Columns

Analyzing a Short Fiction Publishing Contract

November 18th, 2013

When everyone thinks of the writing process, they think of two scenarios:

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9 Great Albums To Accompany Your Writing Process

November 15th, 2013

Do you listen to music when you write? If so, have you ever felt the music you listen to while hammering out those first drafts distracts you from the work at hand? Have you ever struggled to find the perfect album for the mood or atmosphere of your piece? Perhaps you've never put on a record while working, simply because you just don't know where to start.

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Bill Watterson: A Primer

November 14th, 2013

My dad and I have what you might call a “cordial” relationship now that I’m (ostensibly) grown and out of the house. Superficially, we don’t have a lot in common, which means much of our day to day (or month to month, as is often the case) conversation is relegated to political arguments—something I attempted to put to bed on my last visit home—and discussions of culture. As far as shared experiences go, however, these days, they’re mostly limited to family gatherings and the occasional movie screenings I force on him.

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Don’t You Dare Stop! – 5 Bullshit Reasons for Giving Up on NaNoWriMo

November 14th, 2013

Your plants are unwatered. Your hamster unfed. Despite Leah Dearborn’s exhortations to the contrary, your relatives have filed a missing persons report and you went to work in your slippers. NaNoWriMo has not only taken over your life, it has mushed your face slap bang against the harsh realities of writing fiction for a living.

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17 of the Most Literary Science Fiction Novels

November 13th, 2013

By now we all acknowledge that science fiction isn’t pulpy wish-fulfillment for nerds and literary novels aren’t pretentious bore-fests for academics. Well, I mean, they are that, sometimes. But they can also be so much more. And despite screams of protest from fans of both genres, these paper-bound proton packs cross streams more often than you'd think, with varying results.

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Different Ways to Tell the Truth: A Primer on Creative Nonfiction Subgenres

November 13th, 2013

Yes, yes, creative nonfiction does sound like an oxymoron, and even though it seems to have become en vogue only recently, it’s really the oldest genre there is. In the long, long time ago, there was little distinction between writing that was based on fact and writing that conveyed a fictional story. I’m sure there is room for debate here, but consider the etymology of the word novel.

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Footnotes: On Vonnegut and the Semicolon

November 12th, 2013

I live ninety miles from Indianapolis, Indiana, the birthplace of Kurt Vonnegut and the capital of Midwestern mundanity, although I've long maintained this part of the country is more Mideast than Midwest. I suppose that's neither here nor there, and you probably don't care either way, unless you also live around these parts, in which case I'm the one who doesn't care.

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Think Before You Speak: 10 Words and Phrases with Potentially Offensive Origins

November 11th, 2013

Now I'm not the most P.C. of peoples, but forewarned is forearmed, and if I had four arms I still wouldn't have enough fingers to count the amount of times a day the internet takes some poor, unsuspecting schmuck to task for insensitive usage of language, warranted or not. So I have decided to compile this handy reference list of everyday words and phrases that are of potentially discriminating origin.

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The Pen and the Sword: Ten Books That Instigate Conflict and Promote Peace

November 8th, 2013

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” It’s an adage that just about everyone has heard at some point in their lives. The saying, in its most modern incarnation, originated in England with the 1839 play, Richelieu by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. But, like war itself, the proverb has circulated the globe since ancient times. Greek poet Euripides was known to have coined a similar variation, and Hamlet's Rosencrantz noted that, "...many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills."

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5 Reasons A Good Writing Group Can Save You

November 7th, 2013

Let’s just skip to the end. Yes. Yes, a good writing group can save you and in more ways than one. Back in 2008 I was struggling to be a writer. It’s 2013 and I am still struggling with it; I suspect I will always be struggling with it. Being a writer is damn hard, both ever changing and annoyingly static.

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