Columns

The Blagger's Guide to Ayn Rand

October 25th, 2012

To blag (v): to sound like you know what you’re talking about when you don’t The Blagger’s Guide to Literature (n): an invaluable resource for those who wish to blag about books without actually reading them.

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Storyville: Dynamic Settings

October 25th, 2012

This column is going to be all about setting. How much is too much, how much is too little? How can I advance the plot, reveal character and ground my story in reality? How do I work all of the senses into my story without feeling like I’m just cramming those details in? How do I make it feel real? I’ll talk about all of these things and what setting means to me, as well as how I work it into my own writing. So let’s get started.

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Understanding the Objective Correlative

October 24th, 2012

Theme is tricky business. A story has to be about something, but if you litter the page with obvious thematic cues your writing could come across as didactic and heavy-handed. Getting those big, universal ideas across without “pointing” the reader toward them, or otherwise producing something that reads like an instruction manual, takes a lot of finesse. It’s easier said than done.

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The 3 Most Popular Editorial Services and Do You Need Them?

October 24th, 2012

Header image via Pexels Three years ago I headed toward the ‘advice for writers’ shelf at Barnes and Noble. I was beginning my research on advice for writers as I was finally leaving my literary agent mantle behind and making my casual role as publishing counsel official. I was and wasn’t shocked to discover the genre had exploded. I felt as though I was seeing, at the very least, double the titles that were offered a mere five years before.

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The DCU New 52 - One Year Later

October 23rd, 2012

Last year DC “flipped the table” by doing a line-wide relaunch of all its books, generally referred to as The New 52 (or a million variations thereof).  DC's relaunch started everything over at #0, including Detective Comics, which had been published monthly since 1937 and was almost at 900 issues, making it the longest ongoing comic in the U.S.  It was a bold move-- and I like bold moves-- but ultimately it didn’t work for me, and I'm going to try my best to explain why.

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Up Close and Personal: A Personality Expose of the Personal Essay

October 23rd, 2012

What is a Personal Essay? You probably have a pretty good idea of what an essay is, but if you want to get all technical about it, the word essay has a couple of meanings:

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Recap: The Walking Dead 3.02 - Sick

October 22nd, 2012

Beware spoilers.  The problem with adaptations is that, if you're familiar with the source material, it's hard to buy into the tension. Good writing or a skilled director can sweep you up in the on-screen action, but it's easy to sit there and wait for the next thing you know is coming. 

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Truly SINISTER - The Ten Best True Crime Books

October 22nd, 2012

Sinister is in theaters this month, a horror film telling the story of Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke), a true crime author who moves his family into a house where despicable crimes were once committed. As one might expect, that’s a bad idea. The scares quickly escalate, but Oswalt is so committed to following up his last best-seller with something important, what he calls his In Cold Blood, that he’s not going anywhere until he gets his story.

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Should Some Books Be Banned?

October 19th, 2012

Banned Books Week is over for another year. Did you strike a blow for freedom and read a banned book? I didn’t. The temptation in any article about book banning is to go all Listverse and lay out the top ten for readers' aghast inspection. Look around the web and that’s about the level of the debate: lists plus maybe a commentary on some obvious idiocies -- a Dr Seuss book banned because it advocates suicide, Black Beauty banned in South Africa during apartheid because the authorities believed it promoted miscegenation.

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Creating Your Literary Foundation

October 18th, 2012

Countless authors, regardless of bestselling status; regardless of traditional or self-published success; regardless of education; regardless of class, race, sex, or politics; will boil down the best writing advice you'll ever receive to - read, write, repeat.  Truly, to understand the art of fiction, essay and memoir at its core; to write well; you must have an intense relationship with prose. Reading must be your true love; writing, your love letter.   Recently, I received this question from a LitReactor:

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