#fictional-letters

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Books
fromPsychology Today
2 hours ago

Coping With the Up-and-Down Arc of a Prolific Writer's Life

Merrill Joan Gerber's latest book reflects her writing journey from the 1960s to the present, showcasing selected stories from her extensive career.
#ben-lerner
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
14 hours ago

He Wrote a Book About Interviewing. Here's His Interview.

Ben Lerner's 'Transcription' explores memory, language, and technology through the lens of a writer's relationship with his mentor.
Books
fromDefector
2 days ago

The Gentle Parenting Of Ben Lerner's 'Transcription' | Defector

Ben Lerner's novels explore themes of youth, sexuality, and the complexities of adulthood through autofictional narratives.
Music production
fromThe New Yorker
2 days ago

Is It Wrong to Write a Book With A.I.?

The Roland TR-808 revolutionized music production by allowing musicians to create unique sounds and patterns, leading to new genres and widespread influence.
fromFast Company
2 days ago

HarperCollins is forging ahead with AI-assisted dramas based on books. Some authors have concerns

Toonstar's proven ability to translate beloved stories into engaging animation, while keeping artists at the center of the process, makes them the ideal partner to bring Friendship List and other popular titles to new audiences in formats today's families love.
Media industry
Film
fromVulture
2 days ago

The Twist in The Drama Is Not the Problem

The film features a controversial plot twist involving a character's past plan for a school shooting, sparking significant online speculation and backlash.
Parenting
fromScary Mommy
4 days ago

If You Need ChatGPT To Tell Your Kids A Bedtime Story, You're Cooked

Using AI for bedtime stories may deprive parents and children of meaningful bonding moments.
Intellectual property law
fromThe IP Law Blog
6 days ago

Tropes Aren't Theft: What Freeman v. Wolff Teaches About Substantial Similarity in YA Fantasy Fiction

The court ruled that substantial similarity in copyright law requires more than just shared themes or ideas, emphasizing the importance of protectable expression.
#literature
fromThe Atlantic
2 days ago
Books

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

Aging revolutionaries and conformists share parallel narratives of disillusionment and the loss of youthful dreams in recent literature.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 days ago

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

Aging revolutionaries and conformists share parallel narratives of disillusionment and the loss of youthful dreams in recent literature.
Higher education
fromFortune
1 week ago

What if I told you the 'AI slop' debate was over 100 years old? It used to be about 'ghostwriting' | Fortune

Vanderbilt University faced backlash for using ChatGPT to draft a message about community after a campus shooting.
fromEmilysneddon
1 week ago
Typography

Fran Sans Essay - Emily Sneddon

Fran Sans is a display font inspired by the unique destination displays of San Francisco's diverse public transit system.
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

Daunting, inspiring, comforting, terrifying: the writers who can make silence as eloquent as words

A vision lay before him: Fleet Street blanketed with snow, silent, empty, pure white, and, at the end of it, the huge and majestic form of Saint Paul's Cathedral. It was a spellbinding moment: the great thoroughfare temporarily devoid of carts and carriages, the cathedral looming blurrily out of the still-falling snowflakes a real-life snow globe.
London
Writing
fromwww.theguardian.com
5 days ago

Transcription by Ben Lerner review a stunning exploration of technology and storytelling

The novel explores themes of touch, familial inheritance, and the complexities of communication through a narrative involving a final interview with a mentor.
#science-fiction
OMG science
fromBig Think
1 week ago

How "Project Hair Mary" turns hardcore science into page-turning drama

Ryland Grace, a science teacher, awakens in space on a mission to save humanity from extinction.
Film
fromVulture
2 weeks ago

Project Hail Mary Needs About 39 Percent Fewer Jokes

Project Hail Mary is an entertaining science-fiction adventure that balances humor with an intriguing apocalyptic story about stopping star-eating organisms threatening Earth.
Digital life
fromFast Company
2 weeks ago

Is AI killing the human voice in writing?

