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Laptop image via Karina Zhukovskaya

Writing is hard. We all know that already. In addition to writing, there is everything that comes with it: marketing, establishing an online presence and managing it, growing an audience, and more. Many writers grow their audience through various means, including newsletters, convention appearances, bookstore signings, and their social media presence.

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Laura Miller’s dirty, hit-job review of Chuck Palahniuk's Diary started all this.

In 2003 Miller reviewed Diary for Salon. And the review was so foul that in a rare, unprecedented, and unrepeated, move, Chuck Palahniuk himself responded to Miller’s critique: 

I have never responded to a review, perhaps because I've never gotten such a cruel and mean-spirited one.

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When it comes to playwriting, I’m a late bloomer. I wrote my first stageplay, “Winnie,” an adaptation of my own short story, in 2016. At that point, I’d been writing prose for twelve years. During the process of adaptation, I realized I needed to get a better handle on playwriting “grammar.” I looked into playwriting classes and found the Dramatists Guild Institute (DGI). I saw that DGI was offering a 2-day workshop for playwrights in Los Angeles and signed up.

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I’ve admittedly never read Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel High Fidelity, though the film adaptation from 2000 has long been a favorite of mine. John Cusack manages to charm as main character Rob even though he is thoroughly, as Liz (played by Cusack’s sister Joan) calls him in the film, a “fucking asshole.” But he learns not to be a fucking asshole throughout the narrative, or at least, less of one. Jack Black’s turn as Barry is easily his finest hour as a comedic actor (save maybe his guest appearance on Community).