Columns

Storyville: Fiction As Film—Writing Scenes That Are Visual

September 25th, 2013

When I write fiction, especially longer prose such as novels, I tend to use language that would be right at home on a movie set. I think about scenes, I imagine the way the camera tracks the action, I picture the “actors” in their environment, and I hear the narrator, as if in a voice-over, telling me what’s on his mind. Here are some ways to apply the knowledge we’ve all received from watching movies, the ways that directors and cinematographers capture the action, and elevate the drama. You might be surprised how similar literature and film really are.

Read Column →

Your Favorite Book Sucks: '1984'

September 25th, 2013

'Your Favorite Book Sucks' is an ongoing column, written by different people, that takes a classic or popular book and argues why it isn't really all that great. Confrontational, to be sure, but it's all in good fun, so please play nice.

Read Column →

'Doctor Sleep' and the Evolution of Fear

September 24th, 2013

I just finished re-reading Stephen King’s The Shining followed immediately by its brand-new sequel, Doctor Sleep. Like many King fans, I’ve waited for years—no, decades—to find out what happened to young Danny Torrance after he escaped the Overlook Hotel. If you’ve been waiting too, today is your day. All is revealed in Doctor Sleep.

Read Column →

Anatomy Of A Best Seller: Four Reasons "Gone Girl" is Such A Literary Juggernaut

September 23rd, 2013

Since its release over a year ago, I've heard nothing but good things about Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn's novel about a marriage turned toxic and the implications of such toxicity as felt by the husband after the wife disappears.

Read Column →

Ask the Grammarian: Multiple Hopes, Lay vs. Lie, Basically Useless Vocabulary, and a Stumper

September 23rd, 2013

Hello again! Thank you to everyone that submitted questions. This round of questions were really challenging. Let's see how I did: How Many Hopes? Our first question comes from Susan LeDrew who wonders if it is grammatically correct to say to school children, "You are our hopes for the future."

Read Column →

Five More Legal Issues All Writers Need To Be Aware Of: Rights, Royalties, Negotiating and more

September 20th, 2013

Header image via Wikipedia Commons Last month we looked at legal issues focusing on what you can and can’t write about, and what content you need to be careful about using in your writing. This month we’re focusing on legal issues that you should be aware of from the publishing side – rights, royalties, editing, vanity contract clauses, and negotiation.

Read Column →

LURID: Dread And Circuses

September 20th, 2013

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.

Read Column →

5 Video Games that Would Have Made Better Novels

September 19th, 2013

Image of Penguin-style covers for games by James Bit We’ve debated whether movie adaptations are better than books for too long. It’s time to look farther afield for frivolous controversy. I almost proposed that we rank novel adaptations of video games, but then I got scared. I mean, movie buffs and literary types are vicious enough in their own right, but gamers are a different species entirely.

Read Column →

How Writing Has Helped Me Survive Depression

September 19th, 2013

This article started when I missed a deadline for a post here at LitReactor last month. I told the powers that be that, "Crippling depression hit me and I took a week-long hiatus from life. (How's that for honesty?)" And the powers responded by asking me if I'd be willing to talk about depression in one of my next articles.

Read Column →

Respecting Ideals: Reading vs Watching

September 18th, 2013

A while back, blogger Anil Dash wrote a controversial piece that lit up the blogosphere like a smartphone screen in a movie theater. The essay, entitled “Shushers: Wrong about Movies, Wrong about the World”, basically asserted that people who don’t want their theater-going experience ruined are wrongheaded, Draconian individuals who don’t understand how the world works.

Read Column →