Writing Imagery

Posted on April 7, 2022 by knlistman

What is the difference between describing details and creating imagery? Perhaps I should ask what is the difference in describing details that are exquisite and those full of boring minutia. The concept is difficult to explain because it does depend on how much that readers desire to immerse themselves in the scene. I may want my readers to see, feel, smell, hear and even taste the locale of the story. However, a passage written for all five senses can make a person dizzy. Although a sense of equilibrium is a sensation, too, I may not want that effect.

So, I decided to research what some experts in the fields of communication had to say about imagery.

Noam Chomsky, a linguist and cognitive scientist, who is known for his political involvement has examined how the public perceives advertisements. According to Chomsky:

Everyone knows that when you look at a television ad, you do not expect to get information. You expect to see delusion and imagery.

Noam Chomsky

Marshall McLuhan, was known for his communication and media theories, and particularly the application of his theories. His most famous quote is “the medium is the message.”  He wrote extensively on how marketing and advertising appeals to people. He made the following comment on the realm of politics:

Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be.

Marshall McLuhan

There is a similar theme running through both of these quotes, the idea that imagery provides more than actually exists in the object or person being described.  The literary device of imagery can be defined as using words to create a mental picture. However, the mental picture is not simply what exists, but more than what exists. It is an amped up description that provides a greater intensity.

When imagery is used to describe a simple cookie dipped in tea it takes on a taste, texture and color that make it magically memorable. An  ordinary machine can become  a frightening monstrosity because imagery can be description on steroids.

Some of the techniques that move imagery to this level are comparisons known as similes and metaphors.  Similes typically deal with more superficial appearances.  For example, the sky  was filled with clouds, dark gray as slate. Metaphors typically deal with deeper structural similarities as in the sky is a vast, turbulent ocean of air.  This similarity can be stretched into complex extended metaphors. However in each case the writer is adding nuances to the description that are beyond simply what is observed. Imagery adds connotations which builds another level of perception and results in something being more appealing or distasteful than it actually is.

In the end what the reader desires is not simply to feel like they are present with the author but to be able to see the intangibles: the feelings, desires and very beliefs that drive the words on the written page. Remember the imagery in commercials: the man standing stalwart in front of the flapping flag sells stability not the candidate, and the car rushing down the open road sells freedom, rather than a brand of automobile. People do  not want to read books to show them reality, but something beyond it.

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Writing Sarcasm

Posted on March 31, 2022 by knlistman

The difference between satire and sarcasm makes the first one easier to express in writing. I can take a well-known trope and push it to an unreasonable extreme to create a satirical story. However, delivery of sarcastic lines often requires a tone of voice, something with an edge to it, so the recipient realizes what I am saying in a serious voice is not at all what I mean. A specific tone of voice is hard to replicate in writing.

I recall sitting with a group of women who chatted around a table. Their topic concerned what it took to be a “Southern Lady.” They based most of their storytelling yarns on their mother’s instructions while competing with each to relate the most outlandish piece of advice. Their conversation gave me some insights into writing sarcasm.

One of the women sweetly drawled, “I never could understand my mother’s bit about making sure I had on clean underwear before going on a car trip in case I was in an accident.”

Another woman added, “Me neither. If I were in a car crash and bleeding to death, I doubt anyone would be worried about how clean my underwear was.”

The first woman continued with a honeyed giggle bound to draw attention to her. “Still she would remind me every time we got in the car. Sometimes, she simply would insist that I go back in the house and put on another pair, but I would have none of that.”

“My mother would insist that I put on clean underwear, too,” a third woman chimed in. “I simply refuse to do it.”

“Intentionally wearing dirty underwear—what a great way to stand up to your mothers.” I commented.

At first, they looked confused because my tone of voice was completely dry. Finally, the third woman shot me a nasty look.

That is the difficulty with using sarcasm as humor in writing. It is a biting way of bringing attention to a lack of logic. It is a backward manner of saying what I really don’t mean. Unlike satire, a type of buffoonery used to ridicule a subject that is often not there, sarcasm almost always requires the presence of the person caught in the mistake to make sense. The inflection of a sarcastic comment is subtle. It is not accompanied with “Let me tell you about…” or the guffaws that often mark brazen attempts at humor.

