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Category Archives: Literary devices
The Villain’s Motive
There are multiple ways of uncovering how a person can become a villain. I can look at my own life and see what others did to harm me or what I have done to them by preventing them from accomplishing … Continue reading
A Likable Villain?
Authors sometimes seek villains that their audience can identify with because they want the readers invested in the villain. This helps to propel a person to finish a book if they really don’t know what is going to happen to … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Creativity, Literary devices, Literature, Trends in books, Writing trends
Tagged sympathetic villain
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The Lead-footed Writer
In movies when an event is crucial to survival (such as disarming a bomb) the clock keeps ticking away on until the last minute as the hero tries to figure out which wire to cut. He wipes the sweat off … Continue reading
The Fable of the Hook
Readers seeking excitement prefer a story starting with the main character fleeing down a dark alley, reeling from an initial enemy strike, or near the edge of Niagara Falls. This immediate danger creates an adrenaline rush. Even if the reader … Continue reading
The Most Memorable Kind of Hero
Is this true that a memorable hero of incredible wisdom and strength can only show full worth when pitted against an incredibly powerful villain? The similarities between villains and heroes are often noted in fiction. So how does an author … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Creativity, Drama and movies, Literary devices, Writer's resource
Tagged hero, memorable, strength
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The Sports Hero’s Journey
When advised to base stories on the hero’s journey, I realized that the “monomyth model” constructed plots based on a large sampling of Greek mythology. I’ve always had a suspicion that these myths were based on real people. The characters … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Drama and movies, Literary devices, Story structure, Writer's resource, Writing trends
Tagged monomyth
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Keeping the Unknown a Mystery
I was engrossed in a mystery that grabbed me from the beginning. Set in the mid nineteenth century it commenced with a spooky chase scene in the fog. The shadow-like suspect disappeared around the corner of a stately brownstone. Then, … Continue reading
Posted in Literary devices, Story structure, Style and voice, Writer's resource, Writing trends
Tagged mystery, suspense
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Getting the Utopian Novel Right
H.G. Wells kept trying to get the utopian novel right. His novel A Modern Utopia has a fictional framework–the protagonist meets a man from a perfect society on a distant island. The book is really a philosophical essay describing the … Continue reading
Dystopian Entertainment
The plethora of dystopian novels that involve putting teens into deadly trials has begun to disturb me. Starting with Hunger Games, which was similar to a YA version of the Running Man, the stories read like athletic competitions run amok. … Continue reading
Fairy Tale or Dystopia?
The desire to be considered superior and above the crowd exists in most people. We try to ignore the fact that the majority of us are commoners. From time immemorial stories arise with the promise of reaching status by marrying … Continue reading
