Columns

10 More Hysterical, Offensive, Ridiculous, Controversial, Frightening, Sexy Book Covers

May 30th, 2013

Previously, on Hysterical, Offensive, Ridiculous, Controversial, Frightening, Sexy Book Covers.

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Fictional Dealbreakers?

May 29th, 2013

In March I wrote a piece about Orson Scott Card writing Superman, and asked if readers let a writer’s offensive personal beliefs and politics (or the perceptions of same) get in the way of enjoying the work they create, even if the work they create seems free of those beliefs. But what about when a story itself conflicts with your personal beliefs?

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Why The F*ck Aren't You Reading Alan Glynn?

May 28th, 2013

Why The F*ck Aren't You Reading? is a new feature where the columnist spotlights a writer who has a dedicated following and is well known within the writing community, but hasn't achieved the elephant-in-the-room style success of a Stephen King or Gillian Flynn—But they deserve to, dammit! Hopefully the column will help gain the author featured a few more well deserved readers.

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Iron Men: 8 Amazing Armors in Fantasy Fiction

May 28th, 2013

Iron Man 3 came out earlier this month, a movie all about a hero known for his super-powered armor. High-tech armor is nothing new, of course, as mech fans know, but Iron Man has become the face of armored superheroes since his creation back in the 60s by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

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Comics: Get Your Sex Out Of My Violence

May 24th, 2013

The header for this post would make you think that mainstream comics are FULL OF SEX, but look more closely (full image below) and you can see the illustration is barely about sex (I had less chaste kisses in elementary school) and much more about violence. The characters are literally covered in ropes of blood (and she’s holding a massive knife) while they give each other a closed mouth peck. Course, maybe they just don’t want to risk getting any blood in their mouths…but it doesn’t seem like they would care.

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From Screen to Screen: 5 Mobile Screenwriting Apps for Tablets and Smartphones

May 23rd, 2013

We pay a lot of attention to fiction writers here at LitReactor, with a few nods here and there to comic authors and playwrights, but we rarely discuss the art of screenwriting. I've certainly been guilty of this oversight, having written two columns about mobile applications and practices for aspiring/established novelists. Yet I myself received a B.A. in Film Studies and took three years of screenwriting, learning the nuts and bolts of storytelling—plot points, character arcs, beats—from the likes of Robert McKee and Syd Field, rather than Strunk and White.

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Storyville: 8 Tips For Growing Your Brand

May 23rd, 2013

You’re an author, you write stories and novels, you’re starting to get published and people are talking about you. Now what? How do you grow your brand, how do you get your image and your writing out there? How do you get people to take you seriously? Start by taking yourself seriously, and here are some ways to do it.

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Behold The Unfilmable: Hyperion Cantos

May 22nd, 2013

I am a firm believer that doing something poorly can be worse than doing nothing at all. That is why I hope no one ever makes a movie out of Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. Please don't misunderstand.  I desperately wish it were possible to make a series of movies from the four books that I believe are the greatest space epics ever written. If it were done well, it could be fantastic. It's just the "done well" part that worries me. Here are four reasons why The Hyperion Cantos should remain un-filmed.

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Rejection: A Critical Device

May 22nd, 2013

Most writers who publish with any regularity are familiar with the soul crushing experience of sending out a story, only to see it systematically rejected by ten, twenty, fifty publications at a stretch.

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Let's Face It, We All Live In The Same Creative Ghetto

May 21st, 2013

Writing about or from personal experience is rewarded more in many writing programs than “imagined” experience” or genre. Some of the critics of genre fiction in workshops believe genre fiction is easier to write, requires less imagination, and is not as “serious” as literary fiction.

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