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Review of Life, by Lu Yao

July 24, 2020

book, China, destiny, fate, fiction, literature, love, review

Life, by Lu Yao, is a Chinese novel written – and situated – in the early 1980s. A lot has happened since in China (and globally), though much of the story revolves around timeless issues.

What does it mean to love someone of a different social status? How does one balance between responsibility and personal desire? Should one submit to their fate – here defined not as some ghostly force but as what society prescribed – or not?

Life, by Lu Yao, poses such questions. The problem is that not only does it actually attempt to answer them – there are no real answers to such questions – but that it does so in a narratively naive, uninspiring manner.

review of Life, by Lu Yao — *Life*, by Lu Yao, basically revolves around matters of “fate” or, in any case, what one construes as such

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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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Why Imagination and Creativity Are not the Same (and why It Matters)

June 30, 2020

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

creativity, fiction, imagination, memory, writing

In writing, is imagination the same as creativity? If the answer were “yes”, this post wouldn’t exist. But imagination and creativity are two very different concepts, as we’ll see in more detail, and confusing them can have far-reaching repercussions in your writing.

Indeed, it’s particularly in the field of creative writing that confusing imagination and creativity can be damaging.

Imagination versus creativity. Creativity versus imagination.

Even the order is important, and so in this post I’ll refer to the pair as “imagination and creativity”. The reason? One of the major differences between these two concepts is their temporal order. Imagination comes first and creativity follows, in a different form.

But, as usual, the story doesn’t end with that; it only begins there!

imagination vs creativity in writing — **Imagination** is wanting to take a photo of a woman in a forest; **creativity** is deciding what the photo should look like

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