Episode 35: [WRITING CRAFT] Using Lists as a Tool for Inspiring Your Writing

You might not always think of lists as a go to writing tool when you get stuck, but they’re a tool you’ll want to keep in your “writer’s toolbox”. You’d be surprised how often lists appear in all types of literature, often hidden in lengthy prose, or within the lines of poetry. In this episode of the podcast, Stephanie leads the conversation, inspired by a workshop led by Leath Tonino at the Mountain Words Festival in Crested Butte, CO in May 2024, focused on the list as a tool for enhancing your writing. Take a moment and think about where you find lists in your everyday life. You’ve just created a new list and a point of reference for yourself about how prevalent and useful lists are for writers. In a work of fiction, the description of a room can become a list, as the author provides details separated by commas that create a mental picture for the reader. You’ve probably never considered this to be a list because it doesn’t fit the image that most often comes to mind of a vertical display of words going down an edge of a page. Of course, there are plenty of other opportunities for description of people, places, and things that appear throughout a novel. And now, you’re going to start noticing it when you read, and remember that what started as a list can become important details in your work. Lists can become poems. Poetry most often appears like a list. Short sentences, single words, or short stanzas on a page. The economy of language to build an image or create a sensory experience for the reader. A poem can be inspired by a list of objects, names, or anything else. When you’re developing characters, you have lists for traits, interests, behavior, and more. A list about your characters is created by brainstorming and writing your ideas as quickly as possible to dump your thoughts onto the page. They can be organized later. Your lists allow you to scan your ideas with ease and not get bogged down in a lot of words. There’s the psychology of the “quick win” as a writer when you write lists. You’ve cleared your mind and improved your focus when you let your ideas flow in the form of a list. You tell yourself you’ve accomplished something for the day. Writing lists is, after all, writing. A great jumpstart when you get stuck and for keeping track of ideas. Lists are not reserved for fiction writers. They’re for everyone, including nonfiction writers. In nonfiction, lists are used for writing observations, taking notes, and for presenting information. You’ve probably seen lists as a common approach across social media for journalists and bloggers hoping to get someone’s attention. If you’re still curious, and want to hear more details about using lists as a tool for inspiring your writing, go listen to Episode 35 of the podcast. When you’re done listening, we hope you’ll leave us a review, share it with a friend, and send us an email letting us know your thoughts. 

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Transcript

Stephanie: 0:00

Okay.

Elizabeth: 0:05

are covering a Different topic. This is going back to Attending the conference, um at the end of may the mountain words festival stephanie attended a workshop there that she wanted to bring to this podcast as far as a discussion on Another source that may be sort of untapped into for inspiration in your writing um, so Uh, kick it off to you, Stephanie. Tell us what it's about and what is this source of inspiration that we probably have just like laying around and that we're doing throughout our day anyways.

Stephanie: 0:42

Yeah, exactly, thank you, Elizabeth. Well, I'm going to be talking today about using lists as a tool for writing. I attended a workshop that was led by a Colorado author who's written books. Two essay theories, a of essays and lives in Colorado, whose name is Leith Tonino. So this is inspired from his talk it's so interesting because as you said, Elizabeth, it's something that we probably do every day in our daily life. have a grocery list, you have a to do list, you have You know, a list of activities for your children. There are all kinds of lists that are, you're probably surrounded by. And. It's not very often that we think about that as for our writing, or even that that is writing, but yet it is. Um, there's so many aspects of writing lists that can help us as writers, and a couple of things thinking about fiction that came to mind to meet for me were, um, first thinking about description, that we can start with a list of You know, simple items, you know, a chair, a table, but then you can add a little bit more to that to say, you know, a wooden chair, a, you know, a glass table and add more to your list to create descriptions and then that can be added into your tap into your manuscript when it comes to a character, you know, entering a room and noticing what's in the room. maybe if you're writing, you know, a scene, you have to list things that are seen at a crime scene that are part of the evidence that's collected. Um, there are a multitude of different ways that that lists can be incorporated, and they don't have to appear as a list. I think we're all very familiar with a list you know, very, you know, vertical, top to bottom, maybe one or two words per line. But really, what came out of this workshop that was so interesting to me was that a lot of the lists Longer, uh, sections of prose, and especially when it came to the description, you know, something of up to like list of 40 things you know, a character sees walking in to a room. And of course, this is, a lot of the references were to more classical literature. So, That's, you know, also at play here a little bit, but definitely something to think about you get stuck is think about, well, how can you describe something and just start making a list of all the different attributes, even if it's a one thing, and that can help to build your, language you're using and allow you to create, uh, a better visualization opportunity for your reader.

