MALICIOUS ADVENTURES by Steven Steinbock As with last week’s column, I’ve written this Bandersnatch dispatch long in advance of publication. Last week I was preoccupied with Sam’s Bar Mitzvah. No sooner had the last guests been sent on their way, I packed myself off to the Edgars. (The preceding sentences was written before any of […]

THE MIDDLE OF EVERYTHING by Deborah Elliott-Upton Creating the beginning of a new story is easy for me. The ending usually is too. It’s the nether regions of the middle that seem to play havoc with a writer. I remember taking a screenplay workshop from a woman who worked on a semi-famous movie that starred […]

If this piece looks familiar to you it is because it appeared briefly last Wednesday before I realized I had sent James the wrong column and he very kindly fixed it. If you commented on it last week, please feel free to include the same or a different comment today. (And if you didn’t see […]

The following is an excerpt from The Renaissance (1876) by British cultural, art, and literary critic Walter Pater (1839 – 1894). Although Pater was writing about “high” art, I think that his thesis—that in truly accomplished art, the content is virtually indistinguishable from its form—applies equally to popular short stories. —JLW ALL ART CONSTANTLY ASPIRES […]

CRIME SCENERY by James Lincoln Warren There’s nothing a mystery writer loves better than pulling out the old yellow tape and marking off the scene of the crime. In these days of crime dramas that depend almost exclusively on physical evidence, it is often more critical to story development than motive and opportunity. I must […]

MOVIE MAKING and STORY TELLING by Leigh Lundin At lunch last week, my friend Steve mentioned a sequel is under way for Sherlock Holmes, the British-American movie from four months ago. What? I thought the movie (still found in some theaters) was adequate, "serviceable" as my father might say, but not anything to write about […]

JOURNALISM by John M. Floyd 1 All of us have heard plenty of advice on how to write, and how to write better. Some of the more common tips include “show, don’t tell,” “write what you know,” “don’t overuse adverbs,” etc. And one that shows up on at least a few lists is “keep a […]