Nobody writes subheadings anymore.
Think about 19th century English novels with the great chapter divisions that read "In Which Our Dashing Hero Meets The Damsel Of His Dreams And Loses Her To An Untimely Accident." I've loved the technique since I was a kid, and I don't even know if there is a literary term for these sub-titles.
So imagine my suprise when I read Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery, a first-time novelist who broke up his hallucinatory novel with helpful subheadings--a term we will christen "literary headlines."
Slattery's our special guest this week, and today, he convened The World's First, Briefest Writing Workshop Dedicated Solely To The Art Of The Literary Headline.
Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog:
Why did you pick the form? How did you choose the names for the subheadings? Any advice for writers looking to use this technique, any books we should read that exemplify the form?
Brian Francis Slattery:
I don't know if there's a term for it either. Continue reading...