Predictive language technologies challenge individual expression by influencing how writers generate and complete their thoughts.
Media industry
fromInc
1 week ago

Should You Hire a Writer or Use AI? Here's Why Journalists Still Win

Investing in journalists enhances content quality through expertise, relationships, and engaging storytelling, which AI cannot replicate despite its efficiency.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
4 days ago

The Sci-Fi Novelist Who Disappeared for Decades

Cameron Reed's science fiction explores cognitive estrangement, revealing alien worlds that reflect and challenge our own societal norms and moral dilemmas.
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
3 weeks ago

The Shift That Happens When You Write a Non-Fiction Book

Writing a book transforms tacit knowledge into explicit frameworks, forcing experts to articulate intuitions they've developed through experience into clear, communicable ideas.
Writing
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

Permanence by Sophie Mackintosh review high-concept adultery fable

Sophie Mackintosh's novel Permanence explores desire and infidelity through a surreal narrative of a couple trapped in a fantasy world.
fromwww.scientificamerican.com
2 weeks ago

Inside Andy Weir's wild world-building for Project Hail Mary

In Project Hail Mary, Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling, wakes up in space with no memory of how he got there, highlighting the film's intriguing premise.
OMG science
History
fromMedievalists.net
3 weeks ago

New Medieval Books: Widow City - Medievalists.net

Late medieval Italian widows mourned their spouses and navigated their lives through religious or secular paths, evolving from allegorical subjects to prominent authors who reshaped public discourse on widowed identity.
#film-vs-literature
Artificial intelligence
fromThe Atlantic
2 weeks ago

The Human Skill That Eludes AI

Generative AI has paradoxically declined in creative writing quality since GPT-2, despite advancing in technical capabilities, with current models producing formulaic, flawed prose despite access to centuries of literature.
Books
fromPsychology Today
1 week ago

Fiction Is Indispensable to Life's Journey

Fiction is essential for emotional connection, learning, and social cognition, allowing us to escape reality and engage deeply with narratives.
Arts
fromwww.npr.org
1 month ago

Mundane, magic, maybe both a new book explores 'The Writer's Room'

Writer's rooms and homes serve as cultural spaces that inspire visitors seeking connection to literary legacies, though the experience varies between magical and disappointing depending on accessibility and personal connection.
Film
fromenglish.elpais.com
3 weeks ago

Insult or adaptation? Why films still struggle to adapt novels

Film adaptations of literature often transform source material through cinematic techniques, sometimes sacrificing literary depth for visual spectacle and narrative restructuring.
#writing
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
3 weeks ago

Raymond Chandler and the Case of the Split Infinitive

Raymond Chandler clashed with The Atlantic's copy editor Margaret Mutch over her correction of a split infinitive, arguing that deliberate rule-breaking in language creates authentic, living prose.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

The News from Dublin by Colm Toibin review subtle short stories about being far from home

The stories in Colm Toibin's collection explore themes of displacement and the emotional complexities of living away from home and loved ones.
Writing
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 weeks ago

I challenged ChatGPT to a writing competition. Could it actually replace me?

A writer tests ChatGPT's creative abilities against their own using writing prompts, finding the AI produces competent but ultimately inferior work compared to human creativity.
fromFuturism
2 weeks ago

Novel Pulled From Shelves After Author Is Accused of Using AI

Hachette remains committed to protecting original creative expression and storytelling. The company requires all submissions to be original to the authors and that the authors disclose whether AI is used during the writing process.
Books
Music
fromwww.npr.org
1 month ago

Why music has become such a big part of the romance novel reading experience

Romance novel readers increasingly use pop music playlists to enhance their reading experiences, creating a community that bridges book fandom and music fandom, exemplified by Charli XCX's Wuthering Heights album.
Writing
fromBig Think
3 weeks ago

"If it sounds literary, it isn't": The deceptively simple rules behind good writing

Neal Allen and Anne Lamott co-authored Good Writing by combining Allen's 36 writing rules with Lamott's annotations, creating a collaborative guide where Allen explains rules and Lamott provides practical examples and alternative perspectives.
fromThe Sacramento Observer
1 month ago

Theft, feedback loops and ecological red flags: Capital Region writers face a new reality with AI

I feel that in a short period of time I've become very counter-cultural without meaning to, because I have a kind of like 'kill it with fire' attitude towards [AI]. I didn't consent to this, you know? And I guess, you know, we don't get to consent to the cultural changes that impact us; but I don't appreciate how it's all happened in what feels like about two years.
Artificial intelligence
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 weeks ago

