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A Brief History of Road Trip Stories
Road trip stories are basically mythic journeys. Usually, a group of friends or family are travelling together instead of alone. As well as meeting a succession of opponents along the way they argue among themselves. The Minotaur opponent who comes in from outside either binds them together or (in a tragedy) drives them apart. Occasionally…
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Psychology by Katherine Mansfield Short Story Analysis
“Psychology” (1919) is a short story by Katherine Mansfield, redolent with sexual tension which unexpectedly morphs into something else at the end. As expected from the title, the bulk of the story comprises a character’s interiority. After first setting the mood, Mansfield gets right into a woman’s feelings. Yet do we feel we know her?…
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How To Write Like Alice Munro
Of course, no one but Alice Munro can write like Alice Munro. That is my disclaimer on each of my sporadic series of ‘How To Write Like…’ posts. If you read a lot of Munro’s works carefully, sooner or later, in one of her short stories, you will come face to face with yourself; this…
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Powers by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis
“Powers” is the final story in the Runaway collection by Alice Munro, published 2004. I find this story the most challenging of the lot — as in, what in holy heck was that all about? I’m going to have to write about “Powers” in order to understand it. Here goes my best shot. What can…
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A Continuum of Imaginative Powers
I enjoy stories about characters with wild imaginations, and that may partly explain why I love children’s books. From Where The Wild Things Are to highly symbolic fairytales to post-modern off-kilter realities, children’s literature is full of dreamscapes and fantastic journeys. But stories of imaginative power don’t end with childhood — there are many examples…
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How To Write Like Paul Jennings
Paul Jennings mastered the tall tale hi-lo children’s story in the 1980s. 30 years on, writers can still learn from his techniques. Other Paul Jennings tropes need to go the way of the dodo.
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Unmentionable by Paul Jennings
Unmentionable (1991) is a collection of 9 hi-lo short stories by iconic Australian author Paul Jennings. STORY STRUCTURE OF “ICE MAIDEN” In “Ice Maiden”, a boy falls in love with an ice statue, but he gets over his love for the ice once he meets a real girl. I have some sympathy for the phenomenon…
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Writing Detective Stories
A detective story is a type of mystery told through the eyes of law enforcers. Crime stories, in contrast, are often told through the eyes of the criminal. An example of a crime story is The Sopranos. Detective stories relate the solving of a crime, usually one or more murders, by a main character who…
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Paul’s Case by Willa Cather Analysis
“Paul’s Case” is a short story by Willa Cather, first published in McClure’s Magazine in 1905 under the title “Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament”. As a New Zealander, I have a longterm interest in Katherine Mansfield. I’m coming late to American Willa Cather, but the first thing I notice is that she was writing short…
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How To Write Like Katherine Mansfield
Mansfield borrowed from those who came before her and we may do the same. In fact, it’s inevitable. It pays to know our own influences… if only so we don’t mimic them too closely. Overall, Mansfield was a modernist writer. And of the modernist writers, she was at the highly aesthetic and visual end of…
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Prelude by Katherine Mansfield Short Story Analysis
“Prelude” is the first in a trilogy of interlinked short stories. The other stories starring the Burnell family are “At the Bay” and “The Doll’s House”. Although Mansfield also populates “The Doll’s House” with the same characters.
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A Dictionary of Witch Words
The definition of witch changes over time. The word witch dates from around 800 AD. It originally referred to men who practise witchcraft but 200 years later referred to female magicians and sorceresses. Later it meant women who were meant to cooperate with the devil or other evil spirits.
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Dumplin Film Storytelling Techniques
Dumplin is a 2018 young adult film based on the 2015 novel by Julie Murphy. PARATEXT Willowdean (‘Dumplin’), the plus-size teenage daughter of a former beauty queen, signs up for her mom’s Miss Teen Bluebonnet pageant as a protest that escalates when other contestants follow her footsteps, revolutionizing the pageant and their small Texas town.…