Category: Controversy

Trilogies are Essential (and Not Just For Profit)

6/1/2026

by Gianna Vanore

Image via Tobias Rademacher on Unsplash

“Peeta, how come I never know when you’re having a nightmare?” I say.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I cry or thrash around or anything. I just come to, paralyzed with terror,” he says.

“You should wake me,” I say, thinking about how I can interrupt his sleep two or three times on a bad night. About how long it can take to calm me down.

“It’s not necessary. My nightmares are usually about losing you,” he says. “I’m okay once I realize you’re here.”

— Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire

This moment—one adored by millions of readers—in The Hunger Games trilogy is crucial, not only for the plot, but also for us to fall for Katniss and Peeta, to truly want them together. This moment is when we realized the extent of Peeta’s love for Katniss. This moment, a staple of this series, occurs in Catching Fire, the second book of The Hunger Games trilogy.

In Jordan Avery’s Op-Ed, “Trilogies Are Traps: Why Trilogies Are Bad For Storytelling,” she explains how trilogies have taken the literary market by storm, though she doesn’t see this as a good thing. Instead, she argues that the middle book (the “bridge” book, as she coins it) is unnecessary and stretches an otherwise good story too thin. She also claims that authors, instead of staying true to their craft, turn to the profit that comes from writing trilogies, even if it’s at the expense of their story.

Upon reading this, I felt a moral obligation to be the Trilogy Defender, as there are numerous trilogies other than just the mainstream ones that successfully tell their story and require a trilogy to do it well.

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Burying a Buzzword: Is Anything Unprecedented?

2/1/2025

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by Jamie M. Roes

Unprecedented means “unknown”: we have never done this before. We do not know how to do this thing and we do not know the level of success that lies before us. It is an intimidating word. Sometimes, we like this feeling of the unknown; it’s why mystery novels are so popular. Reading a mystery novel does not impact the larger areas of your life though. In 1927, writer H.P. Lovecraft stated, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is the fear of the unknown.” This phrase was eventually reduced to “the fear of the unknown” and it is a fear caused by a lack of information and a low tolerance for uncertainty. Uncertainty does not allow us to predict an outcome, which means we can not make a future plan.

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Don't Stop Writing Fanfiction

12/1/2024

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by Bethaney Randazzo

“Stop writing fanfiction, and go get published.”

I often wonder where I would be if a twenty-three-year-old me had listened to that creative writing professor. Would I currently be in a masters in writing program, while teaching first-year college writing, on my way to transforming some of nearly eighty stories I’ve written over the decade since that comment was made into publishable works? Probably not.

via Canva

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Who Can Write What?

8/1/2024

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by Eric Noon

Image by nugroho dwi hartawan from Pixabay

One of the most common sayings for writers is to “write what you know.” Pulling from your own experiences and the things that you’re already familiar with are great ways to get the juices flowing and to fill in the gaps of otherwise tiresome or troubling writing in which we writers can often get bogged down. After all, it’s much easier to put a twist on a story you already know, or embellish something that’s happened to you--the bulk of the work is already done! The real question, and maybe where the advice needs to shift, is “what can we learn from the things we don’t already know?”

If all we’re to write about is our own experiences, then what room does that leave for us to learn, to empathize with, and to appreciate the stories of others? Writing about what we don’t know, the experiences we personally will never have to go through, could potentially help us to connect and build bridges with one another in ways we couldn’t see before. But as with any work of art, the court of public opinion holds a lot of sway in what is acceptable and what is not. I’m often left with the burning question of “Who can write what?

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Queerbaiting: Victim or Villain?

6/1/2024

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by Emily Langford

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

As a queer, “elder millennial” who watched as personal computers suddenly took root in our homes, I experienced the rise of online fandom firsthand. Prior to the internet, my experience with fandom was a solo one, I didn’t know anyone who had the same obsessive passion for stories and characters like I had. I was the annoying kid who would, unprompted, spew out tidbits and theories about books and movies, the weirdo who was off in her own little world where all her characters existed at my day-dreamy little whims. I was tolerated at best and I eventually learned to keep my fervor to myself. I remember the first time I entered the titles of my favorite obsessions into the search bar. Suddenly, I was very much not alone. Each of my hyperfixations had a dedicated chat room or message board with other people who understood, who shared my passions. I finally found a place of acceptance.

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Trilogies are Essential (and Not Just For Profit)

Burying a Buzzword: Is Anything Unprecedented?

Don't Stop Writing Fanfiction

Who Can Write What?

Queerbaiting: Victim or Villain?

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