Without these cues some people are unsure how to respond. Psychologist Penny Pexman from University of Calgary confirmed in her study that people are more likely to use sarcasm with their friends than strangers. She also found that children as young as five can be adept at picking up the real meaning behind facetious comments, which they evidently learn from their parents. But using sarcasm does make others think and even helps them solve problems according to research. [1]

However, studies have uncovered significant differences in use of sarcasm by country and even between regions in the United States. A whopping 20% more Northerners in the U.S. found sarcasm funnier than people from the South did. So, I suppose I shouldn’t look too harshly on the trio of “Southern” women not knowing the appropriate way to respond to sarcasm. They only needed to reply with an even more witty barb.

[1] Richard Chin, “The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right” Smithsonian.com, November 14, 2011

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Nothing New under the Sun

Posted on March 24, 2022 by knlistman

There have been authors for many millennia and the tools that they use have changed—from painting on stones, to drawing on animal skin, to writing with ink on paper, to using block prints and printing presses and we have electronic reproductions. The tools that remain the same are the ones in the author’s mind.

Creating a plot that has never been used before is an ultimate if not impossible challenge. That is one of the problems with being well-read. I have learned to simply surrender to using plots that have been done before. All the good ideas have been used in the past. But, some are good enough that reusing them will not hurt the story. So, I choose an old favorite design for my story and change it using details from my own life. The characters, the time frame, and the setting are current, and I even put in a twist or two that doesn’t occur in the original story, or at least the version that I know. If I keep on reading, I’ll find someone who took the same detour as I did.

We recognize writing from different periods because of the style of language and writing, not the plot. Or, do styles also get reused, too? Choose a new technique that is the latest rage in fiction, and you might find that it has been done before. Since the super lean writing that became popular (again) in the 1950’s and 60’s there has been a hunger for text that is juicier, with a little more fat on it. The third-person subjective, also known as deep POV, is designed to give the readers insights into the thoughts of the characters.

Most examples of the third-person subjective show it used during conversations. The idea is that a character cannot be trusted to say what they really mean. But, neither can the reader be trusted to figure out this covert meaning. The deep POV is an interior view, much like a first person narrator. However it differs in that events can be seen through the eyes of more than one person. Authors are advised not to “head-hop” while doing this but what exactly does this mean. I am allowing people to see into the head of more than one person . Can I only use one person’s deep POV per chapter, per page or per paragraph?

I liked the way that Virginia Woolf handled this technique in Mrs. Dalloway. I viewed the world from the inside of one character’s head for a while, at least until another character approached. After the two conversed and I gained some familiarity with the second character, the author entered their head. She passed the revelation of interior thoughts like one might pass a ball when playing a game. However, during the time that Virginia Woolf wrote, this technique was known as “stream of consciousness.”

Are we looping around to pick up techniques from the past? Is this signaling a return to the philosophizing characters of Fyodor Dostoevsky or the internal monologues of William Shakespeare?  Who knows? There really is nothing new under the sun.

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The First Steps of an Endless Journey

Posted on March 17, 2022 by knlistman

At times I become frustrated with aspiring young authors. They may ask questions such as ”I have this cool idea about a boy that can fly; how do I write the story?” Or they beg for even more help. “I want to be a writer; do you have any good ideas for books?” My immediate response is, “If you want to write, you have to be driven to do it.” Still, every author has to start at a less than proficient level. Just as athletes don’t walk onto the field knowing how to play their sport without years of practice, writers have to train.

Most athletes begin their career as children getting instruction from parents and school coaches. Even when the young person has lost a competition, this aspiring athlete receives feedback as a basis for their improvement. Does watching baseball a lot make you better at baseball? It does a little bit. Baseball players can mimic move by move what a professional athlete does. However, they must get onto the field and practice these moves in realistic situations to improve their game.

As a writer you are not allowed to copy exactly what somebody else does because that is known as plagiarism. So, the first step in writing is often to produce work that may follow a prompt but is based on your own idea. These early steps tend to be harder than many ever suspected. But take heart, over ninety percent of authors felt the same struggle when they first started. Even if you cannot copy another author’s work verbatim, reading it will help you learn how to write. The gist of how to write, taking the ideas in your head and reproducing them as words on a page, is learned by the act of writing. You can read a lot, but it will not help nearly as much as writing a lot.

