Columns

How NOT to Get an Agent (And What to Do After You Get One)

August 21st, 2013

This is a column with practical advice about ways to improve your chances of finding and retaining a good agent to represent you and help sell your work to a publisher. Some of the suggestions I proffer are obvious, some not so obvious. But I write this as someone who has maintained an excellent relationship with one literary agency for 27 years and 8 books. I think I know what I’m talking about.

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Storyville: Manipulating Your Readers

August 21st, 2013

Most of what we do as authors is in order to get an expected response from our readers, right? You don’t want them laughing when they should be crying, snickering at a bad sex scene, or rolling their eyes at what should be a terrifying passage. So how do you get your audience to respond? Here are some general suggestions as well as some specific tips that I hope will help you to get into the heart, mind, soul, pants, and nightmares of your audience.

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No One Cares About Your Life Story: 9 Tips for a Better Author Bio

August 20th, 2013

“Please provide a bio of 150 words or less.” How many times have you been asked to sum yourself up in the number of words TV Guide allots for the description of the SyFy Channel movie of the week?

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Listen Up!: 5 Awesome Lit-Based Podcasts

August 19th, 2013

Once upon a time, there were radio programs. Many of them specialized in specific topics like sports, news, arts and, of course, music. The shows had personal identities. The topics were discussed, music was played, and everyone who listened felt enlightened and fuzzy.

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Genderbending Genre: The Left Hand of Darkness

August 19th, 2013

To paraphrase Ursula K. Le Guin, science fiction changed in the 60s. Whatever the cause and whatever the name (New Wave, for example), there was a movement towards experimental forms and a shift from hard science fiction (focused on the hard sciences - physics, chemistry, etc) toward so-called “soft” science fiction which, as you might expect, focuses more on sociology and psychology. It was a much needed shift.

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Ask the Grammarian: 'Too' Many Commas, Sentence Fragments, and Rhetoric

August 19th, 2013

First there was Ask the Lit Coach, with Erin Reel. Then came Ask the Agent, with Bree Ogden. Now, LitReactor proudly presents: Ask the Grammarian, with the one and only, Taylor Houston. You've got questions about grammar and usage, she's got answers. Have at you! First of all, thank you to everyone that submitted questions. Let’s get started:

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What Would Jesus Write?

August 16th, 2013

[The facepalm Jesus used above is used courtesy of tonystl] Jesus of Nazareth was many things: motivational speaker, torture victim, trend-setter, political activist, and carpenter, to name just a few. However, while he's the lead figure in the best-selling book of all time, he didn't do much writing himself. But what if Jesus did write? What if he were writing today? Let's take a look at Jesus's tendencies to see what we can say about how he would approach modern writership.

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Footnotes: Catch-22's Place in American History

August 15th, 2013

You can credit Catch-22 for signs and scenes like this. Photo courtesy Nestor Lacle. Footnotes is a look at how specific novels were shaped by the culture of their time, and how those novels shaped the culture.

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It's Made Of SCIENCE: The Speed Of Light

August 14th, 2013

Your character is in space, and needs to get somewhere fast. Like, really, really fast. What button do you press? In Star Wars, you go into hyperspace. In Star Trek, you tell your crew to engage the warp drive. In Dune, you activate the Holtzman engine. With just a little bit of science fiction dust sprinkled on your spaceship, you can get anywhere you need to go as fast as you want with absolutely no consequences. So does this have a basis in real life? Could we ever develop this kind of technology?

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Dystropia: All Hail The Magnificent Bastard

August 13th, 2013

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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