Driving scenes are ubiquitous in movies, but some authors turn their noses at them in fiction. Unless the scene of two people side-by-side in a Toyota Camry is crucial to your story, most will suggest you trash it. I get why they happen in film: chronological, visual storytelling requires that the viewer see the character…
I’ll bet not a single editor in the world would encourage their authors to write from a second-person point of view. Many publishers and editors say the POV is wearing, potentially confusing, repetitive and not worth the trouble. But, come on, is it really that bad? After all, it’s as natural to our self-expression as…
Pay close enough attention, and you’ll notice that many writers have themes they return to. Stephen King writes frequently about weak characters who are victims of stronger ones. Jodi Picoult writes about family issues, often involving a court of law. Then there’s Fredrik Backman, a Swedish author who comes back to the theme of belonging,…
By now, you probably know that unicorns and Santa Claus aren’t real, but wouldn’t it be great if they were? The human mind loves to believe in the unusual and unlikely. Some still believe that the crop circles of the 1990s were made by extra-terrestrials, even though the pranksters who made them have long since…
Since Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl hit shelves in 2012, novels about manipulative women have been a big hit with publishers and readers. Frequently domestic thrillers where the women go missing or are involved in a murder after an issue at home. It’s not the first or last time that the publishing industry takes a single idea…
A tale woven with a messy upbringing, social awkwardness, and past trauma, Catherine Lacey’s The Answers is about Mary Parsons, a woman who takes part in a romantic social experiment for pay. By the novel’s end, the reader, as well as the protagonist, must confront the relationship between love, science, and reality. While these are…
An American Marriage is a book about the unexpected devastation of a family. Celestial is a young newlywed dreaming of life with her husband, Roy. That future is ripped away from them unexpectedly when Roy, a young black man, is wrongfully accused and convicted of rape. With less than two years of marriage under their…
“Everyone knows this can happen,” is the first sentence of Joan Silber’s incredible—and award-winning—2017 novel, Improvement. It’s the sort of opening that lures in the reader. The eye reaches for the next words that will define the “it,” and that word “happen,” suggests a story right from the get go. What, we ask? What do…
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