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Review of Bittersweet

June 24, 2019

Book Review, Criticism

book, fiction, France, literature, review

Today’s post offers a review of Bittersweet, by Lloyd R. Free. This is a novel set in the early 1960s – a time of great political and cultural upheaval. In this context, two young friends decide to leave the United States behind and move to France.

The full title of the novel is Bittersweet: A Coming of Age Historical Romance. I must say it right away, I’m really not a fan of over-explaining in fiction, and that includes book titles. This is particularly the case with (sub)titles denoting the genre of the book.

Ironically enough, the novel was described as literary fiction to me. It isn’t, and the title is the first clue – both because it describes what it really is (a coming-of-age story), and because it (over)describes. Have you ever seen a title such as Mary and John: A Literary-Fiction Story?

Review of Bittersweet
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How to Write Realistic Characters

June 15, 2019

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

characters, creativity, fiction, literature, reality, writing

How to write realistic characters is something most fiction writers worry about. This is for good reason. Writing realistic characters, with realistic dialogues and inner worlds, is the key to writing realistic fiction.

Of course, before seeing how to write realistic characters, you should perhaps ask yourself whether it’s necessary for your novel to have realistic characters.

You might find that question a bit odd. Surely, what’s wrong with realistic characters? Why would anyone not want to write realistic characters?

We’ll take a look at this little detail, too. Sneak preview: it has to do with what I mentioned above, referring to “writing realistic fiction”.

how to write realistic characters
To know how to write realistic characters, you must think like they do, understanding all the nuanced subtleties of their thought processes

After we get that out of the way, I’ll give you concrete tips on how to write realistic characters. Here’s another sneak preview: To write realistic characters, with believable dialogues and rich inner worlds, you must think like them, individually.

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Separate the Art from the Artist

June 10, 2019

Literature

art, artist, bigotry, idiocy, literature, review, social media

No, this isn’t a post about the chaos of meaning and authorial intention. Or, then again, maybe it’s at least related to it. Today I want to talk about those peculiar readers who seem utterly unable to separate the art from the artist.

But what does it mean, to separate the art from the artist? In a sense, it’s about understanding that meaning is created by the author as well as the audience.

However, in our context, not to separate the art from the artist refers to those who cannot objectively assess a work of art as a result of their preconceptions about the artist.

separate the art from the artist
Where do you draw the line between art and artist?
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