Katherine Luck @katherineluck - Tumblr Blog

How to write like Edgar Allan Poe

Countdown to Halloween! Learn how to write a scary story like Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe single-handedly invented the detective story, helped launch the science fiction genre, and influenced generations of authors from the 19th through the 21st centuries, including H.P. Lovecraft, Charles Baudelaire, Stephen King, and Arthur Conan Doyle. But he’s best known for his haunting tales of the macabre. His stories are still considered to be masterpieces of horror writing —…

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#Edgar Allan Poe #H.P. Lovecraft #horror #how to write #how to write like #how to write like Edgar Allan Poe #short stories #writing tips

Edgar Allan Poe tries Japanese candy

Edgar Allan Poe writes a story about Japanese candy...from beyond the grave!

The Mirrored Chamber

You will say that I am mad—for who but a madman could devise so remarkable a species of vengeance, marked by such intricate dissimulation, such exquisite cunning? But never have I been more possessed of my senses than I was at the moment when, provoked by the cruel jests of my most intimate companion, I resolved to commit murder.

But if indeed I ammad, it is a symptom of the…

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#dead writers and candy #Edgar Allan Poe #japanese candy #Japanese kit kat #short story

How to create a fictional language

Creating a fictional language can add depth to a story and strengthen your worldbuilding. And it's easier (and more fun) than you think! Here's how to do it

So you’re working on a sci-fi novel, spec-fic short story or fantasy screenplay and you want to include a made-up language to give your dialogue real intensity? Don’t just inject some gibberish and call it a day. Creating your own fictional language can be a fascinating, effective way to add depth to your story and strengthen your worldbuilding. And it’s a lot of fun!

What is a fictional language?

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#conlang #constructed language #Dothraki #fictional languages #how to write #how to write like #J.R.R. Tolkien #Klingon #linguistics #writing tips

Can you solve these 19th-century math problems?

In 1895, a little book the size of an unambitious romance novel was published in Boston. Bound in mud-brown cloth, it was to become the bane of legions of American schoolchildren.

The deceptively slim textbook, titled Mental Arithmetic, is divided into just five chapters, each of which contains about forty brief but increasingly dispiriting lessons covering the topics of addition, subtraction,…

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#19th-century school #American history #book review #Books #math problems

How to sell the world’s shortest novel

Could I market this book as the shortest novel ever written? Maybe. Here's how:

What’s the shortest novel ever written? What makes a work of fiction a novel and not a short story? And how do novellas fit in?

We’re examining ten extremely short novels from around the globe to find the world’s shortest novel and, while we’re at it, figure out what really makes a story a novel.

Today, we’re looking at marketing. Is it a novel if the ads say it is?

Let’s begin with a video of…

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#Books #Godzilla #Jim Shepard #Master of Miniatures #shortest novel ever written #World&039;s shortest novel

This is how you write a book dedication

I’ve never included a dedication in any of my books. They’ve always struck me as a bit smarmy and insincere: nothing but a form of virtue signaling aimed at the reader, or a private message to a single party that everyone who picks up the book is forced to witness. The subtext always seems to boil down to one of four statements:

“I’m attractive — somebody actually married me! Jealous?” “I’m…

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#book dedications #Books #how to write a book dedication

How to write like Ian Fleming

How to write like Ian Fleming: 7 tips that will transform a story from a simple thriller into a heart-pounding, James Bond style masterpiece

He came up with an unforgettable character that has fascinated readers for more than six decades: Bond. James Bond. Raymond Chandler was a fan. So was President John F. Kennedy. To this day, Ian Fleming’s 007 books are one of the best-selling fiction series ever, with more than 100 million copies sold worldwide.

Fans of James Bond can’t get enough of the suave spy with his Aston Martin, his…

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#007 #20th-century writers #how to write #how to write like #Ian Fleming #James Bond #journalism #writing styles #writing tips

How to write a sonnet

Sonnets aren't just a joy to read, they're also easy to write. You just have to learn a few simple facts about what makes a poem a sonnet.

William Shakespeare wrote ‘em. So did Francesco Petrarch, Edmund Spenser, William Butler Yeats, W. H. Auden, Edgar Allen Poe, and countless other poets. Now you want to write a sonnet (or have to — hello, English 101 students!)

Lucky for us, sonnets aren’t just a joy to read, they’re also easy to write. You just have to learn a few simple facts about what makes a poem a sonnet.

What is a sonnet?