Elizabeth: 3:54

When you say like classic literature, it makes me think of the very beginning of Tale of Two Cities and Charles Dickens. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was this, it was that. You know, that is essentially a list and that's like the whole, what, first paragraph. First sentence, I think, technically, of the book.

Stephanie: 4:15

Yeah, exactly. No, that's a, that's a great example. And that's actually a great example to kind of lead us into next thing that came to mind was how it can lend itself to poetry, because the beginning of that book is, I mean, it's very poetic, you know, it's the best of times, you know, it makes you think of poetry and how that, in and of itself, a poem is a list. It's a list of ideas. Uh, geared towards one particular subject that is, you know, the title of your poem and an interesting example that he shared was he shared about the poet laureate Billy Collins, uh, being asked to prepare something to read at one of at the memorial for 9 11, uh, victims and how at first Billy Collins wasn't sure because he didn't want to just, you know, You know, read names, but then he took the names turned it into a very beautiful, you know, poem about, you know, what it meant to have those names and, um, so that's definitely the poem is called the names by Billy Collins. So it's definitely worth, uh, looking up as an example of taking, know, what was a list. And turning it into a poem that had deeper meaning for more than just a small set of families. Um, and then with that too, going back to the first thing I was talking about with description is also thinking about character development. As a way to use lists. So you can list character traits, interests, likes, dislikes, career, uh, points, uh, behaviors, names. I'm sure many people have, you know, lists of character names that they go back to to pick. Um, as they're, you know, writing, coming to a new manuscript, maybe you have a list of names that you just keep collecting. And so that's the fun thing about lists, is that it can be a way to collect ideas, and you can just jot down quick notes. Maybe you're not in the mood for, you know, long, lengthy prose, but you are in the mood to write something. That, especially when it comes to developing your characters, a list is a great way to just quickly jot down, um, in quick succession, all of your thoughts, uh, about your characters.

Elizabeth: 6:41

I was talking about character names. Um with my boyfriend this other week because we're watching game of thrones He's watched it before but i'm watching it all for the first time and the names are so weird And I told him oh, I think I know what the writer did You know, it sounds like he's taken a list like he's brainstormed a list of like male names And then he is taken the beginning of this name and combined it with the end of this name. So Stanis is Stanley, combined with Dennis, and now he comes up with this, you know, brand new name that sounds like it's from this other world and. I don't know. I just kept seeing, like, every time a new character would be introduced, you know, I'd be like, oh, that's this name and this name combined. So, I don't know, maybe that is not how we created those names. But you could, if that's, if you're trying to create some, like, really unique names for especially fantasy, or like futuristic sci fi kind of works. Um, maybe taking a list of, you know, common things and then combining them in a different way or inverting them in some sort of way, um, could give you what you're looking for, for like character names.

Stephanie: 7:55

Well, exactly. And that's that's such a cool way to think about if you have a list of common names and how you can manipulate the the names beginnings with endings or letters or mixing up letters or all different ways that you can then play with the language, which is which is a fun aspect of the show. Using a list because sometimes you might have things that appear on the list that you don't expect it can lead you in a different direction. Um, and one of the great things with using a list is, especially if you're stuck and the blank page is staring at you, is that there's just the psychology of a quick win for yourself with your writing to say, okay, I got something. Down on paper today. And I know that I've heard several authors, you know, talk about how they're, you know, writing a quick note on an index card or a post it or, you know, and collecting all of those pieces. And those can be can then create lists for you. Um, and help you bring your ideas together. And also, it's also a way to clear your mind much like, um, I've talked about in previous, uh, podcast episodes about morning pages, which is, of course, stream of consciousness longhand. But, uh, you know, a list can certainly serve the same function for that. If you just have thoughts on your, in your head, and you just need to get it all out on paper. Um, and then it just helps improve your focus, because then you have something you can look at and refer to, and maybe you don't use it right away, but it's something you go, Oh yeah, I made a list of that, or Oh yeah, I thought of that scene, and I thought of all the things that are in that scene that I want to include, and you can go back to those pieces.

