Rainbow Rowell, brilliant YA writer, uses intertextuality (or something) in her novel Fangirl to lend dimension to romantic relationships, deepen thematic elements, and increase the novel’s sense of realism. Me? I just sit here trying to figure out if intertextuality is the right word for what she did there.
After I forgot a perfectly good idea for a blog post I wanted to write, I revisited my relationship with the humble notebook. From sharpening powers of observation to protecting ideas from oblivion, the writers’ notebook is an under-appreciated tool that can strengthen your writing practice. So whatever, Stephen King.
Westworld Season 2 is a lot like Season 1: Philosophical themes, intricate plot lines, and (dare I say?) excessive violence. And while I’m loving the show overall (because robots), there are a few things about the writing this season that are really throwing me off. Is it just me, or have the monologues really gone too far?
I’ve recently lapsed slightly in my general pessimism, and it’s scaring me (optimists are inscrutable, and I’m not sure I can handle being one). Lately, I’ve been thinking about what it would be like to write for a living (be still my heart), to carve a freelance path for myself in the world of content […]
Last week, a co-worker bounded into my office and said, “Hey! You like books! Wanna not sleep for like two weeks? Read this.” On it she’d stuck a bright pink post-it note: “Here’s some nightmare fuel.” It took me a few minutes to connect the book I was holding with Michelle McNamara. A few more […]
Before I started reading through the first draft of my first novel, I thought I’d be spending the next few months editing and perfecting my novel. That’s what second drafts are for, right? Wrong.
Now that I’ve started, I’ve realized that this first run-through of my first draft isn’t an edit: it’s a total rewrite.
In his poem somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond, ee cummings uses word choice, theme, and figurative language to describe love. Specifically, he explores the inexplicable nature of love, and the failure of language to fully convey a complicated and mysterious experience.
Pro·cras·ti·na·tion You can tell the procrastination is legit today because I took the time to look up how the word was split up phonetically and then copy and pasted it here. Because procrastination. But first I tried for like five minutes to remember how to split the word up myself. Because procrastination. There are some […]
I know a few things about Kazuo Ishiguro. One is that he won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. Two is that I love his books, especially Never Let Me Go and Remains of the Day (and even enjoy his short stories, see my analysis of “A Village After Dark”). And three, unfortunately, is that […]
There are so many reasons to love Harry Potter. The characters, the settings, the themes, the dialogue, the originality, etc. One of the aspects of the series that sets it apart is the intergenerational narrative: the backstory of Harry’s parents’ generation, Albus Dumbledore’s family, and Tom Riddle’s upbringing. JK Rowling is a master of backstory (and also, everything.)