Columns

Writing a Novel With Save the Cat!

June 13th, 2019

There is no right way or wrong way to write a novel. All you have to do, as Neil Gaiman once said, is “Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.” But even though there is only one way to write a novel – actually writing it – there are multiple strategies for plotting your novel. Outline? No outline? Pantser? Methodical plotter?

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What Does It take to Get a Job in Publishing?

June 11th, 2019

Photo by Tim Gouw In the summer of 2012, I got an internship at W.W. Norton & Co., a privately-owned publishing company in New York City, known for their anthologies and critical editions. To a girl who grew up reading books in a small town in Pennsylvania, moving to the “biggest” city (Philadelphia was the “big” city) to work in books was the most exciting dream-come-true.

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What Joy Williams and Denis Johnson Can Teach Us About the Art of First Sentences

June 7th, 2019

Author photos: Curtis Brown, Cindy Johnson Human beings are shaped by their environments as much as they shape their environments. So, too, do the first sentences of short stories shape the stories themselves, as much as they are shaped by their stories.

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5 Lessons Fiction Writers Can Learn From Video Games

June 6th, 2019

Images via Jeshoots and rawpixel I’ve been playing video games about as long as I’ve been a writer, and for several years I was in the game industry — as a tester, designer, and writer.

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How I Did an Unintentional Book Tour Without a Budget

June 5th, 2019

I never thought I'd do anything even remotely resembling a book tour. I'm a broke writer published by a no-budget indie press. Then, somehow, I found myself on the road, despite my lack of funds. And it isn't over—I have a few more stops scheduled before then end of the year. Here are some tips for those of you wanting to do the same.

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8 Superb Books to Celebrate Rainbow Book Month

June 4th, 2019

In 2015, the American Library Association started GLBT Book Month: a nationwide celebration of authors and books that explore the experiences of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. As of 2020, GLBT Book Month was renamed Rainbow Book Month™, in coordination with the Rainbow Round Table's name change in 2019.

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The Most Nonsensical Terms Used in Book Blurbs

June 3rd, 2019

In a big first for me, this column was inspired by something positive. I was browsing books, and I saw this blurb on the back of Dathan Auerbach’s Bad Man: Cleanup on aisle 9: Bad Man will make a mess of your daily life, will haunt your next trip to the grocery store. And then you’ll want to reread it, just to see how Dathan Auerbach did that. And you’ll be scared all over again. -Stephen Graham Jones

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The Importance of Work in Translation

May 31st, 2019

I love work in translation. I consider myself lucky because I can read in English and Spanish, opening the door to not one, but two amazing literary universes. From Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote to Bram Stoker's Dracula, I've been able to read classic works of literature in their original language. That said, my Portuguese is decent, but not decent enough to devour novels, and my Italian is that of a one-year old. I don't speak or read Russian or Japanese or Greek.

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Why I Love YA Rom Coms

May 31st, 2019

Being the guy who wrote Horror Film Poems, most people would think my go-to genre for books and movies would be horror. They’d be right, but a close second would be young adult romantic comedies—hell, rom coms in general—but YA especially. I guess I just really like seeing young people get killed or fall in love, or if it’s a dramedy—both.

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Summer Reading for Writers

May 30th, 2019

Photo by Laura Stanley Summer reading is always associated with relaxation and fun: beach reads, vacation reads—none of those epithets imply a lot of work or effort. But for a writer, reading is never just fun (though it’s that too), it’s an opportunity to learn something new about the craft.

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