Elizabeth: 9:45

Yeah, something I had read, I believe it was in the book, Storyworthy, um, in reference to extemporaneous writing, is when you get stuck, and you're, because you're supposed to keep the pen moving, or supposed to keep typing, is when you suddenly finish that one idea, and before the next idea unfolds, is to start making a list, whether that's your, maybe you just Typing out numbers one, two, three, four, and then suddenly four makes you think of the fourth of July and then you're on with the next idea or Colors was another one that it was a really successful one that the book mentioned um Types of pets. I mean just any kind of list and then that'll help, you know Jog your thoughts and then you'll go on to the next idea and then you know Go back later and like just take out those lists another interesting thing about lists You And this is would be particularly useful for like things like thrillers or mysteries crime novels is using lists to embed your like Important detail right because when we read lists we kind of are like this and this and this I need bananas and oranges and bread And blah blah and this and if you embed something important In the list you are like kind of keeping a secret from the reader that this is something important because you've embedded it in with all this other like seemingly extraneous detail and then you can pull that out later as being like oh it was there all along but you you don't let them in

Stephanie: 11:19

think

Elizabeth: 11:20

on the like you don't take away the surprise

Stephanie: 11:23

able

Elizabeth: 11:25

it into a list that we We as humans are naturally just coming and be like, okay, this is just description. This is just, okay. Yeah. I walked in the room, saw this, that, and the other. Okay. Open the fridge. This is what they're having for dinner. And like hide the fact or or disguise the fact that

Stephanie: 11:41

Okay.

Elizabeth: 11:44

this person has a nut allergy But this was buried in this list of all of these other things and so I didn't really pick up on it Then that's another way that lists actually in the writing can be really helpful and used as a tool

Stephanie: 11:59

Yeah, exactly. And another, uh, reference in terms of in text is, um, in the workshop, he talked about the novel Life of Pi, which I have not read, but am somewhat familiar with. And in that there's a, a long list of supplies for the main character for the, you know, the expedition on this boat, um, you know, with tiger. And so it's, you know, it, that plays into setting up, you know, all the things that the character needs. And you might not think it's important, but it does, like you were just saying, you know, embedding something in, it does lend itself to the importance of the survival and of the journey of the main character. So there are definitely so many ways that, uh, you can think about. embedding and putting lists into your manuscript that could be really fun, uh, for, you know, things the character notices or things the character does or, you know, any of those, ways and, and certainly, um, you know, books that have a diary entry feature to them. Sometimes like, you know, a Bridget Jones diary or something of that nature, you know, might have lists in there, uh, that are part of, you know, showing character quirks or things that they're hyper focused on, uh, which can be a lot of fun. Uh, and then of course, I've said a few times that, you know, lists can be very helpful with, uh, Keeping track of your ideas and also along with that is, as I mentioned just a little bit ago, is that jump starting when you're stuck and I know, Elizabeth, you mentioned another example from Storyworthy that talks about the benefit of doing that.

Elizabeth: 13:55

Right, like that's what I was saying with the using the list like as you're writing and doing just start Listing anything types of cars, colors, days of the week, whatever. And, and that'll, you know, your brain will pick up on something in there and then, and then you can continue on, um, with the next thought, as far as like your morning pages or your extemporaneous writing.

