A Series of World Building Woes

Posted on July 7, 2023 by knlistman

I am tentative about announcing a series because I recall the thrill of reading Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson when I was much younger. In this historical fiction a teenager escapes imprisonment on a ship and flees through the wild highlands of Scotland with the assistance of an actual historical murderer, Alan Breck Stewart. Stevenson wrote a sequel to this book named after the main character, David Balfour. The beginning section, in which David encounters Stewart again piqued my interest. However, the rest of this novel devolved into a love story that was pale in comparison to the first book.

Despite my fear of launching into a series that I could not complete, I started playing with plots for an alternate world series. Initially, a small group of people cross a mountain range and encounter a land with signs of a flourishing civilization that had disappeared, or so they thought. Then, they started running into the inhabitants of that fallen empire. But, I wanted my characters to deal with problems that have plagued people throughout the history of our real world to give me enough fuel for my series.

Series do not have to be started with the intention of creating one. A complete first novel, which would seem to be a stand-alone work, can be expanded. There are numerous ways to do this. Minor details of plots are often not completely wrapped up in the first book and can serve as a basis for the next. The books that follow can explore the life and times of lesser characters as they move into the limelight as the protagonist. In addition, the author can move back in time to prior adventures, such as the origin story of the main character, or forward to show the character’s influence on the future of their “world.” 

When Orson Scott Card wrote Ender’s Game it was a novelette complete in itself. First, he expanded it into a novel, introducing new characters. Then, he started a series based on the characters found in this Hugo Award winning science fiction tale. The next one, Speaker for the Dead takes place in the future, 3000 years later. Ender’s Shadow, a parallel novel, retells Ender’s story from the viewpoint of his very different friend, Bean. The Shadow series continued with the story of Bean’s children. There are now sixteen novels to tell the saga of Ender, his siblings and friends. 

It is not easy to create a fresh new story each time. Books in the series should grow the sphere of the original characters. It would be nice if I could come up with a series of problems that make up one overarching challenge for the main character in the rare case that he or she became unexpectedly popular. Then, I realized the solution was to use Card’s tactic. Build my alternate world and create enough ancillary characters that could appear with problems of their own in each new novel in the series.

My alternate world scheme would not leave me alone in peace. I couldn’t figure out how to develop new plots when I had yet to build my world. Then, I realized I had almost duplicated the society in Britain after the Roman leaders pulled out the military, leaving the people to fight migrants and invaders as they saw fit. Their newcomers arrived by sea, and not over mountains. As I started researching this era, the scarcity of documents from that time period became a challenge. I wanted a realistic history, but the only ones written were penned by two clerics, more interested in defending their religious views than recording history. The later documents were not reliable.

Then, I recalled a student who approached me moaning because she couldn’t find any factual information for a history class report on King Arthur. I informed her that everything she had heard about him was a legend. Historians did not know if he really existed. I was facing the same problem as my new series was set to occur during the time that Arthur was supposed to have lived. I had thought that changing my alternate world to a real historical time period would make it easier. But, I would still be building a world for my characters almost from scratch.

Posted in Characters, Creativity, Literary devices, Story structure, Writer's resource, Writing trends | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Messrs & Co

Posted on June 29, 2023 by knlistman

Vernacular language can both draw in readers and become a pitfall. When we understand the vernacular, we feel a closeness to the author, having come from the same world and using those same words. Acronyms and abbreviations are no different. If abbreviations like HEA, ISBN, OTP, or WIP sound strange, we assume the author is just not like us, even though these are abbreviations specific to the writing profession. Acronyms are no longer based on our location or our generation, but our interests. I can converse with people on the other side of either ocean through the internet. But, we still tend to gather in cliques based on the hobbies and professions that form our language.