Any creative skill does not spring completely from your imagination. It needs to be developed. Each author has their ideas on how to create a character, setting, and plot. You do not want to duplicate what they have done, but you can use their work as a springboard for coming up with your own ideas. It doesn’t really help much if you ask other authors for assistance until you have something written for them to review. Every writer must also develop techniques to maintain the discipline to keep going.

So where does a person, who really wants to write a book but doesn’t know how, go for help? The first obvious place is an institution that offers classes on writing. The instructions received there can often be deduced from books on writing. However, classes offer structure and deadlines. This second part is important for those that rely on external motivation. Also, visit the local homes of books–libraries and bookstores. They may provide books and magazines on writing with varying usefulness. These are also good places to find out about community writer’s groups. Being around other writers  may help you learn the ropes about publishing (which is constantly changing) and find a place to receive feedback on your work before you decide it is ready for publication.

All of this advice doesn’t negate the fact that writing a book still requires being driven to do so. It simply makes the first steps of an endless journey easier.

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When Writing is a Race

Posted on March 10, 2022 by knlistman

I’ve always envied authors who write quickly. Many of them pull ideas from their own life. Sometimes, when I finish reading a good novel I feel like I’ve met some of the characters, because the author has actually met the people who fill their stories.

Alan Paton was a prolific writer of academic papers and essays, many detailing the problems facing native Africans and expressing his own views against apartheid. However, he is most remembered as the author of Cry the Beloved Country. It was not only a well written book, but also composed rapidly. He wrote much of it in his downtime, stuck in a hotel during bad weather while visiting correctional institutions in Scandinavia.

Alan Paton’s job was running one of these correctional institutions for native African youth in the Republic of South Africa. He knew the material in his book because it was the kind of events that occupied his life. I realized when I read the court scene in Cry the Beloved Country that this was written by a person who unfortunately knew the legal routine used in criminal trials very well.

Here are some ideas that I gleaned from the life and works of Alan Paton that might help increase how fast I write and still produce excellent work.

1) Write frequently. A daily habit of writing is a way of practicing that art, similar to the daily practice of other skills such as playing an instrument. The repetition actually makes the task easier to do. However,  the challenge in daily writing is to continue to create something new.

2) Write about what is intimately familiar. This doesn’t mean I never have to pause to research anything as I write. Research can be necessary but it takes an increasing amount of my time because I justify doing this task even if I only glean a tiny bit of information for my writing. I need to realize when the time to find trivial facts is too great

3) Travel somewhere else and leave familiar places behind. New experiences do help the flow of creativity. However, new environments also help me see the place I left behind with new and more observant eyes.

4) Write in a place where I am alone and have nothing else to do. Most of the time I can find something else to do, even if it is a peripheral task like organizing my writing files. However, a place with no distractions, because I have no other tasks that can be done there, definitely helps to increase my written output.

5) Write what I care about deeply. This may be the most important item in this list. I will write intently when I have something to say. The drive to express what I want the world to know pushes me to continue when fatigued. Having a purpose to write provides the energy to keep doing it. 

Sometimes, I consider dispensing with the time required to create an outline in order to increase my output. However, I’ve heard authors admit that this shortcut results in writing three to four times as many words as needed for their final book. However, these five tactics listed above can be used no matter your technique for writing. 

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Whose Needs to Be Involved in Reading Curriculum?

Posted on March 3, 2022 by knlistman

Parents, children and school personnel all need to be involved reviewing books for the literature curriculum. I’ll tell you why.

In sixth they had us read the Iliad and I wasn’t getting it. I asked my mom to read it to me. At one point, she said it was inappropriate and stopped reading. She asked the teacher for my reading assignment to be changed. Instead I was assigned stories from the regular six grade textbook. It was still Greek mythology but had a language and content level specifically for sixth grade readers. This was not true for our unabridged version of the Iliad. It had sexual content that was going over my head. 

