The Writing Workshop

PFS Monthly Update: January/February 2012

Welcome to the new PFS Monthly Updates, pointing out all the awesomeness that's happening here. (Hey, I work hard on this site. There's no shame in promoting it!)

Here are this month's PFS Book Club's (our sister site for readers) updates:

• Our 3 Comic Book List Reviews featured the stellar New Mutants #37 (with a hipster Satan), the beginning of the new Batwoman arc, and X-Men: Legacy's awesome new direction.
• A new Literary Term with Cliffhangers.
• We have Great Quotes from Tina Fey in Mean Girls, Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen, satirist Chuck Palanhniuk, NYT music critic Alex Ross, and poet Julie Sheehan.
• New book review galore with Kathy Griffin's Official Book Club Selection, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Neil Stephenson's Anathem, and Brent Week's The Way of Shadows.
• A new Character Analysis featuring The Hunger Games' Prim Everdeen.
• And lastly, our newest feature here at the Book Club, the Dictionary of Faraway Places. Our first stop on this epic journey? Narnia.

And here at the Writing Workshop, we have:

• Our newest topic thread: Words I Thought I Knew! (but obviously didn't.) Up first? Populism.
• In book publishing news, we have JK Rowling publishing an adult mystery novel, a comic book collection worth millions, Tim Tebow reading Dr. Seuss, Scholastic releasing their Top 100 Kids' Book List, National Book Critics Circle announcing their 2011 finalists, and an article on the dangers of SOPA for the publishing industry.
• There are Writing Prompts for Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, 1 characters in 3 settings, Haiku Gymnastics, and the stock character The Orphan.
• Some great visual Good Grammars with Why English is Such a Great Language and Baby Seals Teach Comma Usage.
• A new Writing Craft to get that novel done: Write 1 Page a Day.
• And a Get Published! article on the legals issues surrounding Work for Hire.

And coming up this month? I'm planning on some big changes, with creator pages and more! Stick around!

Weekly Update: The Charlie Sheen Edition

Why is this the Charlie Sheen edition? Probably because since the last Weekly Update, Mr. Sheen and his tiger blood are the only thing on the news. It gives this Update an appropriate setting, no?

Over at the PFS Book Club, we've got:

• 4 new Great Quotes from Shakespeare, Shelley, Gail Simone, and Tennyson.
• 4 new Literary Definitions: Stream of Consciousness, Character Development, the Fantasy Genre, and Plot Holes.
• Character Analysis of Jane Eyre's Bertha.
• The latest review of last week's comics in the Comic Pull List.
• Book Review of The Book in the Renanaissance.
• The Top 10 Books to Start a New Genre.
• And the First Line Analysis of The Wheel of Time series.

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter! Or you can see updates to the Workshop on Facebook by simply hitting the Like button over in the sidebar.

Weekly Update: The Avoiding Exercise Edition

Well, it was either do the weekly updates or do my daily workout, so is it any surprise I picked this one?

Over at the Book Club this week, we have:

• 4 new Great Quotes from Kafka, Woolf, Keats, and Glee's Brittany.
• Book Review of Joss Whedon and John Cassady's Astonishing X-Men Omnibus.
• The Literary Definitions of theme and the difference between the protagonist and antagonist.
• Character Analysis of Anita Blake's Richard Zeeman.
• The First Line Analysis of Anna Karenina.
• The addition of The Love Interest, The One True Love, Human as Monster, Victim of Abuse, Lycanthrope, Material Girl, Golddigger, and Bad Mother to the Archetype description page.

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter to see all updates in real time and to join in our book discussions! Also, if you'd like to our updates on Facebook, simply hit the Like button located in the sidebar.

Weekly Update: The Saturday Morning Cartoon Edition

It's time for the weekly update again! Well, actually, this is more like the bi-monthly update, but oh, well. You'd rather get a new writing prompt than a weekly update, right?