One of my favorite shortcuts is using AKA when listing the common name for a plant behind the scientific designation–Bellis perennis, AKA daisy. In addition to “also known as” this abbreviation is the name for a people group in the Central African Republic and another one in Pradesh, India. It also stands for Alpha Kappa Alpha, and I am not a sorority girl. So, AKA fails the test of being a useful acronym for me.

There are even older ones that we use without understanding. Do you know the difference between i.e. and e.g. Would it even help if you knew the words behind these initials? First, i.e. stand for “id est”–Latin for “that is.” The abbreviation e.g. is more complex. It means “exempli gratia,” which can be translated as “for example.” Ditching these Latin abbreviations and using the English words is acceptable for almost any kind of publication.

Most of us know what to do when an invitation ends with RSVP. I inform the people that I am attending, so they will supply enough food, chairs, or whatever is needed. However, I can do this without comprehending what “Respondez s’il vous plait” means. My computer word processing program obviously doesn’t understand this phrase as it indicates these are not recognized words. This is a warning to people that believe everything you see marked incorrect by a spell/grammar check is wrong.

If I spy a person cutting across the field in a four-wheel drive vehicle, I may comment on that culprit off-roading in a Jeep. GP, which stands for General Purpose vehicle, morphed into Jeep when used by the US Army a few wars ago. Radar and sonar are also words with a military origin, as is my son’s favorite sport–scuba diving. New technologies leave a trail of new words formed from acronyms. Recently, I’ve received a number of inquiries from people who claim they are specialists at increasing the SEO of my website. Few explain what that means. However, if people understand the definition of SEO, they could do the research to improve the traffic to their own websites without hiring these experts. Unexplained acronyms are a way of making people feel less competent and in need of professional help.

But, I have my revenge. I throw in a few old abbreviations and acronyms–not the i.e. or e.g. from Latin times. Instead I use those only one to two hundred years old. They are harder to decipher because English spelling was not standardized. If my reply is addressed to “Messrs & Co” what do I mean? This is a polite 18th century abbreviation for multiple men owning a single business.

What is my conclusion concerning the use of acronyms in writing? Nearly all of them will place a piece in a specific time, which is not bad. Just leave clues to what they mean. Finally, I offer a bit of dubious wisdom from one of our founding fathers that touches on the use of abbreviations and acronyms.

You should never trust a man who has only one way to spell a word

Thomas Jefferson


Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5)

Posted in exclusion, Group psychology, Literature, Nonfiction, Social media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Life Cycle of a Cliché

Posted on June 22, 2023 by knlistman

What is the difference between a trite phrase and cliché one? The similarity we know. Both are overused. Either term is applicable to many common expressions. Trite phrases are often descriptive: busy as a bee, red as a rose, bright as the sun. A command to “think outside the box” in order to stop using trite phrases employs a cliché. These are often well-worn but useless chunks of advice thrown back at people when a person cannot provide a real answer.

Often clichés have around a thirty year life cycle. The phrase becomes popular with adolescents and “twenty-somethings.” Then, the over-used saying drops in popularity after that time. The formerly “hip” phrases often regain a following when the generation grows older and start reoccurring in movies and TV programs due to nostalgic appeal. However, give an over-used phrase few years hiatus after that and it becomes largely incomprehensible to the next generation. It’s not wise to load your books with them unless you are writing period pieces. Trite phrases and clichés date books and make them seem no longer current.

Humans have the bizarre desire to repeat what other people say and still sound unique.

Humans have the bizarre desire to repeat what other people say and still sound unique. At one time all that is now considered trite was original, fresh and new. These phrases lingered on the periphery of written and spoken society. At some time in the future, current worn-out phrases will probably return to anonymity.

Comments like “twenty-three skidoo” and “Mrs. Grundy” are very rarely used today. They might be included in writing that deals with the period from1900 to 1930s. They might still pepper the dialog of characters from those times. We are often more familiar with positive sounding trite phrases from the past and still willing to praise something as the “bee-knees” or the “cat’s pajamas” today. There is a reason that derogatory terms like “Mrs. Grundy” disappear from our speech. We don’t openly explain what we dislike about this too proper and precise woman. The next generation is timid about using our clichés, not because they are too common, but because they don’t know what they mean.