A New Direction for the Trans Novel

A dying woman's opioid-induced memories reveal her deep resentment toward her trans child, exposing how her accumulated life disappointments have narrowed her worldview to rigid gender expectations.
fromMedium
1 month ago

Things that don't matter when you write

To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul. The concept I stick to - my core principle - is simple: I write in plain English, and only when I actually have something to say.
Writing
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
1 month ago

Why some of us build entire worlds inside our heads and then feel homesick for places that never existed - Silicon Canals

Elaborate inner worlds built through imagination are common cognitive features that fulfill emotional needs, characterized by specific details and consistent logic that can persist for decades.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 weeks ago

Briefly Noted Book Reviews

Two literary works explore complex themes through innovative narrative techniques: Morrison's essays examine challenging craft elements in Toni Morrison's writing, while Nganang's memoir uses the scale as a metaphor connecting personal experience to colonial history.
Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

People feel like they're in on the joke': the new wave of pseudo-biopics

Filmmakers increasingly create pseudo-biopics that borrow recognizable elements from real people and events while changing names and details to avoid legal liability and maintain creative freedom.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 weeks ago

I wrote a book about theft and deception and now AI scams are flooding my inbox | Walter Marsh

Authors receive targeted emails from AI-generated accounts offering fake praise, reviews, and exposure using sophisticated language that mimics genuine engagement while concealing artificial origins.
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Yiyun Li on Stories That Happen Twice

Retrospective narrative reveals how stories gain completeness through the knowledge of future events, transforming present moments into layered reflections on fate and identity.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
3 weeks ago

Six Books You'll Have to Discuss With a Friend

Reading in public creates social connections and marks readers as members of an enthusiastic community that spans all walks of life and geographic locations.
Philosophy
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

Why AI Must Not Do Our Writing for Us

Relying on machines for writing deprives students of the cognitive, emotional, and exploratory benefits of composing and personal intellectual engagement.
Film
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Say It Again: A Treatment

Clara, a spy whose family and friends were repeatedly targeted by Russian gangs, travels to London and infiltrates M.I.6 to find a Russian double agent.
fromDefector
4 weeks ago

Dan Simmons Is Dead So It's Time To Read 'Hyperion' | Defector

This is a shame, because his best work belongs with the greats of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi. Summer of Night is a tighter, more satisfying version of Stephen King's It. Carrion Comfort is a brick-sized epic about psychic vampires that reads as breezily as a trade paperback. The Terror, which inspired the well-regarded show, is for its first three-quarters a brilliant and non-supernatural speculative take on a real doomed Arctic expedition.
Books
Mental health
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

Writing as Sanctuary: Carrying Grief Word by Word

Grief can be sudden or gradual, profoundly affecting cognition and sleep, and expressive practices like journaling and art therapy can help process and lighten grief.
Video games
fromKotaku
2 months ago

Split Fiction's Director Dishes On Clair Obscur, EA, And Gen AI

The games industry must preserve diversity across AAA, AA, and indie projects rather than converging solely on perceived 'safe' AA successes.
Philosophy
fromAeon
2 months ago

Sure, AI can 'do' writing. But memoir? Not so much | Aeon Essays

Poetry and creative expression served as decisive tests for distinguishing human from machine intelligence via the imitation game.
Writing
fromDefector
1 month ago

What I Learned From My Annoyingly Long Correspondence With "Elena Ferrante" | Defector

An AI-generated scam email impersonating Elena Ferrante used phrases from published book descriptions to deceive an author, revealing how AI can convincingly mimic famous writers while containing telltale signs of fabrication upon scrutiny.
Arts
fromHarvard Gazette
2 months ago

Updike's life in letters - Harvard Gazette

John Updike produced vast correspondence and literary works—over 25,000 letters, 60-plus books, and thousands of shorter pieces—making letters integral to his prolific output.
Arts
fromwww.npr.org
2 months ago

Julian Barnes' playful new book is also his 'official departure'

An aging writer confronts mortality, memory, and repetition while considering retirement and revisiting past relationships through fiction blending autobiography and invention.
fromHarvard Gazette
1 month ago

