March 5, 2019
On Novels that Span a Lifetime
There’s a famous theory (attributed to Aristotle, though in reality the result of misinterpretations of his work made by Renaissance humanists) that a good tragedy should follow the three unities, […]
November 6, 2018
On Titles
It’s always amusing to read about the original titles of famous novels. A few years ago an infographic from Jonkers Rare Books made the rounds on the Internet and revealed […]
August 6, 2018
On Beginnings
Last week, I discussed endings, specifically screenwriter Michael Arndt’s theory of endings as they applied to works of literary fiction. In addition to his video on endings, Arndt’s website also […]
July 30, 2018
On Endings
In 2014, when I was still entertaining hopes of being a screenwriter as well as a fiction writer, I went to the Austin Film Festival and heard a lecture on […]
July 10, 2018
On a Novel’s First Line
Perhaps it’s the economic realities of trying to publish literary fiction in an age of late capitalism, or perhaps it’s simply our culture’s diminishing attention span, but the first line […]
March 16, 2017
Designing Women on Writing (and Teaching)
Growing up in Jackson, Mississippi, I sort of thought that I would be a preacher, a plastic surgeon, or a Supreme Court Justice. All of these were concessions, though, after […]
October 11, 2013
Skyscrapers of Light
In 1938, Westinghouse buried a time capsule in a section of Queens described as a “valley of ashes” in The Great Gatsby. The time capsule was supposed to contain a […]
May 23, 2011
Short Takes: Shapes of the Masters
Why Salinger looks like a knotty tangle, and Woolf a bunch of loose rectangles. The posthumous secret to happiness–or, at least, free will. (Sort of.) Getting work out there can […]