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Showing 3541 Columns
Showing 3541 Columns
August 7th, 2023
Images via Cottonbro Studio & Pixabay Previously on Megan: my job as a professional writer was eliminated in favor of utilizing ChatGPT. I was moved to a more admin/technical role for two months. Then I was laid off.
Read Column →August 4th, 2023
Header images via pixabay 1, 2, 3 Celebrities are walking out of premieres, writers are striking all up and down the streets, and now real writers, book writers (take that, Hollywood!) are getting in on the anti-AI action.
Read Column →August 3rd, 2023
I just finished up my fourth grad school residency, and I don’t know how to process it. Truly. I have no idea where to start.
Read Column →August 1st, 2023
Header image by Sierra Koder via Pexels This summer, I’ve been trying to relax—a concept I’m still learning to wrap my head around, admittedly—but one way I’ve decided to do that is to read a bunch of witchy, supernatural middle-grade/ YA graphic novels that bring me joy and make me smile. I wanted a who-will-take-me-to-prom dilemma or does-the-cute-barista-girl-like-me kind of problem.
Read Column →July 31st, 2023
Photo by Markus Spiske via Pexels I know I’m in for an interesting night when an older woman breaks off from a prayer circle as I approach the line waiting to get into the Town Council meeting, and I see it’s my former landlord. Imagine every stereotype fed to you through basic cable reality shows about well-to-do Southern ladies, right down to the dyed blond hair, and you’ll see her.
Read Column →July 27th, 2023
Writing books is fun. Selling them, THAT SUCKS. For the littler authors among us, it's pathetic. It feels like you’re pushing copies on friends and family too nice to say no, maybe a handful of other writers, and when it comes to reaching a wide audience of people who don’t write themselves and don’t have a biological connection to you, it’s hard to escape the gross feeling of asking someone to spend their hard-earned money on your book about a paranormal investigator who’s terrible at his job.
Read Column →July 26th, 2023
Today we are going to talk about depression and how writing and filtering those emotions into your fiction can be cathartic. But before we get into this, obviously, if you are in a crisis state, and are suicidal, or are hurting yourself, please get help. I do not want you taking on your depression in your fiction if it’s going to backfire or trigger you. Let's continue.
Read Column →July 21st, 2023
Imagine Ray Bradbury drunk flame trolling on Twitter. J.R.R. Tolkien stitching a TikTok video to dunk on a reviewer that one-star reviewed The Silmarillion. Agatha Christie starting a private Discord Server just to make fun of industry professionals. We have set the bar really low these days.
Read Column →July 20th, 2023
Maybe you’ve seen a rad space marine figurine on a friend’s desk, or stumbled across one of the many books featuring the massive armored warriors on the cover, and your curiosity has been sparked. What is Warhammer 40,000? What are these giants fighting about? You want to know more, and I’m here to tell you there is a lot more to know.
Read Column →July 19th, 2023
Photos by Peter Derk When this column started, it was mostly about the unusual formats B.S. Johnson used to tell stories: cut-outs mid-story, shuffled chapters, and other oddities. This was an idea I pitched before I knew Johnson died by suicide. Whenever you look into a writer who died by suicide, when you know how the writer’s story ended, you look at his work through his ghost, a barely-there image that hovers over each page.
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