However, there is another fate for frequently quoted phrases that remain in use. They may become idioms. Translators still struggle to convert our favorite idioms like “it’s time to hit the road,” into other languages. But, we keep using them. In college I studied literature/languages and during one class I discovered Shakespeare referred to jealousy as a “green-eyed monster” and a pointless search as a “wild goose chase.” When I learned koine Greek (the kind of Greek used during the Roman empire), I found that many of their idioms had transferred into English. Perhaps, that is because the early educated people were trained in Greek and Latin.

Unlike clichés and trite phrases, an idiom has staying power, which allows us the freedom to use them when we write.

Posted in languages, Style and voice, Translations, Writing trends | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Writing Like You Speak

Posted on June 15, 2023 by knlistman

When reading an author’s discussion thread, I noted that more than one person assumed the trick to creating a unique writer’s voice was “writing like you talk.” There is some truth to this if you are a good verbal storyteller. A storyteller often uses “colorful language” to appeal to people who comprehend their regionalisms. Reaching a larger crowd requires more than a smattering of colloquial phrases. Write like you speak and you may be understood by your neighbor today. But, readers removed by a few years, a few hundred miles, or a few rungs on the socioeconomic ladder, must work harder to read what you have written. 

In a discussion on a book written by a prominent newscaster one person observed, “You can really hear him speaking as you read it, and that really slows you down.” The book mimicked the newscaster’s conversational style. However, without the vocal inflections the text was harder to interpret. I prefer reading to listening for the very reason that I can read about three times faster than I can listen. This led me to consider the complications of writing like you speak.

Most people tend to be more dramatic and less accurate when speaking. This allows them to be heard over competing voices. Frequent repetition is a hallmark of speech making. People use filler speech, such as “when you think about things,” because they are actually thinking about things–such as what to say next. One of the biggest drawbacks to writing this way is increased word count for the amount of content. This may be at the root of my friend’s perception that reading a book written in that manner, “really slows you down.” 

Tone is necessary in writing. Much of how we interpret what people say is by interpreting their tone of voice. But because there is no audible tone in writing, it requires unique phrases to achieve the same impact as vocal inflections. Use of current catch phrases and regional interjections set the tone for the text, but may contribute little to the content

People use filler speech, such as “when you think about things,” because they are actually thinking about things–such as what to say next.

Occasionally, I enjoy books by authors who write in the vernacular, in small doses. Mark Twain actually got his start as a lecturer who made his living by talking. His novels were published as serial installments in magazines for a reason. Short passages in folksy language are interesting. However, I witnessed too many students dread the time they spent slogging through his imitation of Old English speech in The Prince and the Pauper. I eventually had to give up on his unabridged version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

So, when you write like you speak, recall when conversations with another person who chattered on assuming their tone of voice made them sound interesting. Remember all the meandering thoughts and unfinished sentences. Then, edit your work to remove these but keep the tone. People may pay attention when you speak because that is polite. However, you’ll never know when they stopped reading what you have written.

Posted in Ideas for writing, Style and voice, Teaching writing skills, Trends in books | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Story with a View

Posted on June 9, 2023 by knlistman

When intriguing characters with challenging goals appear in my random daydreaming, my mind fastens on them as I imagine their life. I am flooded with decisions to make. Which events from the past formed this character? What frustrates them? What  inherent weaknesses affect them? How are they going to grow enough to reach their goal? 

Once the plot for this character forms in my mind, I have another decision to make. Which point of view (POV) will I use to tell the story? The first person narrator is my go-to choice. Normally, I find this POV the easiest to write. I don’t have to worry about what to reveal to the reader. They are only privy to what my narrator knows. 

