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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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Uncanny by Paul Jennings Hi-Lo Short Stories
Uncanny is a hi-lo short story collection by Australian author Paul Jennings, first published 1988. The original ‘uncanny’ stories were by British writer May Sinclair (1863 – 1946). I read a collection of Sinclair’s uncanny short stories (1923) a few years ago and wasn’t really moved by them. This is because so many writers have […]
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When Everyone Else Is A Ghost
You may not believe in ghosts to enjoy ghost stories. I don’t either. But once you understand how ghost stories work, you’ll understand how tools of persuasion are used in other realms. Studying the ghost story is a fun way to study the techniques of persuasion. Ghost stories have plenty of other functions, too. There […]
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Unbelievable by Paul Jennings Hi-lo Short Fiction
Unbelievable is a short story collection by Australian author Paul Jennings, copyrighted 1986. These are tall tales for eight-year-olds. Australia has a long history of tall tales, and Jennings very successfully adapted the techniques for a child audience. The 1980s was the decade of the irreverent male children’s author. Roald Dahl was the stand-out giant […]
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Unreal by Paul Jennings Hi-lo Short Fiction
Unreal is a collection of 8 short stories, first published 1985. This was the book that really kicked-off Jennings’ career as a children’s author.
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The Contest by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“The Contest” by Annie Proulx is a short story from the Bad Dirt collection, published 2004. Like Larry McMurtry, Proulx writes two main types of stories — comical stories similar to those found in dime novels (in McMurtry’s case) and in hunting and fishing magazines (in Proulx’s case). “The Contest” belongs to the comical class, […]
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The Wer-Trout by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
Do you like the idea of river fishing, without the annoying realities? One option is an afternoon plumped in front of Deliverance, starring the late Burt Reynolds. Another option is Annie Proulx’s short story “The Wer-trout”
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King Bait by Keri Hulme Short Story Analysis
“King Bait” is a short story by Keri Hulme, author of The Bone People, which won the Booker Prize. The setting is a magical realist New Zealand.
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Lamb To The Slaughter by Roald Dahl Analysis
“Lamb to the Slaughter” is one of Roald Dahl’s most widely read short stories, studied in high school English classes around the English speaking world. In this post I take a close look at the structure from a writing point of view. Why has this story found such wide love? What appeals?
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Unreliable Narration In Storytelling
This post more than any other contains spoilers. Sometimes it’s a spoiler just to know that you’re dealing with an unreliable narrator. Unreliable narration is a storytelling technique which requires some work on the part of the reader, trying to work out how much of the story is true and how much is subjective, or […]
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The Blood Bay by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
At around the same time Annie Proulx published “The Blood Bay”, an episode of Six Feet Under saw Claire in big trouble for stealing a severed foot from her family’s funeral business and taking it with her to school. That episode, like this story, was darkly funny and made use of someone’s severed foot. It […]
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The Half-Skinned Steer by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“The Half-Skinned Steer” by Annie Proulx is, as said by Mary Lee Settle “as real as a pickup truck, as ominous as a fairy tale.”
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And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street by Dr Seuss Analysis
And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street was Ted Geisel’s first book. Well, he’d written an abecedary but failed to interest publishers in it. It took a while to find a publisher for this one, too, but compared to what author/illustrators are up against today, I’m guessing 20 rejections is actually pretty good. Dr […]
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The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko Analysis
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch is another feminist picturebook from the 1980s in which a scruffy princess does not end up marrying the prince. In fact, it must be one of the earliest of its kind. It’s published in 1980 and remains one of Munsch’s most popular books.