In ninth grade the school sent home a parent permission slip to read Khalid Hosseini’s The Kite Runner which portrayed graphic sexual violence. The alternative was to read a book which had been in the curriculum for a while, Lord of the Flies. Both works contain some violence in them. But this permission was specifically to read the sexual violence included in The Kite Runner.

I discussed this with my mom. She said my older brother had read A Thousand Splendid Suns and did not like it. She said the regular curricular assignment, Lord of the Flies, was a much better book. We came to the agreement that if I was the only student who didn’t get the permission slip signed, she would sign it. I had gone through that experience before of being the only student with an alternative assignment. As it turned out I was the only one whose parents had not said yes.

I ended up choosing to read The Kite Runner, which was a decision I learned to regret. I disliked this book with its predictable plot and poorly written characters. The rape scene was only there to make the antagonist seem worst, just another accessory to an excessively bad character and not a thoughtful addition to the story. It could have been removed and the bad guy would still be an unrealistic Nazi sympathizer, child molester, and member of the Taliban. The part of the book that required the parent’s signature was not necessary for the plot.

The protagonist was an ordinary man, possibly a self-insert of the author. The author must have felt the need to create an over-the-top dynamic with a vicious villain against pitiable side characters in order to make this ordinary person seem like a heroic protagonist. This resulted in a heavy-handed story-telling. It was obvious what I was supposed to get out of the story. There was no room for discussion about the meaning of this book.

In eleventh grade gifted English Literature class, I was assigned a second book by Khalid Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns, the one my brother had read and disliked. It had characters just as unrealistic as Kite Runner. Some students in my class said it was the first book that they read all of the way through. However, it was one I could not stomach. The author was obviously trying to make a feminist point and yet didn’t understand the relationship between men and women. It turned out to be so oversimplified that I couldn’t push myself through this book. After the first few chapters I switched to reading the Spark Notes.

Later after I was out of high school I read Lord of the Flies on my own. I enjoyed it and realized the book had a deeper meaning. Was it about this specific war or the innate violence in human nature? But, I was not in a classroom setting. I had no one to discuss my ideas with me. 

The books assigned to classrooms should not be exciting stories meant to keep us engaged. They should be books that are slightly above our reading level with heavy topics for discussion. This does not mean “adult” content based on sex and violence, but political and philosophical ideas.

This is a guest blog by J.W. Listman, Photo by

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Choice

Posted on February 24, 2022 by knlistman

Ninth grade literature class–I was not aware that I had been chosen for the class of only twelve students. We read a few short stories in common and discussed them. The lengthier novels we selected for ourselves and read them individually. Everyone had different essays to write based on what they read. I figured that this kind of independence was just the nature of high school. Now that I am older, I wish it were the norm for more students.

My favorite book at the time was the Count of Monte Cristo, a gift from my older brother. The teacher then provided me with excerpts from other French authors and recommended reading the unabridged version of Les Miserable. Years later when this play became a musical, I took my youngest child to see this play performed at the high school where I worked. (It was a version edited for high school production). Still a connection grew between us as she watched a drama unfold that had intrigued me as a student not much older than her. 

Back to my high school English class–it contained a modest size library of paperbacks, which the students could peruse. If I chose a book that was not to my liking, I could put it down and start another. At one point I selected Fahrenheit 451, not knowing that this copy had the curse words expunged from it. Did this censorship in a book about book burning ruin my experience with literature? Not at all, instead I became fond of Ray Bradbury’s work. My next selection was his anthology of short stories called Dandelion Wine, which I enjoyed even more. The author wrote about being human in a style filled with imagery and emotion that did not require an exciting science-fiction plot to keep my interest. 

Even though my child’s ability to read was hampered by dyslexia. I did not want her to miss the experience of reading classics. Often I would read works to her I had treasured as a young teen. When her entire class was assigned Fahrenheit 451, I read it to her aloud and did not think this time it would be any different. However, I was a bit surprised at the cursing and wondered why I did not notice it the first time I read the book. So, I asked her if it was okay if I skipped these words. She told me that the teacher was doing the same thing.

Questions formed immediately. Despite having dyslexia my child was in a regular ninth grade class. If the other students had normal reading skills, why did the teacher need to read the book aloud? If the other students had the maturity of high school students, why did she have to refrain from saying the curse words. Well, perhaps it was because they only had the maturity of high school students. Their snickering, or worse behavior, would cause a disruption. Would they be able to understand Montag’s desperate acts, such as turning the book burning torch on his boss? Or would they miss the point of it and assume they were reading the comic superhero kind of violence.