The main character for my most recent work in progress is just barely an adult, an outsider in a town that distrusts him, but a town that desperately needs his knowledge. However, he has little idea of the deceit lurking around him. This particular character would have to keep sneaking around in places where he would get discovered or overhearing conversations that he should not hear in order to comprehend the full danger. This kind of behavior didn’t seem to fit his candid manner. Therefore, I need another character’s viewpoint to reveal the secret snares that the main character faces to keep the reader in suspense. What are my other options?

Sometimes the best first person POV is an observer. I know this is contrary to the idea that the main character should propel the story forward. “Always start with the main character” is standard advice, and I want the viewpoint character to be the one with the richest inner struggles and conflicts. However, observers are the main characters who tell the story as they see it occur in many novels—from Ishmael in Moby Dick to Nick Carraway in the Great Gatsby. 

Third person limited, like the first person viewpoint, only lets the reader see what one character observes.

I have written in the third person POV before and could attempt this again. Of course, my most frequent choice is third person limited. Like the first person viewpoint, it only lets the reader see what one character observes. I can include interior thoughts, expressed as if writing in first person and marked by italics. The third person deep POV is just a way of telling the reader of what the character is thinking, similar to first person POV. But, the author can do this for multiple characters, so it is easy to slip into head hopping if I am not careful.

In my case, I needed multiple third person POVs so that the reader would be privy to the knowledge of more than one character. The major difficulty with this style of writing is remembering to stay with one character’s thoughts until the end of a chapter (or at least the end of a section). Otherwise, I have the same problem as the author attempting the almost impossible task of writing multiple first person viewpoints. The readers’ heads keep spinning trying to figure out whose viewpoint they are seeing. That is even more challenging than the omnipotent third person viewpoint in which the author has the option of revealing anyone’s ideas and even the consensus of an entire crowd. With such freedom, third person omnipotent POV requires that I be discriminating and show only what the readers need to know.

Finally, I decided that the main character’s step-mother knew enough to introduce the conflict. Because she is ambivalent towards her step-son, the reader is never sure whether she will even warn him of dangers looming ahead or not. In her attempts to pacify the town’s leaders, she might not even protest their devious plans. Then, I could switch to the viewpoint of the main character, her step-son, as the conflicts heated up. However, I decided to come back to the step-mother’s POV at the end, even though she is a secondary character, because her role required the most growth.  

There are no hard and fast rules for choosing POV characters. Sometimes I just have to write scenes from one viewpoint and then another to see what works best. Whichever POV I select, it must compliment the story itself.

Posted in Literature, Novels, Writer's resource, Writing trends | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Comments About Commas

Posted on June 2, 2023 by knlistman

Among literary devices, one of my favorites is polysyndeton. Despite its fancy name this is a plain device and easy to use. Simply repeat “and” after every word in a list. Polysyndeton provides quick and simple emphasis.

“While driving through a wildlife preserve in Oklahoma I spied llamas and zebras and ostriches and emus and water buffalo. However, I saw no wildlife native to the state.” 

Isn’t it pretentious to use a lengthy Latin term for a literary device that imitates the way a child speaks? Not at all. No commas were used in my list. But, the repetition of “and” made the meaning clear. Such clarity cannot be attributed to the Oxford comma. This punctuation mark, which I prefer to call the serial comma, gained its infamy in a legal case. The lack of a comma between the last items in a list dealing with overtime payments for delivery drivers cost a dairy in Maine five million dollars. 1

Some writers believe such vast sums of money to be of the utmost importance. They don’t want anyone to challenge the sanctity of the Oxford comma. But, using the serial comma doesn’t always work. I found that out when I asked for feedback on a story. The main character, a recent college graduate, reflected on his three day visit to the immense city of Paris in which he meets three women. He never caught the name of the first one, but he knew her intended career, to sing in the opera. By the second day he was a bit wiser and learned more about the second and third young ladies when conversing with them. So, the sentence states, “He compared the stunning opera singer, Brigitte, and Tova.” 