Stephanie: 14:18

Well, yeah. And listener, as you're listening, if you are sitting somewhere right now, you might even be inspired to take out a piece of paper and start, you know, thinking of some of these ideas, types of cars, colors, and just, you know, start seeing what comes to mind, uh, as you just start thinking. You know, listing them. And I know that a really fun activity that I used to do when I taught middle school language arts, that my students always enjoyed, and I even enjoyed doing it with them was to start with one word then your next word has to begin with the last letter. Of the word you've just written and so you start to snake the words together And that can be kind of another fun way to kind of play with Building a list if you're feeling like you need a little bit more of a creative Interesting part was thinking about comments on social media a form of a list. So, you know, we scroll through social media, you might on something, you look at the comments and the comments form a list. They're all, you know, there's a main idea that comes in, whatever the post is, then everything below that. are all the reactions to it, which in and of themselves create a list. And some might be long, some might be short, uh, but that's kind of fun to play around with too, would be, you know, to do some searches of topics that maybe you're wanting to include in your book and see, like, what are people saying about. those topics on social media and, you know, and allow that to then maybe spur inspiration for your dialogue. Um, because then you're getting words that people are actually would actually say, you know, even though they've written them. And so that would be kind of a fun thing to do as well.

Elizabeth: 16:23

Yeah. You posted something recently about like, what is your go to coffee order, you know? And so then you get a list of like people's go to coffee orders and your book is going to take place, you know, at a coffee shop. There's going to be a lot of scenes where you're going to have people ordering their coffee orders. So I think that's great to use something like that. You know, something just from your readership. Um, you've also mentioned before, I think in a, in an actual episode, I don't think it was in a one on one conversation.

Stephanie: 16:51

Okay. So,

Elizabeth: 16:55

pulling her readers as well, especially those who are nurses to figure out certain like ailments or

Stephanie: 17:00

do

Elizabeth: 17:02

know, patients have come in to the emergency room with, you know, inserted up their butts. And that is what inspired, like she used one of those, Like more extreme examples in one of her recent books. Um, but yeah, that's another great point about how you could use lists and especially going back to your coffee shop thing, you're going to need a bunch of different diverse orders and those are going to come with various, um, indications of people's personalities. You know, like we can get an image of like an older man, drinking like the drip black coffee versus the like younger you know millennial or gen z and they've got their oat milk latte with extra this and hold the that and You know, whatever else

Stephanie: 17:49

Okay.

Elizabeth: 17:49

and it it lends itself to even speaking to the character a little bit And then the the other point I want to make is a minute ago when you were talking about using lists, you know to kind of You Speak to the character and their personality like when they enter the room. What do they see? I was also thinking about how you could use list to show a character's like either anxiety or ocd tendencies or how they you know assess if they like a room for like safety, you know, they're like, um, like say, um, like a ptsd type response for like a former military member and and they're You They walk into a room and they're examining the exits and they're looking at, you know, how many people are there and does anyone look threatening and, and, and you can list those things from the character's perspective to lend to the reader this, this, You know, aspect of their personality and their life and how their past experiences have shaped them

Stephanie: 18:51

Oh, exactly. Those are all like amazing examples of ways that you can incorporate lists. And I love that. And, and the other thing I want to mention, too, is that we've been focusing a lot on fiction. And. As I've been talking, but really all of this can play so easily into nonfiction writing as well. And of course, you know, particular subject areas lend themselves just naturally to lists, more than others, but you know, through observations and field notes and, um, things of those nature, uh, that can help with your writing of lists, um, more. Headings and subheadings, which are essentially a list that are guiding me for where I'm going, uh, in the writing of the manuscript. And so, those are also pieces that, you know, we don't want to forget about how this can play into, you know, all the genres and all the different ways. And it might. Have you, listener, thinking about all the ways that you use lists already that are just sort of part of your habits that you didn't even realize that you were using lists in so many ways that then you can that over into your own writing practice and see where it can take you?

Elizabeth: 20:16

I was just thinking you could show like even some emotional aspect of say Like i'm gonna use the classic example of like a female character, right? And one week she's making her grocery list and it's all the healthy things or whatever And then maybe she goes through like a breakup and the next week her grocery list has like ice cream on it and potato chips And things to show You know, how that, you know, change in her relationship circumstance is affecting her, you know, desire for certain foods or anything like that, too. So I think there's ways to even use lists to show, you know, someone's emotional state. Or a change in it, at least

Stephanie: 20:55

Oh, exactly. I think there's, I think there's so many ways, like I mentioned earlier about thinking about just different aspects of someone's personality or, know, things that they do, you know, daily habits. And, you know, you could, not only could it be emotions that are changing that are influencing, a grocery list, but maybe, you know, all of a sudden certain habits change or, or, you know, Or maybe it's a character who takes the same route to work every day. And then all of a sudden that route changes because something happens. And of course, anything with, you know, maps. Or it can be a lit, you know, giving directions as a list, uh, recipes. Um, certainly if you write cookbooks or if you incorporate recipes into your books in some way. I know some people do that. Um, and so that's certainly a form of, you know, building lists for your readers. And I mean, even as I'm talking about all this, I'm thinking like this could be really fun for me to dive into even more. Thinking about using this tool for my own writing.

