Why The F*ck Aren't You Reading Dan Chaon?

Why The F*ck Aren't You Reading Dan Chaon?

Why The F*ck Aren't You Reading? is a new feature where the columnist spotlights a writer who has a dedicated following and is well known within the writing community, but hasn't achieved the elephant-in-the-room style success of a Stephen King or Gillian Flynn—But they deserve to, dammit! Hopefully the column will help gain the author featured a few more well deserved readers.

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Disconnect: How Logging Off Helps Us Write On

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Disconnect: How Logging Off Helps Us Write On

You hop on your computer to write. Three hours later, you've written a whole lot—in Facebook posts, Twitter updates, forum posts, instant messages, and emails—but your story has moved along like a legless turtle. Sound familiar?

We could just disconnect from the web, but somehow having an active connection feels like a requirement for doing anything on a computer. Why do we rely on the internet so fully? How has this led us to “digital dependency”? And how can we get ourselves to log off so we can more effectively write on?

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Call It What It Is: The Hatred Directed At Lena Dunham Is Petty, Childish Bullshit

Call It What It Is: The Hatred Directed At Lena Dunham Is Petty, Childish Bullshit

Lena Dunham. Ah, Lena Dunham. Filmmaker, actress, writer. Subject of so much derision you'd think she spent her days throwing cats into airplane engines. When a new episode of Girls premieres, or we learn that Random House agrees to shell out $3.5 million for her first book, the internet goes apeshit. We're met with vociferous cries of:

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This is Not a Checklist: How to Write a Story

This is Not a Checklist: How to Write a Story

Some things to have taken into consideration while writing your story. Not rules, just after-the-fact guidelines.

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10 Reasons Why Dredd Is The Best Comic Book Movie Of 2012 You Didn't See

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10 Reasons Why Dredd Is The Best Comic Book Movie Of 2012 You Didn't See

It was tough to be a comic book movie in 2012 if your name wasn't Batman or The Avengers. Even poor Spider-Man didn't fare well in comparison. Because while The Avengers worldwide box office was over 1.5 billion, and Batman: The Dark Knight Rises was just over 1 billion, and even Spidey cracked an impressive 756 million, poor Dredd with its R-rating made a paltry 37 million (almost). But were The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Amazing Spider-Man really that much better than Dredd?

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Blogging: An Extension of Craft

Blogging: An Extension of Craft

Despite the occasional rumbling of blog fatigue on the internet, blogs remain a potentially effective way for aspiring writers to develop and share their voice and work. At best, a successful blogger holds their audience loyally captive with entertaining, inspiring or informative posts. The blog serves as a helpful tool to help showcase their unique perspective as well as highlight (note, not obnoxiously self-promote) other work they’ve placed in lit journals and online medias.

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The Blagger's Guide to Victor Hugo

The Blagger's Guide to Victor Hugo

To blag (v): to sound like you know what you’re talking about when you don’t.

The Blagger’s Guide to Literature (n): an invaluable resource for those who wish to blag about books without actually reading them.


Wait! The guy who wrote Les Mis was called Ewgo, not Hugo.

And this is why the Blagger’s Guide is the best and only way to avoid literary embarrassment. Hugo was French and that’s how you pronounce his name in his native tongue.

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Storyville: Researching The Best American Short Stories Anthology

Storyville: Researching The Best American Short Stories Anthology

NOTE: Everything I say about this anthology can probably be applied to other anthologies, annual and irregular, such as The Best American Mystery Stories, The Best American Non-required Reading, and others.

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