The Millions
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Mary Gaitskill Procrastinates Too
For The Millions, Chelsea Voulgares talks to Mary Gaitskill about her new novel The Mare and how to establish productive writing habits: I’m not consistent like some people seem to be. Sometimes I don’t write at all. If I’m not really working on…
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Cutting a Long Story Short
November is here, and with it #NaNoWriMo returns! But if you don’t feel like writing 50,000 words in thirty days, over at The Millions Michael Bourne has another option for you, #NaGrafWriMo: …we would like to propose a kinder, gentler alternative to NaNoWriMo,…
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Adventures Are Overrated
For The Millions, Bill Morris wonders what value adventures and life experiences have on writing good fiction. While at first Morris is convinced that adventure is necessary to write quality work, Flannery O’Connor’s Mystery and Manners convinces him that travel and exploring the…
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Shakespeare Reprised
When a piece of art inspires you, it literally in-spires, breaths into you. It makes us want to create new art. Or, maybe it’s a more basic instinct. From the beginning of our lives, when we hear a good story,…
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Write What You Don’t Know
If we only write what we know, when do we get to use our imaginations? The Millions explores the art of writing things we don’t know.
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On Crossword Puzzles and Writing
Over at The Millions, author Christopher J. Yates discusses his affinity for crossword puzzles and how it affects his use of language in his writing: It feels to me that staring at the blank page is a lot like staring…
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Lisbon: A City in Amber
Soares notes a longing for a past moment in Lisbon, for an unnamed soul who he has missed. “I love you as ships passing one another must love, feeling an unaccountable nostalgia in their passing.” … To call Lisbon a…
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Does Music “Unleash Latent Genius”?
For The Millions, Jacob Lambert explores how listening to music while writing can influence performance. Although some studies show that music may impede concentration and “disrupt writing fluency,” others suggest that music can “lift your mood and increase your arousal.” Lambert…
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Strunk & White: The Grammar Police
It’s “whom,” motherfucker. William Strunk and E.B. White’s The Elements of Style is foundational reading for most aspiring writers. But you’ve never seen it like this. Go check out your new favorite unpublished screenplay, “Strunk & White: The Grammar Police.”
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Judging the Judges
This year’s judges of the National Book Award seem to agree that women’s nonfiction writing is abundant and prize-worthy. The 2015 nonfiction longlist includes seven female-authored books, out of 10, the largest percentage of female nominees in the prize’s history.…
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Summer Swimmer’s Lament
Over at The Millions, Nick Ripatrazone dives into John Cheever’s “The Swimmer,” a story with well-deserved fame in the literary community, exemplary of Cheever’s style and a perfect read with which to mourn summer’s end.
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Book Titles Made Easy
For The Millions, Janet Potter offers a “handy” guide to help authors come up with catchy titles for books at various stages in their careers. For those writing “the disappointing sophomore effort,” Potter advises: Get out your favorite album. Rank the…