. A lot. Unfortunately, it's hard to find people who really share my love of this "art of uniting pleasure with truth," as Samuel Johnson once said. Time out. I'm already quoting Samuel Johnson? Ugh. See, that's the kind of thing that makes people hate poetry in the first place: the sense that there's always something the poet knows that the reader doesn't, something the poet is smugly holding back, an intolerable smartness.

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It's Made Of SCIENCE: Aliens

January 15th, 2014

From a scientific point of view, it's not difficult to come up with a monster. Monsters don't have to be realistic or believable. They just have to be frightening. They look frightening, they do frightening things, and there doesn't need to be any scientific thought behind the matter. Monsters don't need to make us believe in monsters. Monsters are designed to make us fear monsters. If you put most monsters to the test of evolutionary science, they fall apart.

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Willpower, Muses, and Other Destructive Myths of Writing

January 13th, 2014

It's little wonder that writing communities have developed a great many stories to explain how stuff works. Among the stuff we try to explain is the act of writing itself. Yet, as with many cultural stories, our explanations have sometimes proven unhelpful or—in the worst cases—downright destructive. Today, I'm going to talk about some of my least favorite myths of the writing community, and explain why they are so prevalent and so damaging.

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Sci-fi & Fantasy: Out With the Old, In With the New

January 10th, 2014

It’s 2014. A new year and a time, as the tradition goes, for change. I thought it might be fun to discuss several tired and worn tropes from Science Fiction & Fantasy and maybe look at ways in which they could be reinterpreted, transfigured for the future. I’m not declaring any of these dead, by the way — a talented writer can always breathe new life into a dusty old corpse. But I think those below deserve something of a rest, at least for a little while.  Romantic Vampires The Old: 

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Dystropia: No More Mr. Vice Guy!

January 9th, 2014

Somewhere situated between Easter Island and Papua New Guinea, perfectly pinned on a straight line between the Great Pyramid and the Nazca Lines lies the Isle of Dystropia, the place where every cliché and worn-out convention sticks out like rubble in the sand. Pawing through the debris, you'll find the trope that may just make or break your story. Each installment, we'll explore a different literary platitude, examining it for its various strengths and weaknesses. Set sail for Dystropia, where you might just learn something about your writing and yourself.

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Inaccuracies In Literary Nonfiction: A Necessary Evil?

January 8th, 2014

A few months back, Netflix released an original series called Orange Is The New Black. Maybe you’ve heard of it. My partner Lauren sat down to watch it first, binged through the whole first season in something like two days, and then routinely reminded me that I had to watch it, but no really, I needed to watch it.

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