When I introduced literature to my own child, I had a sense of her maturity and readiness to face the crimes of mankind. Yes, the books were fiction, but the truth was not far off (and often more senselessly violent). Today, students are treated like clones, sent to classes to read without the ability to choose, and without real guidance based on their maturity. Perhaps that is the reason that some never connect with literature, and the diet of new books is not going to create the connection that needs to exist between the person personally recommending the book and the child who can choose it.

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Crime and picture books

Posted on February 17, 2022 by knlistman

At the library my five-year-old son pulled out a beautifully illustrated book of an old steam train. He had ridden in a few that still run for tourists. It was the kind of activity we did as a family, and he seemed to not mind these less than exciting trips. It was a little disconcerting for him to see illustrations in the library book of an old steam train being attacked by Cheyenne, and one of the workers lying by the side of the track pierced by arrows. The train was forced off of the track in a wreck as the braves celebrated. So, he simply disregarded the message that the author of Death of the Iron of Horse was trying to get through to 5 to 8-year-old children. He assumed it was a made up story; much like Where the Wild Things Are. Otherwise, his family would not have risked riding on steam engines.

In first grade my son was supposed to read a book on Thanksgiving and give a report, as was every other child in his class. We didn’t get to the library early enough to have any choice. We ended up with an illustrated grade school book mostly about King Philip’s war. In 1612 Massasoit was an honored guest at the first Thanksgiving feast. A little more than fifty years later his son Philip, the Wampanoag chief, engaged in one of the bloodiest conflicts between Native Americans and the British settlers. It concluded with Philips’ severed head being paraded through the streets.

Even as an adult, there is no way to comprehend the trauma of war without experiencing it—something I don’t want children to ever have to do. Without this experience we read the frightening part of books, even non-fiction books, as exciting events from which we are safe. Many adults still do that with a steady diet of murder mysteries and thrillers.

In first grade, my son still saw war as a game played on the computer. I discussed with him how much of this story should be described in class. It ended up being very little of it. There was no reason to have his first grade classes terrified of Native Americans. Sometimes, I wondered if people who determined which books went into the children’s section in our town library were aware of the greater representation of violence depicted in the picture books for that group.

That is a difficulty trying to lure in children with lovely illustrations to prep them for ideas that they simply are not ready to comprehend. Children understand make-believe long before they grasp the meaning of atrocities. However, once children have even a vague grasp of the violence that does exist, what happens then? Will children still refuse to acknowledge what is occurring? Or will they accept violence as something normal? 

I tried to find facts about the result of exposing children to violence in books before they were ready. There was no consensus. The only related research indicated that grade-school aged children growing up in a neighborhood with higher crime rates preferred a higher level of violence in books. Those growing up in relatively safer places, did not want to read stories with as much violence. This could be a preference to read about situations that reflected one’s own life. We often talk about author’s writing what they know. Children seem to prefer to read what they know.

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How Much Do You Know about Banned Books?

Posted on February 10, 2022 by knlistman

The banning of books has gained a lot of notoriety recently. The image that pops into most people’s mind is a scene from Fahrenheit 451 in which books are torched in a flaming show of destruction. This has occurred in the past in some countries. One of my favorite books was banned in the Soviet Union, and smuggled out into the rest of the world, The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. But, now if a book is pulled from a school or library it is just sold elsewhere.

It’s crucial to know if books are actually banned in the United States, now. Many of the titles in the lists of “banned books” online are not actually banned, but have been challenged. People have requested the book to be removed from a local school or library. It only becomes banned if they are successful in this request, and usually the book is only removed from a specific location, such as one school or one public library. People in the US do not have the power to remove the book everywhere the country. Even the Anarchist Cookbook with instructions used to make explosives in the Oklahoma City bombing is available online. Think about this logically. If we didn’t have access to these books elsewhere, few people would know that they even existed.