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#American poet #how to write #how to write a sonnet #how to write like #how to write poetry #poetry #Shakespeare #sonnet

How to write like Makayla Love

Q&A with indie author Makayla Love

Give us the tl;dr of your life in 50 words or less. Makayla Love writes to tell tales which appear to her in her crystal ball. Suffering from an incurable tea habit and a fondness for her many friends, ranging from the magical to the disembodied to the simply undead, Love now resides in a Gothic cottage in the middle of a blossoming city of art.

Which famous…

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#Anne Rice #George R.R. Martin #indie authors #Makayla Love #self-published authors #Titanomachy series #vampire fiction

What Laura Ingalls Wilder really ate

The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder is about family, frontier living, and the real-time impact of manifest destiny upon the American landscape. But mostly, it’s about food.

From fried cornmeal mush eaten on the wide-open prairie to improvised green pumpkin pie to bread baked from wheat seeds pulverized in a coffee grinder during a starving season, the nine books of Wilder’s beloved…

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#book review #Books #Laura Ingalls Wilder #Little House on the Prairie #memoir #pioneer food

How to write like a dog

People love dogs. A LOT. Why not write your next novel, short story, poem or blog post from the POV of man’s best friend? Here's how to do it

People love dogs. A lot. Nearly half of all families in the U.S. have a dog, and right now there are more canines on earth than human babies — over 400 million of our four-legged friends share the planet with us.

With numbers like that, it could be argued that people like dogs just as much as their fellow humans … or maybe more. So why not write your next novel, short story, social media update,…

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#dog stories #fictional dogs #how to write #how to write like #how to write like a dog #writing styles #writing tips

That time P.T. Barnum wrote a personal finance book

That time P.T. Barnum wrote a personal finance book--a review of his surprising advice

You’ve tried everything, from the bland money-management tips of Dave Ramsey to the crazy nonsense of the Prosperity Gospel gurus, but your personal finances are still a mess. Why not turn instead to … P.T. Barnum!

Yes, P.T. Barnum, king of ballyhoo, prince of humbugs, sultan of spin … giver of financial advice? The wealth-building secrets of history’s most flagrant huckster must surely begin…

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#art of money getting #book review #Books #money management #P.T. Barnum #personal finance

Why adults read YA novels

The surprising reason many adults read YA fiction:

What’s the shortest novel ever written? What makes a work of fiction a novel and not a short story? And how do novellas fit in?

We’re examining ten extremely short novels from around the globe to find the world’s shortest novel and, while we’re at it, figure out what really makes a story a novel.

Today, we’re looking at audience. Before deciding if a book is a novel, should we make allowances for…

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#book review #Books #Irish novelists #Joseph O&039;Connor #shortest novel ever written #Sweet Valley High #World&039;s shortest novel #YA fiction

What the new ‘Flowers in the Attic’ book gets completely wrong

What the new ‘Flowers in the Attic’ book gets completely wrong:

In 1979, a gothic fiction renaissance was kicked off by the publication of Flowers in the Attic, a tale of imprisonment, child abuse and incest. Three sequels and a prequel followed. Even the death of author V.C. Andrews in 1986 wouldn’t stop the books from coming. In 2019, to mark the 40th anniversary of the launch of what became known as the “Dollanganger series,” the V.C. Andrews copyright…

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#Beneath the Attic #book review #cake recipe #Dollanganger series #Flowers in the Attic #golden rod cake #historic recipes #V.C. Andrews

What is a novel?

What is a novel? Are graphic novels really novels? If not, what are they?

What’s the shortest novel ever written? What makes a work of fiction a novel and not a short story? And how do novellas fit in?

We’re examining ten extremely short novels from around the globe to find the world’s shortest novel and, while we’re at it, figure out what really makes a story a novel.

Today, we’re looking at medium. And to get us started, here’s a deceptively simple question for you:…

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#book review #comic book #graphic novel #Peanuts #shortest novel ever written #World&039;s shortest novel

Why do songs get stuck in your head?

Why do songs get stuck in your head? And how can you get rid of them?

For the past few months, whenever I work on my forthcoming novella, A Bullet Through the Heart, the song “Jubilee Street” by Nick Cave starts to play in my head.

At first, I thought this was happening simply because I like the song (it’s really good!) and had been listening to it a lot (it’s really, really good!)

Then I started to…

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#Jubilee Street #Junji Ito #Mark Twain #mnemonic devices #Nick Cave #novella #Star Trek

How long should a novel be?

How long should a novel be? Why nobody seems to know:

What’s the shortest novel ever written? What makes a work of fiction a novel and not a short story? And how do novellas fit in?

We’re examining ten extremely short novels from around the globe to find the world’s shortest novel and, while we’re at it, figure out what really makes a story a novel.

Today, we’re looking at length. Is it the best way to separate novels from short stories?

When you…

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