LIGHTEN UP A LITTLE by John M. Floyd Some of what follows is a shortened version of an essay I wrote several years ago for a zine called Laughter Loaf. Deborah’s and Jeff’s comments last week about Ogden Nash (one of my favorite writers) gave me the idea to dust it off and include it […]

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH by John M. Floyd I once read something in a book whose title I don’t remember, written by someone whose name I don’t remember, that put forth the theory that if fiction writers happened to disappear tomorrow from the face of the earth, they — unlike carpenters and mechanics and brickmasons […]

OPENING VOLLEYS by John M. Floyd A month or so ago, my Criminal Brief colleague James Lincoln Warren did an interesting column on the “first lines” of stories, and whether they’re as important as we’re often told they are. I especially liked the examples he listed, from his own work. I’d like to revisit that […]

HYPHEN THE TERRIBLE by John M. Floyd As some of you know, I like to veer this column off the beaten track now and then, especially into the movie and TV world, but it’s been awhile since I strayed into Style/Grammar/Punctuationland. While poking around over there I covered (or uncovered) the topics of semicolons (April) […]

STORIES ABOUT STORIES by John M. Floyd There’s no accounting for personal tastes. Whether the subject is fashion, entertainment, food, politics, you name it . . . we all have our prefer- ences. But in the publishing world, one thing that I find interesting — and a bit surprising — is that so many readers […]

LONG LIVE THE KING by John M. Floyd My column this week is not specifically about crime/suspense stories or even about stories, but about a writer of stories. In fact it’s about the writer of some of the best stories I’ve ever read. I first heard about Stephen King in 1979, when a fellow reader […]

A 360-DEGREE STORY ARC by John M. Floyd Much has been said recently about the endings of short stories and novels. The fact that they should they should be satisfying, should happen quickly after the point of highest tension, should be surprising, etc. I especially like a quote by Aristotle: “Endings should be both inevitable […]