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Fiction Sentiment Analysis: Examples and Methods

September 19, 2022

affect, creativity, fiction, javascript, programming

The term “sentiment analysis” in the contexts of texts refers to a program (to put it simply) that detects emotions in a text. A typical application is for detecting whether clients are happy or angry, but large-scale analysis – for instance, analyzing tweets – can also give a sense of public opinion on a matter. I’m not interested in any of that. Instead, I wanted to experiment with fiction sentiment analysis.

What kind of applications could it have? How difficult is it to implement?

That’s what we’ll be looking at in this post. Though I’ll offer you details and links along the way, I’ll also keep it accessible to a lay audience. Whether you’re a beginner/intermediate programmer looking for ideas, or simply someone interested in seeing the possibilities, there’s something here that will interest you.

Sneak preview: I’ll also share with you a link to my program, so that you can perform a fiction sentiment analysis on your novel or short story!

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Multiple Endings: a How-to Guide

April 18, 2022

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

affect, creativity, ending, fiction, literature, writing

5 comments

Remember my post on narrative endings? I there argued that narrative endings and physical endings are not necessarily one and the same. In reality, there are more than one ways to end a novel. And having multiple endings is a great way to increase the affective impact of your narrative.

So, what do we I mean by “multiple endings”? Let’s start by what I don’t mean: A Clue-like style set of actual different endings (in the form of, say, different chapters). I’m not interested in that, and though I wouldn’t want to deter anyone from trying different things, I’m not entirely sure whether it’d work.

What I mean by multiple endings in a narrative is the presence of interpretatively more than one alternatives; open-endedness; allowing the possibility that things aren’t quite what they seem. Think of the ending of Inception, with the spinning top, and you’d have a simple, masterful example of how a single, mundane object can throw the entire narrative in disarray.

So let’s take a look at multiple endings: what’s their effect, how to gauge whether you need them, and how it all comes together.

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How to Write a Short Story: Examples of Structure and Intent

November 15, 2021

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

affect, literature, plot, short story, writing

2 comments

A short story is not just “a little novel”. In other words, short stories – despite their misleading name – are not about length. Rather, compared to novels, short stories are a different format altogether, with unique requirements and different dynamics. The trick in understanding how to write a short story lies precisely in comprehending these requirements and dynamics.

As I often say, fiction is not about telling a story but about instigating an emotional response. It’s about affect, not plot. Short stories aren’t different regarding that. However, what differs is the way there.

To put it simply, a novel with a word count of 80,000 words or more has a certain flexibility in its expansion. In other words, although narrative pace and the overall balance are something to keep an eye on, a novel is more forgiving in terms of digressions.

This is certainly not the case with a short story.

As a result, the way to learning how to write a short story that “delivers” passes through structure and the associated intent. We’ll look at these in more detail in this post, together with examples that can show you how to pack the optimal power in your short stories.

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