Columns
Showing 3525 Columns
Showing 3525 Columns
October 14th, 2011
Author photo by John Gress, used with permission. So the main course of my trip to Portland was to interview Chuck Palahniuk for the release of Damned (tune in next week for that). But the dessert was being invited to sit in on one of the most coveted writing groups in the country, if not the planet. Yes, THAT writing group. The one that has given us Chuck, Lidia Yuknavitch, Monica Drake, Chelsea Cain, etc… all published and polished authors who have the collective insight, experience, and divergent POVs to make any noob w
Read Column →October 13th, 2011
Photo by hisks When I sit down to write, several things can happen: 1) A brilliant idea I've been holding on to with a mental death grip slips away the moment I set my fingers on the keyboard, and I’m left wondering what was so great about the idea in the first place. 2) I furiously whip out five or six ideas that I have been cooking up, but they all come out unfinished, still soft in the middle.
Read Column →October 12th, 2011
Original photo via Free Images Every month I'm going to talk about obscure books. Neglected books. Novels not enough people have read, for instance, or books that were once popular but have fallen out of critical favor. I'm not going to pretend to be objective here; the point is to get a dialogue going about books we just don't talk about anymore.
Read Column →October 12th, 2011
Given this is a column about writing craft, it’s inevitable that sooner or later we’re going to have to discuss point of view. At its core, P.O.V. is an issue of perspectives. The mode of narration you choose fundamentally alters how your story will be received.
Read Column →October 11th, 2011
Image via Free Images Whether you’re looking to make it big with a book you’re sure is a best-seller, or you’re just interested in breaking through with a few bylines in lit journals that your mother can frame and put on the 'fridge, one of the biggest hurdles is to know where to even send your work--and when.
Read Column →October 10th, 2011
I asked for your questions about all things publishing last week and you delivered, LitReactors! This week I'm answering two of the most frequently asked questions I received as an agent and continue to receive as a consultant. As always, I give you my best counsel, straight up.
Read Column →October 7th, 2011
Header via Free Images Change is afoot in the publishing industry. Stories about self-pubbed authors making big money have been all over the papers... well, all over the websites of the papers, at least. Stephen Leather! Amanda Hocking! GP Taylor!
Read Column →October 7th, 2011
Original Shakespeare portrait via Wikipedia Commons, public domain All author photos via Wikipedia Commons, public domain Hero worship is a dangerous proposition, especially in literature. Writers are a notoriously temperamental bunch, and few are suited to a Brad Pitt level of public scrutiny. By putting your favorite author on a pedestal, you are setting yourself up for disappointment should you ever choose to peer behind the curtain.
Read Column →October 6th, 2011
Allow me to preface my own megillah: this series is one that focuses on the best effort to tell a story. If a film adaptation is awful, I'm going to tell you. If the book is awful, I'm going to tell you. Perhaps both--reach into recent history and I'm sure you can recall both terrible novels and their ungodly film versions. Think: vampire. If the source material and the film are wildly different, I'm definitely going to tell you. But the story itself is my concern. Sound good? Let’s do this. Beyond here be spoilers.
Read Column →October 5th, 2011
Original Photo by Gerhard Lipold As writers, we’re constantly told to avoid the cliché. MFA programs in particular indoctrinate an almost Pavlovian shock response against it; workshops introduce a wearingly familiar ritual where even the most minor characters are raked over the literary coals if they fail to achieve Hazel Motes levels of compelling. To an extent the witch-hunt is justified.
Read Column →Sign up for a free video lesson and learn how to make readers care about your main character.