Primer: Why it Works

primer movie explained

A series in which I oversimplify one concept from a work of literature to make you a better writer. Time Travel Time travel sucks as a genre. It’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Yes, the whole genre. Everyone knows about the grandfather paradox: if you travel back in time and kill your … Read more

The Lord of the Rings: Why it Works

lord of the rings

A series in which I oversimplify one concept from a work of literature to make you a better writer. Corruption The ring corrupts everyone. Quite early on, we learn that Frodo, our hero, is not immune to the corrupting effects. This becomes one of the greatest sources of tension. Will Frodo be able to destroy the … Read more

8 Mystery Novels to Break Into the Genre

mystery novels

This post is a roundup of all the mystery novels I read for the year. If you’re looking for the best mystery books for adults, here’s what I came up with along with my thoughts on them.

The Prose of J.K. Rowling

prose of jk rowling

Even her books for adults, written under the name Robert Galbraith, have terrible prose style. Her sentences contain missing clauses, poor construction, confused tense and point of view, imprecise descriptions, and poor word choice. This article analyzes the prose style of J.K. Rowling.

My 2017 Reading Awards

2017 reading awards

As usual, I’m going to do a best of 2017 books list. This does not mean the book came out in 2017; it means I read it this year. According to Goodreads, I read 55 books. Of course, many of those were novellas, and probably a dozen I listened to while on long runs training … Read more

Literature is for the Other

literature is for the other

I’ve decided to end my silence by responding to a recent Tor article by Liz Bourke entitled Sleeps With Monsters: On the Question of Quality. I have one main beef with it, and it comes as a fundamental misunderstanding of the importance of literature. But before I get to that, I want to address a … Read more

Tenth of December by George Saunders Analyzed

tenth of december saunders

Today we dive into the short fiction of George Saunders through his collection Tenth of December. Saunders made it in the literary world on short fiction alone. He might be the only person I know of to do this. His first novel came out earlier this year and that was twenty-one years after his first … Read more

Examining Steven Erikson’s Prose

steven erikson prose style

Today we’ll look at some prose from Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon. It is both some of the best fantasy prose writing I’ve seen and one of the most original and captivating fantasy novels I’ve read. I’m kind of in awe of it still. I’ve come across so many passages I wanted to use for … Read more

Sentence Length: Writing Fundamentals 4

sentence length

I was all set this week to get away from the negative critiques of fundamental errors I keep finding. I wanted to discuss the prose of Steven Erikson, because Gardens of the Moon is one of the best fantasy books I’ve ever read. But each week, it seems I find a new candidate for the worst … Read more

Jacques Derrida: Differance Analyzed

derrida postmodern reading

Today we will do a critical postmodern reading on Jacques Derrida’s theory of Differance. This series hasn’t been as rough as I’ve expected this far. The first few parts showed some of the classic postmodernists to be clearer and more prescient than many give them credit for. This changes all that. Derrida is rough going. … Read more