Moved by what's missing in Homer's 'Harrow' - Harvard Gazette

At first sight, Winslow Homer's " The Brush Harrow," which depicts two young boys, a horse, and a harrow against an arid landscape, evokes a feeling of somber isolation - but it's hard to pinpoint why. During a talk by curator Horace D. Ballard at the Harvard Art Museums on Jan. 29, visitors learned that Homer painted the scene in 1865, as the Civil War was ending, making the emotional underpinnings of the work clearer.
Arts
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

How to Put Sex in a Novel

Contemporary literary fiction increasingly avoids depicting heterosexual intimacy while queer novelists freely explore sex's complexities, as exemplified by Jan Saenz's unconventional novel about selling experimental orgasm-inducing pills.
Artificial intelligence
fromFuturism
1 month ago

"Novelist" Boasts That Using AI She Can Churn Out a New Book in 45 Minutes, Says Regular Writers Will Never Be Able to Keep Up

AI-assisted production enables rapid, high-volume publication of commercially successful books, outpacing traditional human creators and prompting concerns about quality and authenticity.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

When Did Literature Get Less Dirty?

Philip Roth's Zuckerman Unbound functioned as a response to the controversial reception of Portnoy's Complaint, with Roth's protagonist expressing regret over writing sexually explicit material that drew accusations of anti-Semitism and misogyny.
Film
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

"Dead Man's Wire" Is a Tangle of Loose Threads

A DJ's improvised on-air intervention and a TV reporter's determination highlight media influence and legal, law-enforcement complexities, though broader ambitions remain underdeveloped.
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

The 'Hopeless Labor' of Writing

AI chatbots and delivery robots threaten traditional writing by offering frictionless ease, undermining the pedagogical value of sustained effort and arduous composition.
fromJezebel
1 month ago

Turns Out, When You Write a Novel About Killing a Politician, People Tell You How They'd Do It

When the people who are after me get here, they'll arrest me and put me on trial, or they'll disappear me to some black site. Or they won't bother with any of that and they'll just kill me. All of these seem like plausible outcomes, but in the novel's prologue, the narrator seems much more confident of her success: I am a fucking genius, a gorgeous fucking genius, and the only thing left to do is sit down and write.
Books
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

The Writer's Secret Weapon

Swimming and physical exertion enhance creative thinking by muffling sensory input, boosting neurotransmitters, and enabling deeper, more original idea generation.
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

Taking the Internet Novel Offline

Depicting internet-mediated life requires new narrative strategies that ground online behavior in familiar forms like family drama to keep readers engaged.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

A Long Game by Elizabeth McCracken review here's how to really write your novel

Trope, POV, backstory, character arc. In the 30 years since I was a student of that benign, pipe-smoking, elbow-patched man of letters Malcolm Bradbury, the private language of creative writing workshops has taken over the world. What writers used to say to small circles of students in an attempt to help them improve their storytelling technique has become a familiar way, often parodic and self-knowing, of interpreting the grand and not-sogrand narratives of our time.
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

A Biography Without 'The Boring Bits'

Sophia Stewart poses a choice that many biographers struggle with: "what to do with the boring bits."
Books
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Joseph O'Neill on Why a Story Should Be Like a Poem

People conceal shameful deeds and also quietly perform unrecognized good acts; withholding specifics preserves mystery and influences how others perceive moral character.
Books
fromMedium
1 month ago

How to start writing (like it's easy)

A profoundly immersive book can deeply alter readers and provoke self-doubt about one's own creative abilities.
Writing
fromNature
2 months ago

Technology is changing how we write - and how we think about writing

Writing systems, tools, media and human factors interact with technology to shape the evolution and practice of writing, altering composition methods and cognitive skills.
Writing
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

Why Stepping Away Makes Writing Come Alive Again

Long pauses and distance renew memory and imagination, allowing ideas to reorganize and prevent repetitive production while rhythm, not constant output, sustains creative development.
fromSilicon Canals
1 month ago

7 things people do when telling stories that make others tune out immediately without realizing it - Silicon Canals

