writing

From falsified memoirs to forged manuscripts, these literary hoaxes prove once again that reality can often be stranger than fiction.

A woman on her phone in the streets of Paris

You know "LOL" and "FML," but what about other social media and text abbreviations? Here are the 10 that stump people the most.

‘The Shining’ made King one unhappy camper.

King has nursed a grudge against Stanley Kubrick’s film for decades. In 1980, he explained to David Letterman why it left him so cold.

If you want to start journaling, a commonplace book is a low-stakes entrypoint.

Use it to write down quotes, facts, jokes, and any other random snippets you accumulate.

Ulysses Grant Dietz doesn't just write about vampires, though.

The 18th president’s descendant had a storied career in museum curation before turning his attention to an affable vampire.

At the most extreme, some forms of constrained writing are even more self-limiting and end up being very, very constrained indeed.

Don’t miss your chance to own a piece of literary history.

The SAT and ACT are both standardized tests, but what‘s the difference between the two?

Learn about the SAT and ACT differences, including test format, scoring systems, and duration.

Let the luck of the Irish hit your TBR pile.

This St. Patrick’s Day, revisit literary classics by Irish authors like James Joyce and Roddy Doyle, plus discover a few new writers along the way with this roundup.

The link between singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and writer Nora Ephron is mostly a forgotten footnote in pop culture history, but the story behind it all is absolutely fascinating.

Latin isn’t widely spoken in Latin America, so why is it called that?

Think twice before depending on AI news summaries.

AI has made major strides in recent years, but it still struggles with accurate news summaries.

A wooden tablet covered in still-undeciphered Rongorongo script.

Without a Rosetta Stone for these centuries-old writing systems, the meaning of the texts may never be known.

2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin had a concession speech written up for election night—but wasn’t allowed to deliver it.

For every speech, there are a bunch of versions that ended up on the writers' room floor. Here are 12 speeches that were written but, for a variety of reasons, never delivered.

The cover of Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs. Dalloway.’

The novel, which turns 100 this year, was so successful that it allowed Woolf to put in a bathroom she called “Mrs. Dalloway’s closet.”

Handwritten love letters are underrated.

“Dear Miss Saucy ... I hereby order you to give me as many kisses and as many hours of your company as I shall please to demand.”

The agency needs help deciphering the flowing penmanship of the past.

The terms are more literal than you might have assumed.

Here's how Stieg Larsson's modern classic came to be.

A whole lot of foreshadowing in these pages.

How many have you come across?

In 1985, Chief Wiley went for a swim and was never seen or heard from again. What he left behind shocked his community.

Bram Stoker's bibliography just got richer.

The tale was composed as Stoker was working on his iconic vampire.

Plus, a simple trick that will help you identify most true cases of the passive voice. (Hint: It involves zombies.)

R.L. Stine—the father of children’s horror lit.

Series like R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps introduced '90s kids to horror at a young age.

7 of the Biggest Literary Hoaxes in History

How to Keep a Commonplace Book: The Renaissance-Era Practice That’s Making a Comeback

Ulysses S. Grant’s Great-Great-Grandson Is Alive—and Writing Erotic Vampire Novels

8 Extraordinary Examples of Constrained Writing

Charles Dickens’s Ornate Travel Desk Is Up for Auction

ACT vs. SAT: What’s the Difference?

11 Essential Books by Irish Authors That Are Worth Reading

A Simple Twist of Fate: The Surprising Connection Between Bob Dylan and Nora Ephron

How Did Latin America Get Its Name?

AI News Summaries Contain Significant Errors More Than Half the Time, BBC Study Finds

8 Ancient Writing Systems That Haven’t Been Deciphered Yet

12 Historical Speeches Nobody Ever Heard

10 Interesting Facts About Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs. Dalloway’

Dear Valentine: A Brief History of Great Love Letters

The National Archives Is Looking for Volunteers With a “Superpower”: Reading Cursive

The Surprisingly Literal Reason We Call Letters “Uppercase” and “Lowercase”

8 Fascinating Facts About ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’

7 Obscure Literary Devices

Mel Wiley, the Ohio Police Chief Who May Have Authored His Own Demise

A Long-Lost Short Story by ‘Dracula’ Author Bram Stoker Has Been Rediscovered After 130 Years

The Great Passive Voice Panic: Why Everyone (Even Grammar Experts) Gets It Wrong

It Came From the Kid Lit Section: Remembering the Children’s Horror Boom of the 1990s