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May31
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"Greg Saloga glanced at the inert and writhing bodies around him and fell to his knees, letting out the most primal wail anyone had heard in a couple hundred thousand years. He covered his face and screamed into his hands, 'Why must I ... hurt?'" That's a dispatch from Larry Doyle's topsy-turvey high school novel, I Love You, Beth Cooper--where everybody, including the school bully, has an 80's-teenage-movie-style epiphany. Doyle has written for The New Yorker, The Simpsons, and HBO. Today, he's sharing some of his novel research and character design secrets with us. Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing. Jason Boog:
Who are the writers that inspire you? What are the writing resources,
websites, and tools you use?
Larry Doyle:
Writers I have stolen from: Charles Portis, Kurt Vonnegut, Donald Barthelme, Thomas Pynchon. Click here to continue reading...
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May31
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The Old Hag website is serializing an A.M. Homes essay. Ever since the Barbie Doll started talking in The Safety of Objects, I've always dug her casual, hallucinogenic style. Ed Champion just finished a 40-minute interview podcast with Homes herself.Book...
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May30
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"Heathbar was neo-Georgian, meaning it had red brick on the front. It was otherwise a 6,000-square-foot conglomeration of awful architectural ideas throughout history executed in 21st-century Vulgarian; chief among the offenses was a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bay window that cantilevered out...
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"I never bought beer before. I never went on a joyride, I mean, a reckless one; was never in a car accident; never, well, I've been beaten up, but never with that many spectators; never broke in anywhere; never skinny-dipped,...
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Did you realize you could save the life of your favorite book? The wonderful Words Without Borders blog has a story about two dedicated readers who founded a publishing company just to rescue one of their favorite novels from oblivion. In...
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May29
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"We regret, too, the no-children rule. Some of us feel that Children bring nothing but Joy to all occasions; others feel differently, and this is a discussion we’ve agreed to table until a later time. (Not too much later! Tick...
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Why should your new book just sit there? Why not take advantage of the web and create a new kind of reading experience? Earlier today we saw haw Larry Doyle built hypertext links for an essay in a normally paper-driven magazine--what...
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May28
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I love writing with music. I love wandering around New York City with my personal soundtrack playing in my head. For me, storytelling and music are wrapped up together. Today I'm listing my favorite, inspirational music videos for writers--chosen for...
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May25
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As magazine articles get shorter and shorter, what's the fledgling long-form journalist to do?According to Robert Boynton, New York University journalism professor and magazine writer, the answer is simple. Write a book.He should know--he's written for countless magazines, from The...
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Are you tired of visiting my site every day? Does your finger hurt from frantically refreshing the screen in order to catch my next thrilling post? I have a solution for you, my friend. This website, just most other blogs,...
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May24
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"So what really "killed" New Journalism? I would say it was the twin evils of all magazine journalism: service and sensationalism. As Weingarten notes, by the early 1970s, magazines like New York were beginning the long slide down toward "Top...
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Hip-hop pioneer Timbaland has taken digital storytelling to new places. He built a music video/comic book that actually works better in YouTube. Watch the short video, and pause the frames to read the comic book story that swims around the...
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May23
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"I don't think it's impossible for bloggers to write intelligent reviews. I do think, however, that a simple 'love' of reading (or movie-going or whatever) is an insufficient qualification for the job. That way often leads to cultishness (see the...
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Aggggghhhh! It finally happened. A publisher is taking solitary novelists like you and me and building a reality television show around scoring a book deal. Go visit The Ultimate Author if you think your literary brain can handle the camera....
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May22
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You'll uncover 500 hits if you google the phrase, "Don't go to journalism school."It's pretty common advice--the publishing, print, and journalism businesses are all being rocked by momentous changes. Today, I invited one of my favorite journalism professors to explain...
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John Coyne has some stern advice for Peace Corps writers who hope to publish a book. Print-on-demand (P.O.D.) authors of all stripes should listen very carefully. "It is tough to get anyone to read anything," he explains. Read Tom Bissell...
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I'm as excited as the next guy about the iPhone--Apple's new super-cell that is coming out in June--but CNET News just reported how the iPhone led some new media journalists down a rabbit hole last week.In the article, CNET News...
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May21
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If you only read one Five Easy Questions interview in your whole life, I recommend that you read this Five Easy Questions interview. Instead of hearing advice from one high-class journalist, today we will learn the secrets of four high-class...
