The language we use has meaning and depths we don’t always consciously recognize, and stock phrases often convey meanings and suggestions which we don’t fully recognize and which we probably don’t intend when we deploy them in our writing.
Creativity is Overrated
Lewis asserts that medieval artists would see the drive for creativity and originality in art as, not the pinnacle of artistic achievement, but the scraping of the bottom of the artistic barrel.
Ways of Saying
If the first step of the technical writing process is word choice, then this post is about the second step, putting those words together into phrases.
Author’s Voice and Oral Literature
I propose that author’s voice arises from the particular authorial idiosyncrasies that make the story distinct to how a given author would tell it, as compared to how any other author might attempt to convey the same story elements.
Types of Stories
Storytelling theory has potential as another tool in the writer’s toolbox, and it was with that mindset that I became intrigued by a 2016 paper purporting to identify six basic emotional arcs which all stories share.
Unsympathetic Characters
The simplest advice for writing unsympathetic characters is to think of the traits that make it hard for you to sympathize with real people.
Languages in Fiction
Language is a funny thing, and for all authors should be preoccupied with it, we sometimes seem to forget to reflect linguistic variety in our fiction.
Plot Timing
If you want to tell the story of, say, the rise and fall of a civilization, or even an institution, in a way to fully capture it, you are often left to tell the story of a snapshot of that institution and use it as a lens by which to examine the rest.
Aligning Climaxes
Is there a market for stories that break the expected structure, where the climaxes don’t quite align, and are instead more reflective of the timing we might expect in the “real world?” Perhaps.
Artificial Intelligence in Storytelling
The paper examines the comparative creativity of stories written by people who did not use AI, or who had access to AI.
IGC Publishing 