(Marginalized humans undermine the dominance of machines with the help of a sentient breadmaker and a hair salon.) Pros: Clever set up, an interesting character, brilliant machine-world psychology. Possible Cons: Probably not the book for those unable to suspend disbelief or those who like their dystopias grim and sincere. Battlestar Suburbia begins as the story […]
Pros: Highly convincing portrayal of a particular personality. Potential cons: Extensive telling of emotional states, low tension plot. In Willow Thomson’s debut novel, Seeds of Change, plague and catastrophic climate change leave Earth uninhabitable. A wealthy leader gathers a group of space colonists, and they depart for an unexplored planet.
A successful character reads like a complete person with particular thought patterns and reactions, habits and tics. The best characters are consistent and believable, a person one might encounter in real life, for better or worse. How does an author fashion the mental world of diverse but credible characters?
Pros: Clever set up, interesting characters, timely topicsPossible Cons: Video game style climax and villain-tells-all scene. Roving point of view and a fair bit of “tell.” The Echo Chamber is in part a tale of tech-corporate malfeasance, involving a rogue AI, a blender and ruthless Silicon Valley executives who build a social media “echo chamber.”
An important point to bear in mind is that suitability can be very narrowly defined. Suitability might be personal, cryptic or ephemeral. Take for example the suitability of The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly. https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/throne-third-heaven-nations-millennium-general-assembly-9897 I stumbled upon this monumental artwork in the American Art Museum many years ago.
Sternbert and Lubart (1999) defined creativity as the production of responses both novel (original, rare or unexpected) and suitable. Suitability depends on the venue: compelling in the arts, marketable in business, useful in science and technology or adaptive personally or socially. This two component (production and suitability) definition changes creativity from a trait to a
