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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 →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 →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 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.
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