Archive for July, 2009
Posted on July 29, 2009 - by Aaron Ross Powell
What Chris Anderson’s “Free” Means for Fiction Writers
Chris Anderson’s new book, Free, is a concise and articulate packaging of ideas that will be prosaic to anyone who’s paid attention to the economics of the web. Which means that, for most folks out there, it’s an excellent and insightful read. While not as exciting as his earlier work, The Long Tail, the [...]
Posted on July 22, 2009 - by Aaron Ross Powell
Rewriting the beginning of THE HOLE
While going through my editor’s comments on the manuscript of THE HOLE, I kept coming back to the same conclusion: I’m just not that happy with the way the book begins. Aside from a handful of awkward moments, most of the plot problems throughout the novel are a direct result of things that are said [...]
Posted on July 17, 2009 - by Aaron Ross Powell
Atlas Shrugged: Skewering Collectivists
This post continues my journal of impressions and thoughts as I read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged for the first time.
I have to give Ayn Rand credit for knowing how to make a collectivist look foolish. While her writing is generally pretty bland and her dialog stiff, the novel comes to life–in a peculiar, risen dead [...]
Posted on July 15, 2009 - by Aaron Ross Powell
Atlas Shrugged: Initial Impressions
Sans its message, sans its historical significance, sans its ability to turn young people into libertarians, the first thing one picks up on when starting Atlas Shrugged is the poverty of the prose. Ayn Rand, no matter her or her followers’ opinion otherwise, just isn’t a very good writer. The language is plodding, non-lyrical, and often [...]
Posted on July 3, 2009 - by Aaron Ross Powell
And now the hard part…
Writing a novel is terrific fun. Editing it isn’t. But that’s the predicament I find myself in, as I’ve received the first round of extensive feedback from my wonderful new editor, and I’m slowly digging in for the long haul. The good news is, THE HOLE will be a much better novel as a result. [...]
