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Literature in the Audiovisual Era

November 23, 2020

film, guest post, Igor Livramento, literature, sounds, writing

Literature in the audiovisual era. Can it survive, and how? I’m bouncing ideas off Igor da Silva Livramento, friend and fellow writer, academic, and creative-writing advisor. He’s also a composer, music theorist, and producer. You can find him on LinkedIn, and also take a look at his blog and his page on Bandcamp.

Chris: The idea behind this post began as a series of what-if thoughts and musings. We were talking about a generational disconnect in terms of readers’ ability to fill in the gaps.

Igor: Younger-generation writers grew up with (anglophone) young-adult fantasy and science fiction. Literally everything is spoon-fed to them, all details, all plot points, everything. I don’t like that. I wholeheartedly believe in strategic holes and unexplainables.

Chris: Man, I write about this on the blog all the time. Off the top of my head, I’d mention my posts on over-explaining, narrative exposition, and of course the more theoretical on Keats’s negative capability.

Igor: Suggesting is much more powerful than showing, because the imagination is boundless, thus filling the vacuum with something truly intense. This is the tactic I’ve found for my literature to survive in a predominantly audiovisual era.

literature in the audiovisual era — How can literature survive in the audiovisual era, where vision & sound give the illusion of everything?

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Repeating Reality in Fiction: Why You Should Avoid It

October 19, 2020

Writing

fiction, guest post, Igor Livramento, reality, writing

1 comments

Today’s post on (not) repeating reality in fiction 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. You can also find him on LinkedIn.

If you want your fiction to immerse the reader, you probably suppose you should describe reality as it is. That is, you should be repeating reality in your fiction. Well, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Writing fiction is a process of controlled distortion, in which emphasis is placed on what really matters.

If we describe all the details of an event, we will fill many pages with unimportant trivia. Moreover, we will leave the reader tired, cognitively and affectively, so they will be unable to appreciate the most important moments of the narrative. All our figures of speech, so well crafted, will be nothing more than exhaustive annoyances.

Repeating reality in fiction — To avoid repeating reality in fiction is like a photograph that, by hiding some facets, boosts the affective power of what remains visible

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17 Ways to Grab a Reader’s Attention

September 21, 2020

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

affect, fiction, guest post, Igor Livramento, writing

9 comments

Today’s post – showing you 17 ways to grab a reader’s attention – 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.

Fiction is an invitation to journey alongside characters, through places, with affect and a pinch of reflection.

Due to our increased inattention, the first few sentences are a hook in the sea of readers. Seeking our fish’s bite, we must answer at that initial stage: What is this text about? How will it be told?

A walk amongst bookshelves is a stroll beside infinitely many closed doors one may choose to open. Just flip the page and greet a plethora of people dealing with the most diverse situations in as many ways as possible.

Here I offer 17 sneak peeks that captivated me and might inspire you to captivate more readers. Join me on this ringing doorbells spree! (One could also label this techniques for speed dating the reader – preferences…)

grab reader's attention — There are many ways to grab a reader’s attention, and here are 17 of them to get you started

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