Columns

The Top 10 Book to Film Adaptations That Were Actually Good

December 29th, 2011

Original image by Bence Szemerey As the years go by and Hollywood becomes more and more bereft of ideas, filmmakers are increasingly turning to the literary world for inspiration. This is not a new phenomenon of course: anybody reading this column can probably remember jumping into a conversation about the latest blockbuster by looking down your horn-rimmed glasses and intoning, ever so smugly: “…but the book was way better!”

Read Column →

The Changing Character

December 29th, 2011

Here’s a question I hear a lot in writing workshops: do characters have to “change” throughout the course of the narrative? Do they have to learn something or evolve in some way by the story’s end? Or can they just continue unfettered, behaving the same as before?

Read Column →

Why Even Ayn Rand Can Teach You Something About Writing

December 28th, 2011

Original photo public domain, via Wikipedia Here is a beautiful coincidence: my eBook version of Ayn Rand's lectures on The Art of Fiction has a typo that tells you everything you could wish to know about what makes a poor writer. See if you can spot it: Literature is an art form which uses language as its toot.

Read Column →

Top 10 Things We'd Like to See in the 'American Psycho' Remake

December 28th, 2011

Recently, we covered a story about the American Psycho remake—an idea that, initially, I was strongly against.  First of all, it’s only been about ten years.  Why remake something that isn’t all that old?  Secondly: why remake something that was done right the first time?  Seriously, who’s going to do a better Bateman than Christian Bale?  And how can you take him out of the 80’s?  Patrick Bateman

Read Column →

Merits of Other Mediums: Going Beyond Books to Improve Your Craft

December 27th, 2011

It's the age old question: “What advice do you have for aspiring writers?”  Considering how difficult it is to crack the publishing industry, one would hope for some kind of grand reveal or “trick,” so to speak.  However, the advice authors give is usually two-fold and frustratingly simplistic.  The first is to write a lot, although that would appear to be common sense as the vocation calls for you to do this.  We could generalize that to pretty much anything. 

Read Column →

Five Free-to-Air Apps and Services to Make Your Writing Life Easier

December 27th, 2011

Let's face it: it's been a tough year. In a few days, normal life is going to reassert itself, with its dayjobs and daily writing deadlines, its endless succession of bills to pay. You're probably worse off than you were this time last year, and the seasonal festivities, alcohol abuse, and gift-giving have put a mean dent in your pocketbook. Times are hard. Money's too tight to mention. (Insert your own recession clichés here; it's either that, or I do my Howard-Beale-in-Network impersonation, and no one needs to see that.)

Read Column →

Book Brawl: Tina Fey’s 'Bossypants' Vs. Mindy Kaling’s 'Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)'

December 22nd, 2011

Every month, I throw two books, somehow related, into the readers’ ring to fight it out for the honor of literary champion. This month we’ve got memoirs from two sassy, hilarious leading ladies on the NBC Thursday night comedy lineup: Tina Fey’s Bossypants and Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? Who will take the title? Let’s find out!

Read Column →

The Dark Side Of The Publishing Industry: How To Avoid Scams

December 22nd, 2011

In every industry there are amazing people who are full of passion, dedication and honesty. And then there are scumbags looking to prey on your hopes and dreams so that they can separate you from your wallet. For our purposes, I want to talk about the Nigerian 419 scammers of the publishing industry—the vanity presses, the fake literary agents, and the scam contests—all designed to inflate your ego just enough so you don’t notice their hand in your pocket.

Read Column →

The Art of the Live Reading

December 21st, 2011

As with most things writing-related, live reading is a skill acquired through practice, and doesn't come easy.  In fact, the ratio of how much you write compared to how much you read your own stuff aloud is probably completely slanted. But that’s okay.  That’s what we're here to discuss.  So let’s start off by getting the obvious part out of the way.

Read Column →

Putting An End To Plot Conveniences

December 21st, 2011

Header images via Andrea Piacquadio & DLKR One common mistake in fiction writing can be illustrated with a story I once submitted for an MFA workshop. In my story, the main character is constantly tormented by an older, bullying acquaintance.

Read Column →