Today, states and cities do have obscenity statues to prevent the distribution of pornography particularly the kind dealing with children. The request to ban a book is almost always made because of sexual and/or violent content; often because it is assumed to be unsuitable for children. The majority of people challenging books are parents of school aged children. I learned this because I tried to do it once. I had no desire to get a book removed from all places within the United States. (That’s just not possible.) But, I did request that it be removed from the curriculum in the 6th grade classes at the school where my child attended. It didn’t even have to be removed from the elementary school library. I didn’t fear children picking it up and reading it for their enjoyment because most of them were frustrated having to read the book in class. It was the ancient Greek classic called The Iliad.

I didn’t realize they were reading the entire story until one of the other parents talked to me about trying to explain the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon. Exactly does one explain to an 11-year-old why two Greek heroes were fighting over the possession of a war trophy concubine named Briseis? Children that age generally don’t even know what a concubine is. I know because I was working in another 6th grade class when a student asked me. Explaining the purpose of a sex slave is the kind of question that teachers don’t want to answer.

So, I asked my own questions, such as who decided that the sixth graders were going to read The Iliad. The person was a new reading curriculum coordinator who assumed that early exposure to the classics would make it easier for the children to read them later on. Therefore, I wrote a letter explaining why the Iliad was inappropriate for sixth grade and should be removed from the curriculum. All I got was the ability to replace it with something else for my own child. I talked to other parents, hoping that some of them would catch on to the problem. Most played it safe, and didn’t get involved. However, I did earn something of a reputation. When my child moved up to junior high school, one of the language arts teachers would send home books for us to read together to determine if they were suitable for the regular classes.

The young curriculum coordinator got to do things her way for a time, and the result was not what she probably envisioned. By the time my children were in high school, there had been so many complaints about the students not comprehending the classics, that many of their novels were now modern and some best sellers, even in the gifted classes. Front loading the curriculum with early exposure to difficult literary works resulted in students abandoning them later on. When it came time for the AP Literature test the high school scores were dismally low.

We need to be aware of what is assigned in school and available for our children. Then, we need to be willing to talk to the people making those decisions. They are not always aware of why exposure to books not suitable for a child’s age may actually prevent children from becoming better readers.

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What limits should side characters have?

Posted on February 3, 2022 by knlistman

Most people are at least vaguely familiar with Anna Karenina if they know anything about Russian literature. Perhaps they have seen one of the movies made from this famous novel. I even discussed this book with a student who had grown up under the Russian school system and learned that students read a simplified version of this classic in their elementary years. However, neither the stunning Anna Karenina nor her lover Alexei Vronsky is the major character in this novel. Rather the shy and unconventional aristocrat Konstantin Levin is the protagonist. I am fond of classic Russian novels because they contain multiple interesting characters in conflict. Just one intriguing character is usually not enough for me. 

Often authors are reluctant to create side characters with unusual qualities for fear that these will outshine their major character. However, it is often the nature of the protagonists’ struggles rather than their traits that draws the reader to these main characters. One high fantasy novella I read had major characters which fit that genre, an aging but still powerful wizard, a beautiful fairy with spunk and charm, and a human child with an enchanted singing voice. Unfortunately, this trio had the perfect combination of skills and power to help them defeat their enemy, a villainous wizard robbing the people of their voices. However, I was more intrigued with a side plot in this novella; a wind nymph had fallen in love with a warrior elf, who knew she existed but paid no attention to her. This story of unrequited love was never resolved. So, I found those two characters more intriguing than strong “one note” main characters.

It is not necessary to make side characters a bland vanilla flavor, but rather let them start weaving their own story into that of the main character. Even a protagonist that is not as flamboyant will not be overshadowed if the relationship is handled correctly. The protagonist can observe the lives of flashier side characters, such as Levin does in Anna Karenina. He provides an insight into the quandaries faced by people around him, quandaries similar to his own, and observes how they fail to overcome these conflicts. This is an important step in his own growth.

You may find that the side characters present a story that is richer and poses a problem more unsolvable than the one faced by the main character. Don’t worry about this. Major characters can still learn from minor characters who have more dramatic conflicts if you allow the reader to have insight into their own intimate struggles.  

Even as the most evil villain will not necessarily make the hero shine, the most interesting side characters may not make the main character seem boring.

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