Some readers assumed Brigitte was synonymous with the want-to-be opera singer. The commas around her name indicated an appositive. Using the serial comma to separate the last two items in the list didn’t make the meaning clear but muddled it. If I leave out the comma after Brigitte, it becomes obvious that the young man is weighing the attributes of three different people. The ardent Oxford comma aficionado would say, “You must reword your list so that the comma works.” I could have used “and” between each woman he considered because polysyndeton works where the Oxford comma fails. “He compared the stunning opera singer and Brigitte and Tova.” No comma is needed.

Why is preference for the Oxford comma so proudly proclaimed? Evidently it reveals a certain kind of personality. Claiming affinity for the Oxford comma has been noted on dating sites as a way to show erudite sophistication (especially on Tinder).2 On the other hand, people on Reddit find championing a comma a bit pretentious. I find people who use a specific type of comma as a way to judge other people’s value as a way to turn a useful punctuation mark into a ridiculous obsession. 

What would others think about me if I boldly described myself as polysyndeton proponent?

1 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/us/oxford-comma-maine.html

2 https://www.gq.com/story/oxford-comma-enthusiasts-unites

Posted in Ideas for writing, Literary devices, Literature | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Challenge of Writing Humor

Posted on May 26, 2023 by knlistman

I struggle with writing humor. What I find funny is often too close to real life for others to comfortably laugh at it. What others find amusing may irritate rather than entertain me. Once I heard a bit of advice spoken by one adolescent boy to another. “Do you want to know if a girl likes you? Tell a really stupid joke, the stupider the better. If she laughs, she likes you.” It has been obvious for eons that laughter has a sexual side. I am not referring to sex as the subject of humor, but the differences in the way people perceive what is funny.   

So when topics mystify me, I do research to try to wrap my mind around the concept. Allan Reiss of Stanford University studied the response of male and female brains when reading comics. To a large degree they used similar parts of the brain–the part that makes sense of semantics and juxtaposition of ideas. The difference is brain function between genders existed but barely. It was not possible to tell who was male or female by viewing the response results. The part of the brain that deals with executive processing was activated more in the women’s brains than the men’s. The reward center in the female brain was also more active when they found a comic funny.  But, again this difference was minimal.

If am adolescent boy told a stupid joke, a female laughing in response would indicate approval. His male peers would be more likely to respond with a kind of laughter known as scoffing.

Let’s return to our first example. If an adolescent boy told a stupid joke, a female laughing in response would indicate of approval. His male peers would be more likely to respond with a kind of laughter known as scoffing, to show him how stupid the joke really was. Boys, and even men, commonly use humor as a kind of competitive social tactic. We ignore the way males poke fun at other males. However, when adolescent girls laugh at other girls in a ridiculing manner, they are considered “mean girls,” the kind of cliquish queen bees who use cruel humor to maintain their superiority over others.

Women’s humor is expected to be socially supportive, whether they are laughing at a man’s not so funny joke, or laughing with their female friends about a common situation. Don Nilsen, a linguistics professor at Arizona State University, discovered that women who employ the aggressive or competitive male sense of humor will find both men and women not laughing at her. Humor is not affected as much by the way genders perceive what is funny, because their brain functions have very minute differences according to the Stanford study. The difference in how they show amusement over a humorous piece is determined by the role that they assume men and women play in society. 

So what is occurring when men laugh in the way that society prescribes for women. They may chuckle softly in an appeasing manner to show support.  According to Don Nilsen, that is the way that men laugh in front of their bosses. I find myself writing male characters that do this from time to time. However, unlike society, I do not view them as weak. So exactly what are we seeing as differences in the response to humor between people? A funny action for a person in charge is not the same as one for a lackey. People often laugh at humor based on what their society sees fit and let other people shape their idea of what is funny.

