Columns

A Real Monster: Writing About People You Know

February 15th, 2012

When I was a teenage boarding school student, there was a man working at my school to whom I looked up — a hell of a lot. I looked up to him so much that when he was fired for "inappropriate behavior" I felt as though my understanding of the world had cracked. It was that serious. When you're sixteen, and someone you admire turns out to not to be perfect (and in this case, he turns out to be a man who acts on the urge to touch vulnerable boys), your life can change for good.

Read Column →

What You Can Learn From Ronald Reagan: A Primer On Love Letters

February 14th, 2012

Digging through some old papers recently, I found a pile of love letters I’d received over the years from old boyfriends, a few admirers, and one guy who could have been considered a stalker. As expected, most of them were pretty bad—riddled with spelling errors and mushy sentiments. I do remember actively mocking a few of the letters with my friends, which, in hindsight, was totally undeserved by the writer. Rereading a few of them, something else occurred to me—they were sincere and brave!

Read Column →

LURID: My Top 10 Bloody Valentines

February 14th, 2012

Image via Arianna Jade LURID: vivid in shocking detail; sensational, horrible in savagery or violence, or, a twice-monthly guide to the merits of the kind of Bad Books you never want your co-workers to know you're reading. Happy Valentine's Day! Whether you currently count yourself as a lover, or not, today's thoughts naturally turn to that biggest of Big Questions: what is Love, anyway?

Read Column →

The Top 10 Fictional Antiheroes

February 10th, 2012

What makes a character an antihero? Certainly, he must be a protagonist who doesn’t display traditionally heroic traits, but there must be more. The reader must truly root for the character; we must be drawn to him despite ourselves. Perhaps his motivations are impure, his choices unconventional, but ultimately he must possess a certain allure that ignites our sympathy and engages our interest. The antihero is complex and unknowable, and because of that, he is fascinating in ways a pure hero or villain could never be.

Read Column →

Behold! The Unfilmable: David Mitchell's 'Cloud Atlas'

February 10th, 2012

I can picture Don LaFontaine doing voice-over from the big vocal booth in the sky:

Read Column →

The Myth of Writer’s Block

February 9th, 2012

Header images via DS Stories & Magda Ehlers You know what’s annoying? I can’t pick up a book devoted to writing craft or peruse an online literary forum without reading something about writer’s block: testimonies from those who suffer from it, a historic of famous writers who’ve lived with the condition, and tips on how it can be overcome.

Read Column →

Un-Building Blocks: What to Do When You Can’t Do It

February 9th, 2012

Image via Free Images Just typing the sentence you are now reading is an act of will. That will is sometimes entirely absent. This condition is known as writers block.

Read Column →

Beyond the Zombie: Something Ominous is Missing from Horror Fiction

February 8th, 2012

My friend, Phil, claims to be afraid of nothing. When I ask what he means, he says that “vampires and werewolves and zombies have become the new Pokemon. And I hate the Pokemonization of monsters.”

Read Column →

The Curse of the Second Novel: Four Ways Not To Fuck Up Book Number Two

February 8th, 2012

If writing a book is hard, then writing a successful book is even harder. And if writing a successful book is a task akin to building the Eiffel Tower out of Jello and toothpicks while blindfolded, doing it your first time out has to be even harder still.

Read Column →

Ask The Lit Coach: "Is It Possible To Sell A Novel On Three Sample Chapters?"

February 6th, 2012

For this issue of Q&A with The Lit Coach, I'm answering a great question I received on Twitter.  Question from Glory S. in London, England What are the chances of getting a book deal based on a 3 chapter submission [and earning an advance] that pays for living expenses while finishing the book?

Read Column →