Elizabeth: 22:03

when I think about it for memoir, um, one of the ways that I could see people really using it in memoir because it touches the reader more if you use specific examples, but if you need to show like. Some diversity in something or or for whatever reason that specific example is not going to like fully present the picture You could have a list of say like all your favorite christmas presents But then only go into a story about one of them if that, you know informs your reader about something about you as a person and another place where i've seen this in sort of Um a book that's sort of memoir esque, but it's fiction is in the Midnight Library, which is a book we're going to be doing an episode about in a couple of months, where, you know, you get the opportunity to see this woman in these various roles, and you get to be immersed into those new worlds and roles. But then you get to a page later in the book where it lists like and then she was a this and then she did this and then she did this and then it's almost like a page or two long in list form of all the other lives that she's lived because you need to understand as the reader the fact that she's tried way more than the like five or six that you're gonna get more intimate detail on. Um, and so then it goes into a list to kind of show that magnitude without wasting

Stephanie: 23:23

Here

Elizabeth: 23:29

like and then she was an astronaut and then she was a this and then she was a that. Um, so that's another way, both in like memoir, um, and fiction that you can. portrays something without having to go into like really specific detail, but it still maybe speaks to the magnitude of something or the diversity of something, or even just the monotony of, of a situation too.

Stephanie: 23:54

Well, and that's such a great example because that leads into another point that I was going to make was showing the passing of time that example from Midnight Library is a great example of that, of there's this passing of time that we're not experiencing every single other life, it allows, like you said, it allows the reader to see that, like, okay, we're seeing snapshots of a few, but But she really lived so many and making a list allows for showing that passing of time for things that a character is doing or allows for you to say like they did this and then this and went here and did this and so then it can move the story along if you choose to use that as a tool, it certainly can be a list can certainly be an effective way. To do that so that you can include little bits that don't need a whole lot of explanation because you've already seen like in midnight library, you've seen other lives in such detail You kind of get the gist of where the author is going with it and the purpose behind it And so it's not so out of place the story at that point. You're kind of like, oh, okay Wow, like she did these things then she did all these other things and then you finally come to the story Sort of the culmination of where she's going.

Elizabeth: 25:09

Yeah. That's a great point for like the passage of time. You know, if, if your memoir, for example, You know, feature some stories from like your younger years or when your kids were younger, and then all of a sudden you're jumping into an older period. You could just have a list of like, and then there were the dirty diapers, and the tooth fairy, and then there was the school plays, and then there was the soccer team, and then there was the graduation, and just hitting all those, Key moments so that the reader sees the passage of time Maybe you throw in details about like a broken arm that becomes relevant, you know later on or whatever you need to put in there um to show the passage of time, but also any key elements of moments that Are important for during that time period but don't need to be, you know dug into with any sort of Real detail. Um, yeah, I think that's a great technique for, for showing that and not just jumping timelines. And then all of a sudden the reader has to be like, Oh wait, okay. So now the kids are grown. Now this is happening. Now they've moved to this new place. You know, using a list could be really helpful for that.

Stephanie: 26:16

Yeah. So, so, listener, I think as you've heard us talk today, that using lists is a great for your writing, and we definitely encourage you to, um, Get out pen and paper or your laptop or whatever you used for your writing and hopefully some of our ideas have sparked you into creating lists about your character or where your book is going and we hope that you will, if you aren't already subscribed to our newsletter, that in the links in the description you will jump on our newsletter so that you don't miss more in depth information that's related to the topics we talk about in the podcast because we'd love to connect with you there and have you follow along as we continue to share more inspiration for you as writers.