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Writing

How to Divide Chapters Creatively

July 30, 2020

chapters, creativity, fiction, literature, writing

As a fiction author, perhaps you’ve never given much thought to chapter division in your novel. After all, there doesn’t seem to be anything too complex about it – dividing chapters (and parts) is just a matter of organization, right? Well, no. Learn how to divide chapters creatively, and you’ve just acquired another tool of expression.

Remember that literature is more than a sum of its parts. Chapters can be so much more than just a way of grouping scenes together. And that’s precisely what I’ll show you in this post.

We’ll first take a look at ways you can divide your novel – chapters and parts are two basic ways, but there’s more to it than just that. Then, we’ll see how dividing a novel into chapters can be used creatively.

divide chapters — Houses have doors and windows for practical purposes, but also for **creative** (i.e. aesthetic) purposes. Dividing a book into chapters is a very similar process

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Kristen Roupenian’s “Cat Person”: an Example of Post-Autonomous Fiction

July 12, 2020

Criticism, Writing

guest post, Igor Livramento, Kristen Roupenian, literature, narrative, post-autonomous, writing

Today’s post offers an example of post-autonomous fiction, focusing on Kristen Roupenian’s “Cat Person”. The article is authored by Igor da Silva Livramento. He’s a fellow academic from UFSC, fellow author, fellow creative-writing advisor, and overall a great fellow. He’s also a composer, music theorist, and producer. Check out his papers on Academia.edu, his music on Bandcamp, and his personal musings on his blog – in Portuguese, Spanish/Castilian, and English.

Having explained what on earth is post-autonomous fiction, this time we’ll see an example of it, focusing on some of its literary specifics. Our example will be a most fascinating story. It appeared on The New Yorker, on December 4th, 2017.

I’m referring to Kristen Roupenian’s “Cat Person”.

What’s so interesting is that the story got more views on a single week than any other one published on the magazine that year. That alone is impressive, but the reaction it got is also worthy of mention.

This reaction was due to a narration technique we’ll explore, and such a technique as applied there increased its post-autonomous status.

Roupenian's "Cat Person" — Whether Roupenian’s “Cat Person” is good in a literary sense is irrelevant. Rather, its importance lies in that it’s indistinguishable from reality.

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How to Use Poetic Licence Properly

July 6, 2020

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

affect, artistic license, fiction, poetic licence, writing

Poetic license (or artistic licence) refers to ignoring factual truth for creative purposes. There is a wide area covered by this definition and so, inevitably, some uses are proper whereas other improper.

In other words, there are ways to use poetic licence properly (enhancing the affective power of your novel), but also improperly (muddling the waters and creating confusion).

In this post we’ll take a look at all these elements – what poetic licence refers to in more detail, ways of using poetic licence, and of course which (and why) are the ways I consider optimal.

how to use poetic licence — The facts of the photo (I assume and hope!) are that the shark is superimposed on the image and the woman was only in a narrow water tank, alone. The use of **poetic licence** allows the artist to present a “reality” that might not be strictly speaking factual, yet possesses enhanced affective power

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