Over at the PFS Book Club, we have:

• New Great Quotes from the X-Men, John Milton, Jane Austen, and Tim O'Brien.
• Four new Literary Definitions, explaining the meanings of the Denouement, Flash Fiction, Tragedy and Comedy, and the Mary Sue.
• Reviews of the third volume of Bill Willingham's Fablesand Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince.
• A Character Analysis of Jude the Obscure's Arabella.
• PFS's first Quote Analysis, of "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" from Harry Potter.

I'm also happy to announce the opening of the Genre Description page, where each of the genres used to describe the PFS Book Club Book Reviews, First Line Analyses, and Quote Analyses are described in more detail. The link to the Genre Description page will always be available at the bottom of the PFS Book Club, next to the Archetype Description page.

Weekly Update: The Sunday Post Edition

It's time for our weekly PFS Publishing update! Please tell me you're as excited about this as I am.

Over at the PFS Book Club, we've got:

• 3 New Great Quotes, from James Joyce, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Thomas Hardy.
• The Top 10 Star-Crossed Lovers.
• Literary Definitions of deus ex machina and comic book death.
• Character Analysis of the X-Men's Emma Frost.
• Added the Seductress, the Teacher, the Psychic, Gray Morals, and the Adulterer to the Archetypes Descriptions page.
• Book Review of Anna Karenina.

Don't forget that you can also follow PFS Publishing on Twitter or become our friend on Facebook!

Weekly Update: The New Name Edition

This week's Weekly Update is brought to you by its new name: the Weekly Update. I just felt like Weekly Round-Up was a bad name, so I changed it. The joys of editing!

Here's what new at the PFS Book Club:

• Reviews of Robert Kirkman's superhero satire Invincible (Volume 2) and a fantasy novel by The Dresden Files' Jim Butcher Princeps' Fury.
• 4 new Great Quotes. 
• First Line Analysis of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
• This week's Comic Pull List, featuring Batgirl, Secret Six, X-Factor, Birds of Prey, and the Young Avengers.
• Character Analysis of Karrin Murphy, from The Dresden Files.
• Added The Good Cop, The Loyal Friend, and Will They or Won't They to the Archetype Description page.

We also have a brand new addition to the PFS Book Club staple: the Literary Definition! Each week, I'll be focusing a new way to look at books. Our first Definition answers the question of just what is literary criticism?

Weekly Round-Up: The New Year Edition

It's a new year, and we've got a lot going on here at PFS. The Book Club's recent updates include:

• First Line Analysis of Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex
• The first of a new feature called The Comic Pull List that reviews the most recent monthly comic book issues
• Reviews of Invincible, Fables, and Towers of Midnight
• Character Analysis of The Scarlet Letter's Dimmesdale
• A new feature of Great Quotes. The first is from Romeo & Juliet

Finally, I've added a new page to the PFS Book Club. The Archetypes description page details the character Archetypes I use in the Character Analyses. For writers, this is a valuable tool, to remind ourselves of the literary history of our characters. Check it out!

The Weekly Round-Up: The Extra Virgin Edition

Welcome to a new feature here at the PFS Writing Workshop - the weekly round-up! Of course, one of these will also be featured each Friday at the Write Line, the Book Club, and our main page, eventually. The Round-Up will feature all the week's latest PFS news and updates!

Over at the Book Club, we have:

• Stephanie Brown (former Robin, current Batgirl) character analysis
• Literary analysis of the first line of Dickens' Great Expectation
• The Top 10 Mother Figures in Fantasy and Comic Book Series
• And reviews of the graphic novel Runaways and a history of the Middle Ages, The Last Knight, by Normam F. Cantor

We also have a special announcement to make!

The PFS Write Line, a collaborative story-telling contest, will begin officially on January 1, 2011. Each day will feature a new winner, and all it takes is writing a single line in the comments fields. Each day, a new winner, and at the end of the week, your names will be featured here, in the Round-Up! The story, when completed, will be published in an upcoming e-book by PFS Publishing. Do you have what it takes?