Columns

UPDATED WITH WINNER: LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown: July Edition

July 31st, 2013

Flash Fiction: A style of fictional literature marked by extreme brevity - Dante Edition Welcome to LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown, a monthly bout of writing prowess. How It Works We give you inspiration in the form of a picture, poem, video, or similar. You write a flash fiction piece, using the inspiration we gave you. Put your entry in the comments section. One winner will be picked and awarded a prize.

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Is it the Fourth or the 4th of July?: Formatting Numbers in Your Writing

July 30th, 2013

Header via FreeImages Is it July Fourth? Or is it July 4th? Is it The Roaring Twenties? Or is it The Roaring 20s? Is your apartment on the first or the 1st floor? Am I thirty-one or 31? When should I spell out a number and when should I use the numerals?

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5 Things You Shouldn't Say to Authors

July 30th, 2013

When I released my first novel back in 2008, I noticed a definitive shift in my conversations, now that I had gone from aspiring writer to published author. Having a book out was considered cool...certainly cooler than some office job or taking customer service calls. To write and publish a book was viewed as an accomplishment, so naturally, there were some instances in which said accomplishment was coveted by others...some even going as far as to trivialize it.

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Write Like a Girl (or Guy)

July 29th, 2013

If all the characters you create talk exactly like you do, no one but your mom is going to want to read your book—and maybe not even her if you haven't called recently. That's why you need to understand how to write dialogue that sounds authentic, even when your character differs from you when it comes to their age, region, education level, social status, background, personality, and/or gender. Each of these factors plays a role in how a person (real or fictional) speaks, and you need to consider all of them to make your characters’ dialogue sound truly legit.

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Book Brawl! Family Feud: Helter Skelter vs. The Family

July 26th, 2013

In the near corner - Helter Skelter, by Vincent Bugliosi (with Curt Gentry). In the far corner – The Family, by Ed Sanders. Yes, sports fans, it’s a family feud – the Manson Family.

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Chainsaw Hands and Fishbowl Hearts: The Ultimate Introduction to Bizarro Fiction

July 26th, 2013

For nearly fifteen years, a handful of independent presses have specialized in publishing weird, awesome fiction reminiscent of cult films like Eraserhead, Jan Svankmajer’s Alice, Videodrome, Tetsuo: the Iron Man, and The Toxic Avenger. These publishers, spearheaded by Eraserhead Press, wanted fiction that was surreal but not surrealist, dark but not quite horror, futuristic but not science fictional, fantastical but not fantasy, unusually written but not necessarily experimental. They wanted weird movies in prose.

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It's Made Of SCIENCE: Writing Characters That Are Smarter Than You

July 25th, 2013

When I was about nine or ten, I had gotten myself involved in playing the Pokemon card game at the local Books-a-Million. I remember observing a match between two boys of the same age, and one of the players whipped out a Pikachu card. This wasn't the normal Pikachu card; it was special, with unique art, abilities, and a little star logo. It was a promo card included with a magazine subscription. But I couldn't place the word "promo." I knew it was an "-omo" word. What was a common -omo word I had heard at school?

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Tigers and Telepaths: An Alfred Bester Primer

July 25th, 2013

Alfred Bester is one of those icons of science fiction who isn’t widely known outside of genre enthusiasts, and yet he’s a writer who deserves more recognition. Though his output wasn’t as voluminous as some of his contemporaries, the works that he left behind are solid masterpieces of science fiction. The Demolished Man won the first Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. The Stars My Destination didn’t receive any awards, but is perhaps his most accomplished and appreciated work.

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Best Practices When Dealing With File Types

July 24th, 2013

LitReactor is a writer's community, so it's likely most if not all of you have submitted a story for publication in a lit journal or magazine in the past. This also means, unfortunately, there's a good chance you've run into some mind-numbing formatting issues, specifically maintaining your manuscript's prettiness when dealing with multiple file types. See, every editor requires you send them the format they most trust and use.

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Pond or Ocean: A Review of 'Ocean at the End of the Lane' by Neil Gaiman

July 24th, 2013

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman’s first adult novel since 2006's Anansi Boys. Ocean draws from Gaiman’s childhood, telling the story of a man who returns to the place he used to live on the day of a funeral. He finds himself at an old farmhouse looking out over a pond there and thinking how Lettie Hempstock, a girl he used to know, referred to it as “the ocean.” This precipitates a journey back through memory to a time when he was seven years old and first encountered Lettie and her strange family.

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