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Author Archives: knlistman
Imitative Arts
When studying theories of creativity, I encountered R.J. Sternberg’s idea that “Creative individuals, by their nature, tend to defy the crowd. They resist merely thinking or doing what others are thinking or doing.” This idea resonated with me but often does … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Ideas for writing, Trends in books, Writing trends
Tagged AI art, AI writing, Creativity decline
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Collaborating with Other Authors
How do multiple writers work together to produce a work superior to their individual abilities? With a great deal of struggling. Despite the idea that synergy, or combining abilities of people in groups, to produce better ideas than individuals most … Continue reading
Are Writers Born or Made?
Start any discussions on the art of writing fiction and you will quickly find the group divided. On one side people claim it is an innate trait that people are either born with or without. But, when the authors that … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Ideas for writing, Literature, Teaching writing skills
Tagged innate writing
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Artificial or Average
Recently I took a hiatus from writing poetry or fiction for over an hour almost every day. It wasn’t really intentional. Originally, I saw the two weeks’ work shut down at the end of the year as a gleaming opportunity … Continue reading
False Starting Advice
Sometimes, the worst advice to give a new writer is that there are rules to writing and the new writer must master these. Especially before attempting to break any of them. Not all writers are created equally. And, even seasoned … Continue reading
The Monstrous Part of Writing
The introduction of writing into the state educational achievement tests resulted in a plethora of writing models. One teacher supported the “Six Plus One Trait” writing model with a kind of fanaticism. Others plugged a device called the “freeze frame” … Continue reading
Did You Really Mean What You Said?
Dialogue in writing differs from real conversations. Fictional characters rarely ramble on for pages, circumventing what they really want to say with phrases that sound good but have hard to pinpoint meanings. Most of the uh’s, um’s and pauses in … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Literary devices, Style and voice, Writer's resource, Writing trends
Tagged catch phrases, conversation, descriptions in dialog tags, dialog, dialog tags, editing out style, filler words in dialog, quality dialog, removing personality from characters, voice in writing
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Adventures in Forbidden POVs
Currently I am reading a novella by Virginia Woolf called To the Lighthouse. It intrigues me because it broaches the problem of flat female characters found in many early twentieth century novels. Woolf reveals what’s going on in their heads. … Continue reading
Distorted POVs
It amuses me when people ask which point of view is best. But, I probably chuckled more when a new writer asked if it was okay to describe what a character was thinking when writing in the third-person POV. “Can’t … Continue reading
Elusive Elaboration
My friend bubbled over with excitement about her new concept for a river adventure story. She had all the characters, the settings and the basic ideas in her mind. However, as she began writing out scenes, some of the escapades … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Literature, Novels, Writer's resource, Writing trends
Tagged classic literature, elaboration, ideas
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