A. Reiss, MD, the Howard C. Robbins Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research. Dean Mobbs, Nov. 7 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
W. Lawson, “Humor’s Sexual Side” Psychology Today, article 200508, published on September 1, 2005 – last reviewed on December 20, 2012

Posted in Creativity, Laughter and humor, Writing trends | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Name Dropping

Posted on May 18, 2023 by knlistman

Hamlet is often portrayed as a man dressed in medieval finery with a skull cradled in his hand. Many people assume that Hamlet recited his fateful soliloquy “To be or not to be…” as he stared at the skull. That’s not true. He said “Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well.” Yorick had been the king’s jester, and a bit of comic relief. He served the same purpose as the protocol droid, C-3PO, in George Lucas’ film The Empire Strikes Back. During that film Chewbacca holds the head of the dismembered C-3PO in the same manner that Hamlet is often shown holding Yorick’s skull. If the audience does not catch this visual allusion, they can still understand the gist of The Empire Strikes Back. However, Chewbacca’s struggle with the nature of life and death does make the Wookie seem more human.

If you find yourself dangling too close to the edge of sanity trying to come up with the perfect words to describe your character, you can lean on what past writers have done. Allusions are the literary equivalent of name-dropping. Once, I heard an acquaintance refer to another person as an “Adonis.” Despite knowing over fifty people in common, I immediately knew who she was discussing. There was only one man in our circle handsome and charming enough to fit that comparison, and he just happened to be Greek. Alluding to a well-known character, fictional or real, is a shortcut that hands an already developed concept to the readers.

How do you determine which characters or which works should be the basis of an allusion? Use your friendly internet to supply lists of the most famous people, both real and fictional that share the same problem as your character. Then, cross out anyone who wasn’t walking the earth or in through a fictional book more than one hundred years ago. (If that’s too hard, delete any real or fictional person that did not exist before your birth.) Not only have you shortened your list dramatically, you have selected people to use for allusions with staying power.

Is it necessary for readers to read the same books as you have for this kind of name dropping to work? Not always. Any list of the classics used for allusions include the Bible and Shakespeare’s tragedies. People who have never read either one still know that “Judas” is an epithet for a traitor, and “Romeo” describes a male with romantic intentions.

“Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well.” William Shakespeare

When you allude to a character from Shakespeare’s works, you aren’t claiming personal friendship with the playwright. But, people may assume that you know his works well. Yet, you may not have read any of them (just like most of your readers). That is where the difficulty lies. Comparing a character to Romeo because he is old and lecherous is not the kind of romantic male that Shakespeare had in mind. Unless you call him “Romeo” in a sarcastic manner, readers who have actually read the play may start making fun of your work.

It helps to be well-read if you like using allusions. Romeo in the play is not the same person as the brooding Leo de Caprio is in the movie. So, beware of drawing allusions from movies that pale in comparison to the work that inspired them. The criteria that the character has been well-known for more than your lifetime means reading something other than modern works. Drawing on already developed descriptions of classic characters will add depth to your writing. However, if allusions are used incorrectly, you simply sound pretentious.

Posted in allusions, Characters, Drama and movies, Ideas for writing, Literary devices, Nonfiction, Novels, Trends in books | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Allusions

Posted on May 11, 2023 by knlistman

The man awoke in an unrecognized ancient building. He attempts to leave, only to find doors lock and windows barred. Then, he discovers other people inside as bewildered as he is. They are all being held as prisoners. The only clue is a list of dates on the wall followed by their names. Eventually they are informed that this is to be the date of their trials. However, none have any clue to what crime they have committed.

This was the intriguing start of a book, which a high school student and aspiring author divulged to me. She decided to call this first attempt at a novel The Trials. When I responded, “How Kafkaesque,” her blank stare immediately told me that she was not ripping off the plot from Franz Kafka’s famous work. She didn’t comprehend my allusion. That is the difficulty with using this particular technique. The purpose of an allusion is to reference a name so loaded with meaning that it quickly paints a mood for the reader. How can you be sure that readers will comprehend it?