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Litbloggers are buzzing about a LA Times article that declared book reviews should be left to professionals, where Richard Schickel wrote: "Criticism — and its humble cousin, reviewing — is not a democratic activity." That carefully calculated sentence will undoubtedly...
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May18
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Should you go back to school? Will having a graduate degree help you suceed in the world of journalism or creative writing? I studied journalism at the graduate program at New York University. The experience undoubtedly changed my life. You...
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If your book had a soundtrack, what would it be?Put your answers in the comments section. If you need some inspiration, check out Largehearted Boy's interview with Nick Mamatas. One of my favorite music bloggers connects with one of my...
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May17
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Another alumni from The Publishing Spot school of hard knocks has graduated to a 10,000 word cover story in the world's best adventure magazine. John Coyne noticed that our friend Tony D'Souza has been covering a nightmarish murder trial for...
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Do you want to discuss books with a video game character? According to Galleycat, Random House is promoting a new book club in the imaginary world of Second Life where hundreds of thousands of real-life people use digital representations of themselves,...
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May16
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You have only 23 words to grab somebody's attention in Google Reader. Don't lose RSS feed readers on your first sentence. Make your first sentence count. If you need some help with that, read Copyblogger every day. That blog will...
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May15
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Where did the pulp fiction writers find the narrative engines that propelled their books? In the case of David Goodis--one of my favorite hardboiled writers-- he was inspired by the personal urge to escape! Sarah Weinman explains in her new...
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I could blog about publishing and web journalism news all day, but that won't help anybody learn how to write better. Today, I have a couple new publications and writers for your reading, submitting, and thinking pleasure.Last night I discovered...
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May14
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"The hunt for the key has been much more extensive in other industries, which have made a point of using new technology to gain a better understanding of their customers. Television stations have created online forums for viewers and may...
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May11
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"I have a Wonder Woman lunchbox I’m going to mail out. There are little goodies inside. When you get the box, take one out, and put something inside for me. Send me a picture with you with the lunchbox....
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The New York Observer discovers that Susan Sontag may have plagiarized a couple sources in her final essays, digging through her old speeches with a fine-tooth comb. The article raises an interesting question for this new era of quick and...
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May10
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"What if Heaven wasn't all it's cracked up to be? Friends Kate and Daniel find that after their untimely deaths, Heaven leaves them dissatisfied and itching for something... else. So they're off, with a passport to discover more afterlives, heroes...
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Ed Champion reports on a company-wide restructuring at the publisher, Perseus Books Group. The shake-up will cut at least 12 jobs, and leave two quirky presses in limbo. His links round-up the lit-blog response to the announcement: "More from Jeremy...
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May 9
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Few writers have worn as many hats as Mur Lafferty. Besides writing the book on podcasting, she's published short stories, written stories for 15 role-playing games, one textbook, and scores of podcasting scripts.If you want to hear her work, check...
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May 8
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"As someone who is damn near addicted to the high of writing, editing is such a bore. When you’re done writing, you can convince yourself that you’re brilliant – being high does that to a person. Editing drags you back...
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May 7
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"I chose video because I thought it was cool that something that previously was super expensive to make could now be done by a much wider range of people." That's what novelist Jim Munroe told us about digital film last...
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May 4
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What should you do when an interview doesn't work out? Ed Champion wrote an essay about his brief, unsuccessful audio interview with Marisha Pessl, and scores of readers wrote in with thoughts about the art of literary conversation. The whole...
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Stop reading! You need to write.We could sit here all day writing about writing, but who does that help? It's time to write. One thing that always helps me is a deadline. I now have two new writing deadlines for...
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May 3
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Reading books can be a meditative experience, but some people avoid reading books if they don't have a spare three hours every night. Reading in short bursts can be a valuable skill for any fledgling writer. Work has been...
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May 2
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I owe a lot to writing communities. I will never, ever forget the day I finished a 50,000-word novel draft with the support of the National Novel Writing Month community. When I finished, I asked myself--who can help me once...
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It's nearly impossible to support yourself as a writer. Sometimes it helps to explore unexpected sources for inspiration. Like the movies!Earlier today, I discovered Peter David, the writer who translated the Spiderman, Spiderman 2, and Spiderman 3 screenplays into paperback...
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May 1
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The whole book blogging community is buzzing about the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's decision to downsize their book review staff in an effort to cut costs at the newspaper. Some bloggers cheer that this event marks the death of the paper-review and...
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