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Recent Posts
- Playing the writing game
- Idea generator
- Vanilla, Chocolate, or Bananas Foster
- In praise of the passive hero
- Not exactly human
- Simmering the main character
- Nonlinear, when does it work?
- “Crazy” characters
- Reduction of language
- The nature of an epic
- Traveling towards the novel
- The secret to naming characters
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Author Archives: knlistman
Traveling towards the novel
Story tellers usually start small. I did this with little sketches referred to as flash fictions, often under 500 words. I won money in contests and published some of these. I began receiving the response, ‘this intrigues me but I … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, plot, Writer's resource
Tagged hero's journey, novel, Short story
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The secret to naming characters
Writers seek every secret advantage that they can to make characters appealing. Choosing a good name for the character is supposed to confer one of those advantages. The only rules I see for naming a fictional person is to make … Continue reading
Real characters
The difference between being believable and being realistic may not be that different between works of fantasy and novels about “real life.” Books about life as we know it are often not realistic but contain an adrenaline-charged or romanticized version … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Literature, Writer's resource
Tagged Fantasy, limitations to power, realism, Science fiction
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How I Judge Books
People are supposed to judge books by the cover, by the blurbs and by who the author is. I have favorite books with unappealing covers, done in an out-of-date style, or an old illustration slapped on the front. I tend … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Trends in books, Writer's resource
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Play the words well
Mastering literary devices is like playing an instrument – you must practice improving your performance by working on only a few songs at a time. So how do you practice? First, start with your own writing. Check to see which … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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The dance of suspense
Suspenseful writing is a dance between plausibility (what makes sense to readers), and the unexpected. Not just any unexpected events, such as inheriting a million dollars, but ominous ones, such as discovering that the previous person who inherited that same … Continue reading
Posted in Story structure, Writer's resource, writing action
Tagged premonition, Supernatural, suspense
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Searching for the perfect quest
A friend of mine who had a desk cluttered with Star Wars memorabilia, raved about each movie. Yet, she admitted sheepishly that she never finished Lord of the Rings because she just couldn’t get into it. When I read the … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, plot, Trends in books, Writer's resource
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The human factor in science fiction
Hardcore science fictions readers may mourn the loss of science fiction writers whose keen insights led them to glimpses of the future. Jules Verne created novels in which characters sailed under oceans throughout the world and traveled to the moon. … Continue reading
Don’t let your main character get away
One item that agents and editors expect—or demand—is that the author provides enough about the main character to draw in the reader from the very beginning. They don’t want a detailed description of appearance, education or employment. However, the text … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Literature, Writer's resource
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The illusive pervasive theme
A website for identifying my writing doppelganger named Cory Doctorow when I used a sample from a short story and Kurt Vonnegut when I used one of my articles. As I tested different parts of a novel, the analysis said … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Writer's resource, writing trends
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