“The "Lucifer Effect" describes the point in time when an ordinary, normal person first crosses the boundary between good and evil to engage in an evil action. It represents a transformation of human character that is significant in its consequences. Such transformations are more likely to occur in novel settings, in "total situations," where social situational forces are sufficiently powerful to overwhelm, or set aside temporally, personal attributes of morality, compassion, or sense of justice and fair play.” FirstsHumansPersonsPlayCharacterActionEvilForceSocialJusticePowerfulCompassionSituationNovelEffectsMoralityNormalOrdinaryConsequenceFairsCrossesTransformationSignificantBoundariesSettingSettingsGood And EvilAttributesLuciferFair Play Author:Philip Zimbardo
“Jekyll and Hyde, in particular, is such an important novel in terms of suspense and setting a perfect scene for crime” ImportantTermPerfectNovelCrimeParticularSceneSettingSettingsSuspenseHydeJekyllJekyll And Hyde Author:Alanna Knight
“I am drawn to writing books about magic and the supernatural because those are the types of books I like to read. I've written many short stories with realistic settings, and I certainly wouldn't rule out realistic novels in the future!” WritingBookStoriesNovelWrittenMagicTypeSettingSettingsRealisticShort StoryWriting A Book Author:Cassandra Clare
“If my setting is new to a reader, or the concerns of the novel are new, I hope they will learn something about the world. I would like to say that they can trust that what they do learn in the novel will be accurate, because I pay a lot of attention to facts. I do a lot of research to make sure that I'm not giving them, you know, blue moons of Jupiter. It's not science fiction.” IfsKnowsWorldGivingFactsPayAttentionFictionNovelReaderMoonResearchConcernBlueScience FictionSettingSettingsAccurateJupiterBlue Moon Author:Barbara Kingsolver
“I tend to avoid melodrama. I try to create very realistic settings and very realistic experiences and realistic responses to these experiences. Melodrama is the use of really big events that may or may not happen in real life - certainly they do, but they're not events that are common to most people. Most of the things that happen in my novels are things that could happen to people in real life.” PeopleTryingMayRealUseBigsHappensCommonNovelEventsResponseReal LifeSettingSettingsRealisticMelodramaBig Events Author:Nicholas Sparks
“I think that setting a novel in a small town taps into a sense of nostalgia among readers. People tend to believe life is different in small towns, and frankly, it is different.” PeopleThinkingBelieveDifferentLife IsNovelReaderTownsNostalgiaSettingSettingsSmall Town Author:Nicholas Sparks
“Throughout my career I've struggled to encourage people to read my books on a more metaphorical level. I'm less attached to my settings than, for example, Saul Bellow. The setting of a novel for me is just a part of the technique. I choose it at the end.” PeopleBookEndsLevelsCareersNovelExampleTechniqueSettingSettingsMetaphorical Author:Kazuo Ishiguro
“I began to write fiction on the assumption that the true enemies of the novel were plot, character, setting and theme, and having once abandoned these familiar ways of thinking about fiction, totality of vision or structure was really all that remained.” ThinkingWayWritingCharacterFictionVisionEnemyNovelStructureSettingFamiliarSettingsAssumptionThemePlotAbandonedWay Of ThinkingTotalityAll That Remains Book:A John Hawkes symposium: design and debris Source: A John Hawkes symposium: design and debris
“What I find interesting and heartening, though, is that there does seem to be a shift in the subject matter being written about by women that is doing well in the culture. We're seeing more women writing dystopian fiction, more women writing novels set post-apocalyptic settings, subjects and themes that used to be dominated by men.” MenWritingWellsDoeMatterSeemsUsedCultureInterestingFictionNovelWrittenSeeingSubjectsSettingUsed To BeSettingsPostsThemeDystopianSubject MatterApocalypticDystopian FictionPost Apocalyptic Author:Laurie Foos
“While I was drawn to the Renaissance, my first (unpublished) novels took place in modern times. When the subject of alchemy started creeping into my stories, an astute mentor observed that the bits about alchemy might fit better in another time frame. When I finally decided to weave the pieces about the medieval science into historical settings, a successful novel began to emerge. (And I dusted off that art history book, and put it to use once again.)” FirstsArtBookStoriesUseMightBitsNovelSuccessfulPiecesModernSubjectsFitDecidedHistoricalSettingSettingsMentorMedievalRenaissanceAlchemyArt HistoryHistory BooksModern TimesAnother TimeAstute Author:Mary Pope Osborne