by Dorian Box | Feb 21, 2023
Should classic books be updated to delete or change words or passages that are or could be construed as offensive? Related, should modern authors compose their works with an eye toward not offending anyone? These are difficult issues with no easy answers. You may have...
by Dorian Box | Feb 8, 2020
[UPDATE: In a more recent post, I provide a detailed legal analysis of how the fair use exception to copyright laws applies to using a song snippet in a novel.] Without any particular design, Psycho-Tropics ended up littered with references to popular songs. Some...
by Dorian Box | Jan 6, 2018
Is it important to get your facts straight when writing non-fantasy fiction? Not just the internal consistency of the “facts” you make up, although that is also important. Or improbable events that require some suspension of disbelief. I’m...
by Dorian Box | Mar 27, 2016
Wondering about the potential of your book or manuscript to become a bestseller? Wish there were a test to empirically measure it? As a fun exercise, I came up with one. I started with my own list of good fiction qualities then supplemented it with ideas found in...
by Dorian Box | Sep 6, 2015
By Dorian Box It happened suddenly, too many years of deleting semicolons that editors substituted for periods. I was nearing the end of page edits for a recent article, converting the hundredth new semicolon back to a period, when it hit me: “Enough already...
