Month: July 2017

  • Synoptic Narrative In Picture Books

    A synoptic narrative depicts a single scene in which a character or characters are portrayed multiple times within a frame to convey that multiple actions are taking place. Synoptic is the adjective of synopsis. The sequence of events in synoptic art is unclear. Synoptic narratives typically provide visual cues that convey the sequence, but still […]

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  • Story Structure: The Big Struggle

    Story Structure: The Big Struggle

    All complete narratives feature a big struggle scene. No, that doesn’t have to be a literal big struggle scene, Lord of the Rings style. In fact, we should be thinking outside that box altogether. One thing I love about Larry McMurtry’s anti-Western novels (especially Lonesome Dove) is that he condenses the gun big struggles and torture scenes in favour […]

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  • Pygmalion In Modern Stories And Literature

    Pygmalion In Modern Stories And Literature

    Pygmalion was a sculptor who falls in love with an ivory statue he had carved. The most famous story about him is the narrative poem Metamorphoses by Ovid. (Pygmalion can be found in book ten.) In this poem Aphrodite turns the statue into a real woman for him. In some versions they have a son, […]

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  • What does Gothic mean in literature?

    What does Gothic mean in literature?

    The Gothic is notoriously difficult to define. This is a type of story in constant flux. Each new literary period adds is own spin. “Gothic” is more like a skin layered upon other genres, most often: horror, romance, science fiction and fantasy. Where does one genre end and the gothic element begin?

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  • Humour In Children’s Stories

    Founding editor of The Onion wants to help with the job of learning the write comedy. Stephen Johnson argues that every joke falls into one of 11 categories. At first glance this sounds like the ‘Seven Basic Plots’ idea, which is a pretty unhelpful way of looking at story if you’re harbouring hopes of telling […]

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  • New Zealand As Depicted In Fiction

    New Zealand As Depicted In Fiction

    How is your country generally depicted in fiction, by writers outside your country? New Zealand in fiction, not surprisingly, is the stock country for ‘a place really, really far away.’

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  • Tips For Writing Melodrama

    Tips For Writing Melodrama

    melodrama is a widely misunderstood term but has its place in good storytelling. What is melodrama, and how do we write it? Melodrama In Everyday Usage In everyday English, if we describe a person as ‘melodramatic’ we are probably describing a high drama individual. We’re probably talking about what we consider ‘too much emotion’. When […]

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