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Nate Listrom
Nate Listrom

17 Followers

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Dec 23, 2022

AI art and the loss of practice

For a bit of context on AI art generation, see this BBC article. I don’t play guitar as well as I used to. Sure, I can still pick up my instrument and make music. I still remember many of the songs that I wrote when I was in college. …

Technology

4 min read

AI art and the loss of practice
AI art and the loss of practice
Technology

4 min read


Dec 7, 2022

Story structure and theme in Ira Glass’ anecdote and reflection

Note: This post contains minor spoilers for Jane Austen’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice and Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film Jurassic Park. In a 2009 interview, radio personality Ira Glass discussed a two-part method of storytelling, which he described as the combination of an “anecdote” and a “moment of reflection.” Glass…

Fiction Writing

7 min read

Story structure and theme in Ira Glass’ anecdote and reflection
Story structure and theme in Ira Glass’ anecdote and reflection
Fiction Writing

7 min read


Dec 1, 2022

Design your story to fit humans

Summary: The best tools are designed to be ergonomic — to be fitted to people, rather than asking people to fit them. Similarly, as a storyteller, you should design your stories to fit the way people’s minds work. In the 1940s, a psychologist named Paul Morris Fitts led an investigation…

Storytelling

5 min read

Design your story to fit humans
Design your story to fit humans
Storytelling

5 min read


Nov 13, 2022

How Orson Scott Card’s MICE quotient maps to internal and external genres of narrative drive

In Character and Viewpoint, author Orson Scott Card explores four factors that have come to be called the “MICE quotient.” They are milieu, idea, character, and event. (1) Milieu is the “landscape, the interior spaces, the surrounding cultures . . . everything from weather to traffic laws.” …

Story

4 min read

How Orson Scott Card’s MICE quotient maps to internal and external genres of narrative drive
How Orson Scott Card’s MICE quotient maps to internal and external genres of narrative drive
Story

4 min read


Nov 7, 2022

Virtual reality comes in three flavors

This post originally appeared on natelistrom.com. You can group approaches to augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) into three categories: Wearables Implants Environments In this post, I’ll talk a bit about what each approach is, how they differ, and the challenges and opportunities I see in them. Wearables

Virtual Reality

7 min read

Virtual reality comes in three flavors
Virtual reality comes in three flavors
Virtual Reality

7 min read


Aug 12, 2022

The interest-effort formula for engaging story audiences

This essay was originally posted on natelistrom.com. Summary: When engaging with stories, audiences experience a push and pull between effort and interest. Once you’ve mastered the basics of craft, you can tune the balance to control type of experience you give your audience. Mount Longonot is a volcano in the…

Storytelling

7 min read

The interest-effort formula for engaging story audiences
The interest-effort formula for engaging story audiences
Storytelling

7 min read


Aug 17, 2021

The three underlying functions of inciting incidents

This essay was originally posted on natelistrom.com. Summary: Inciting incidents consist of one or more of three distinct story functions. This essay explains what each function is, how it works, and how I arrived at my current understanding. Bestselling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson talks about the difference between “chef writers”…

Storytelling

13 min read

Storytelling

13 min read


Jun 23, 2020

From technicians to talent: Three phases in creative markets

Epistemic status: Just the kernel of an idea. Epistemic effort: Been kicking around this kernel of an idea for a while but without really investing in fleshing it out or drawing conclusions. There’s an interesting thing that seems to happen predictably in so-called “creative” fields as technologies become less expensive…

Marketplaces

3 min read

Marketplaces

3 min read


Feb 5, 2019

A song of industry

The sound of the foundry pounds all around me. Blasting and burning and breaking and boiling, And twisting and turning and taking and toiling. The bending of steel and the grinding of wheels, And the pushing and the pressing and the stamping and the stressing. The dark and the heat…

Poetry

1 min read

Poetry

1 min read


Aug 15, 2015

Distinguishing between structure and style

By Nate Listrom Years ago, there was a discussion in the online design community about the merits and demerits of using things like filters, drop shadows, gradients, bevel effects, and the like. At the time, CSS3 wasn’t even a thing yet. The discussion was about Photoshop and how to use…

Design

6 min read

Distinguishing between structure and style
Distinguishing between structure and style
Design

6 min read

Nate Listrom

Nate Listrom

17 Followers

Artist. Designer. Traveler. Reader. Writer. Thinker. Believer.

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