One person, in a critique group from years ago, wished to allude to the protagonist in Interview with a Vampire simply as a character from an Anne Rice novel. There’s high familiarity with her this novel as it was made into a movie. But, it is not the only well known book Anne Rice wrote. A much larger percent of the world is familiar with Dracula as a daylight avoiding vampire, and Dracula is not the only book by Bram Stoker, either. But, most of his other novels remain obscure. Referring to a depressed woman who shunned daylight as resembling Dracula gets the point across to more readers than comparing her to an unspecified character in a novel by Anne Rice.

A currently popular trend, which has existed from the beginning of novel writing, is to include allusions to famous books with the hopes that the reader will reflect on the book they are reading in the same manner as the more famous one. However, recently I’ve noted YA books that give the character’s opinions of current novels rather than alluding to these works. One of these concerned two college students still holding on to their fondness for Harry Potter books and movies. On the surface, they appeared as cool students and not ones who maintained an immature taste in literature. The other reference was a high school student who preferred early black and white horror flicks to the slick Harry Potter films.

However, neither of these are allusions. Rather they are cultural references. The reader unfamiliar with this fictional teenage wizard may not comprehend the clues they provide about the characters’ personalities. But, clues were not important–rather they served as an excuse to mention a famous series to try to connect to young readers. Even the fans of Harry Potter learn very little about the characters from these references.

If an author wanted to make an illusion to Harry Potter that author might write a sentence like this: “The boy marched straight into the woods at night imagining a little war paint was comparable to Harry Potter’s lightning scar.” The reader would have to realize that the scar gave the boy wizard an enormous amount of protection to understand the foolishness of this other character heading into the dangerous woods after dark. Allusions refer to events and themes found in past literature as they relate to those in the story being told.

When the aspiring teenage author gave me a brief description of her novel in progress, I alluded to Franz Kafka’s work, but it would require her familiarity with it to sense the fearful capriciousness of being sentenced for an unknown crime. It’s important to choose an allusion from the well-known source that has existed in the public memory for the longest time. Although  Franz Kafka may not be as well-known as J. K. Rowling among current high school students, that could change. Since the time I was in high school decades ago, students have been assigned to read some of Kafka’s work. That is not true of J.K Rowling after her books were published. These two authors’ notoriety may switch at some point in the future. At least the high school student who discussed her book ideas with me wanted to know how to spell Franz Kafka. She planned to check the library for any books by him that same day.  

Posted in allusions, Characters, Drama and movies, Education trends, Fiction in education, Novels, Story structure | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Imagery

Posted on May 4, 2023 by knlistman

Imagery is one of the harder concepts to pinpoint in writing. What exactly is the difference between describing something in detail and creating imagery? This is not easy to explain. Imagery is often a figurative or symbolic description that goes beyond the literal five senses. Imagery is comprised of words on paper (or a screen) and creates a feeling that permeates our imagination.

However, even with this knowledge I still struggled to define imagery in writing. I looked at what some experts in the fields of communication had to say about it. 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 advertisement appeals to people. However, occasionally he commented 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.[1]

Noam Chomsky, a linguist and cognitive scientist, who is known for his political involvement has examined McLuhan’s area of expertise, 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.[2]

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 Marcel Proust used imagery a simple cookie dipped in tea took on a taste, texture and color that made it magically memorable, a song played on a piano echoed in lyric fascination, and an ordinary machine became a frightening monstrosity. In a way imagery is 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 characteristics. 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, known as allegories. 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 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 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 what to read books to show them reality, but something beyond it.

[1] http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/marshallmc135596.html
[2] http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/noamchomsk635602.html

Art work by J.W Listman

Posted in Creativity, Literary devices, Style and voice, Writer's resource, Writing trends | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment