Website of the Week: Lit Drift

I found this week's website, strangely enough, through a post on the Arizona State University Department of English Undergraduate site.  Yeah, I didn't know Blackboard posts could be so helpful, either.  (I kid, I kid.)

Lit Drift has only been up and running since March, but it is overflowing with literary goodies.  The site proclaims to be dedicated to the art & craft of storytelling in the 21st century; its name is "a nod to how traditional forms of storytelling are, well, drifting into forms wholly new and unexpected."  I know I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but seriously, this site has firmly cemented itself as my Number 2 Favorite Blog (Number 1 being, of course, this one).

The very first thing you see when you enter the site is the Lit Drift header.  Every week features a header with a doodle sent it by one of the readers.  This week's doodle features Romeo gazing up at Juliet on her balcony.  The accompanying poem is as follows:

Zombie Romeo

SEE how she leans

her cheek upon 

her hand! O, that 

I were a glove upon 

that hand. That I might reach inside her 

head and chew on 

her scrumptious BRAIN.

And that's just the beginning of the awesomeness that is Lit Drift.  There's a Daily Prompt to help get your creativity flowing, along with a daily Featured Story.  Every Friday is Free Book Friday, where you can get a totally, completely, 100% no-strings-attached FREE book each and every Friday.  I triple-dog dare you to see if you can find a better way to kick off the weekend than that (that does NOT involve alcohol).

What appeals to me about Lit Drift is that it goes for a fresh approach to storytelling.  You won't find your average "Tips and Tricks to Write a Better Story" here; instead, it's "Some Things the Average Schmoe Can Learn From Crappy Horror Movies," which acknowledges the craptasticness of flicks like The Blair Witch Project and I Know What You Did Last Summer while pointing out that they still have good narrative points, like pacing or character motivation, which in turn can help you write a compelling story.  Just like Darth Vader, there is an ounce of good somewhere down deep in the evil that is all those D-grade bloodbaths.

Do yourself a solid and check it out.