Author Archives: knlistman

Originally posted on Write about what?:
Why can’t we be all like adolescent girls, and laugh more? The topic of the discussion thread caught my attention. Evidently girls between the ages of 11 and 18 all over the world laugh…

Originally posted on Write about what?:
The group of women sat around a table, discussing their mother’s instructions on being a “Southern Lady. ” In their story telling manner they competed with each to relate the most outlandish piece of…

Originally posted on Write about what?:
Investing money cc-by-sa-2.0 Optimism and pessimism are not two distinct styles but rather ends of a continuum. At the optimistic end people expect only good events to happen to them. They concentrate on stimuli…

There are no new stories. Today’s most popular books are built on the plots of stories that have existed for millennia. In the same manner today’s current personality assessments are built  on much older theories.  Sometime around 2400 years ago, … Continue reading →

Readers may be drawn to the impassioned, spirited, exciting and mercurial hero figure. In real life we often find of these  people over-emotional, high-strung, frenzied and hot-tempered. So this kind of protagonist needs a balancing factor. A good place to … Continue reading →

Originally posted on Write about what?:
Having seen discussion boards in which people spend time arguing about the merits of fictional characters, I would assume that a number of readers prefer these imaginary people to real ones. Fictional characters may…

Originally posted on Write about what?:
Sometime in the eighties I noticed a shift in the focus of television sitcoms–the humorous situation was gradually being replaced by humorous banter. Witty retorts were more important than amusing events. In fact, often…

Originally posted on Write about what?:
One of the quickest ways to make your writing voice stand out from the crowd is to master the use of literary devices. Some devices are just fancy names for specific types of diction…