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Author Archives: knlistman
Out of character
“It fits the perpetrator’s M.O.” … you’ve heard M.O. mentioned in so many police shows, detective novels, any kind of work related to law enforcement. What is it? A profile of a killer who has struck again collection constructed from … Continue reading
The character who saw too much
Writing from the first person point of view routinely goes through periods of popularity only to be followed by a flood of amateurish first person novels. Then, writing “gurus” will advice the beginning writer never to write in first person. … Continue reading
Posted in Story structure, Teaching writing skills, Writer's resource
Tagged hero, point of view, villain
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Physiological writing
What exactly are physiological reactions? Imagine you are a young teenage girl. You are waiting in the math hall, and that handsome senior with an air of indifferent confidence strolls past you on the way to calculus. Normally you are … Continue reading
Unknown, unnerving
While watching a military movie, that was unexpectedly full of death in gory detail (i.e. multiple flying body parts) my mind decided I had seen enough gruesomeness I started laughing. Unable to squelch the giggles, I told my husband that I … Continue reading
Creating pungent memories
The sense of smell is such a powerful memory enhancer that at one time people in the training business tried to capture its potential. However, the difficulty with using smell to help people retain what they had learned is that … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching writing skills, Writer's resource
Tagged Manure, Olfaction, smell and emotion, smell and memory, Vanilla
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The forgotten sense
For an recent practice in sensory description, emerging writers chose a photo from their childhood–playing on a snow drenched hill, seeking warmth in the flicker of a fireplace, or splashing in a plastic pool to escape the summer heat. For … Continue reading
Visualizing conversation
Imagine you are creating an everyday conversation of a fairly happy couple lunching at an outdoor café. The idea is to make it sound ordinary but still drop in some clues about the problems looming just beyond the horizon. However, … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching writing skills, Writer's resource
Tagged dialog, Emotion, Facial expression, Paul Ekman
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Transformations
For a recent assignment, students were to examine an advertisement. Questions led them to look at the visuals: subject of emphasis, originality of image, the placement of objects, type of people pictured. Then, they examined techniques such as use of … Continue reading
The complexity conundrum
While working with the development of a secondary language arts and literature curriculum, I had a co-worker say “If you don’t live by the 6 + 1 trait writing model, we are not going to get along.” At the time … Continue reading
Posted in Education trends, The information age, Writer's resource
Tagged educational fads, Language arts, Rote learning, Writing
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The lesson of the limes
“I’m so degraded, I owe at least a dozen limes.” Amy confesses. She is basically in a pickle, or perhaps more correctly out of pickles, pickled limes that is. She is deep into the fad of bringing limes to school … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Writer's resource
Tagged Education, fads, fads in art, Little Women, trends
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