We've all been there. Someone starts telling a story, and within seconds, your mind starts wandering. Maybe you pull out your phone, suddenly remember an urgent email, or find yourself mentally reorganizing your weekend plans. The storyteller doesn't notice. They keep going, completely unaware that they've lost their audience. After interviewing over 200 people for various articles, I've noticed patterns in how people communicate their experiences. Some captivate you from the first word, while others lose you before they've even gotten to the point.
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

The Writer's Magic Trick

A writer is a kind of magician. Their job is to create living, three-dimensional people out of the ordinary stuff of ink and paper. This is no easy task, because readers can't literally hear, touch, or observe a character. Everything that defines a human being in real life-the physical space they occupy, or how they smell, feel, and sound-is stripped away, replaced by description. But authors have one major, mystical advantage: They can show you what's happening inside of someone's brain.
Books
Writing
fromMedium
2 months ago

What AI has done to me as a writer

Human imperfections in writing—typos, abbreviations, and idiosyncrasies—create authenticity and nuance that AI-generated text cannot truly replicate.
Books
fromBig Think
2 months ago

5 literary conspiracy theories - debunked

Literary conspiracy theories question authorship, use pseudonyms, and misattribute works, sometimes entertaining but often distorting historical understanding.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

How Do You Write About the Inexplicable?

Rational skepticism coexists with a persistent tendency to personify evil and read coincidences as omens.
Books
fromDefector
2 months ago

Fanfiction's Total Cultural Victory | Defector

Fifty Shades of Grey's transition from fanfiction to mainstream publishing transformed the industry, proving fanfiction-originated romances can be highly lucrative and culturally influential.
Books
fromwww.npr.org
2 months ago

The influence of the sleeper hit novel 'The Correspondent'

An epistolary novel follows a divorced woman in her 70s through letters that reveal her cranky, resilient personality and surprising late-life adventures.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Is listening to an audiobook as good as reading?

Audiobooks and comics are legitimate, effective forms of reading that expand access, boost literacy, and contribute significantly to the publishing industry.
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

Six Books for the Chronic Daydreamer

What is available is the daydream-a limitless realm of freedom. In this other world, one might be famous or rich, finally catch the attention of their beloved, or simply sit on a beach as a waiter brings them cocktails. They might fly or speak to animals, heroically save a child, tell off their boss with no consequences, win the Super Bowl at the whistle, or travel to another continent, planet, or time period. No one can stop them; no one can even object.
Books
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

A Debut Novel About the Quest for Eternal Youth

The boundary between responsible adult and dependent child has frayed as caregivers flail through midlife while youth confront a crumbling, dishonest world.
fromVulture
2 months ago

Agents Are Looking for the Next Heated Rivalry on Fanfic Sites

You may know the story by now: Rachel Reid began posting what would become Heated Rivalryon the fan-fiction site Archive of Our Own, one chapter at a time. Eventually, the Halifax-based author reportedly removed the posts, reworked the book, submitted it to publishers, and sold it in 2019 to Carina Press, a digital-first imprint at Harlequin. While the first book in her "Game Changers" series found a solid fan base among romance readers, no one expected just how many more would join them.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror review roundup

Subsequently, runaway children turned the valley into a fortress, surviving on food they could catch or grow, with occasional forays into the towns below. Riley has heard the rumours, but it is only when she sees a green-clad boy or is it a girl? hovering outside her bedroom window offering directions on how to find Nowhere that she realises this might be her chance to escape and save her little brother from their sadistic guardian.
Books
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

The Internet Novel Is Growing Up

Internet-driven isolation and online radicalization intensify familial fractures, transforming traditional unhappy-family narratives into a distinctly digital crisis.
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

"Infinite Jest" Has Turned Thirty. Have We Forgotten How to Read It?

"Go, litel book," he bids the manuscript that's soon to be out of his hands. "That thou be understonde I god beseche!" Had Chaucer stuck around to witness the ensuing six hundred-plus years of literary discourse-and the past few decades in particular-he might have concluded that, when it comes to being understonde, the litel books aren't the ones you have to worry about. It's the big ones that'll get you.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash review clever comedy for our conspiracy theory age

Tenderness combined with sharp satire provides a successful comic response to contemporary apocalyptic anxiety.
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