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What is a ‘strong verb’?
In high school English we were taught to use ‘strong verbs’ and ‘specific nouns’. Today I’d like to say about more about those strong verbs.
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A Run of Bad Luck by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“A Run Of Bad Luck” by Annie Proulx is a short story which explores the nature of luck, and by extension, the nature of fate.
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Introducing your character’s age in a children’s novel
Readers want to know early on the age of a main character in a children’s book. In a (non-illustrated) book, we don’t have a visual before us. So character age is one of the most important things we need to know up front. How and when to convey that bit of information? I took a…
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Giants and Ogres In Storytelling
Giants and ogres are central archetypes in the fairytale cast. Though similar, they’re not exactly the same.
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Bedrock by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“Bedrock” is a short story from Annie Proulx’s collection Heart Songs, published 1999. This is a subversive feminist tale, which challenges the readers assumptions about ‘gold-digger’ women and especially those we dismiss as ‘rednecks’. “Bedrock” makes a good mentor text if you: Are writing a story in which the reader is asked to switch sympathies,…
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The Last Question by Isaac Asimov
“The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov is a science fiction short story first published in 1956. The ideas are even more relevant today than they were back in the 1950s. Isaac Asimov was an ideas man. I generally find his work hard to read because I read for character first. Asimov worked the other way…
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Baba Yaga: Witch or old woman?
Baba Yaga is a legendary Slavic witch, or a hag, who lives in a hut that stands on chicken legs and who flies through the air in a mortar.
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Stone City by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“Stone City” is a short story by Annie Proulx, first published 1979, collected 20 years later in Heart Songs. Some of Proulx’s short stories are like compacted novels, and “Stone City” is one of those. The story of the humans is wrapped by the story of a fox, looking in from a slight distance. “Stone…
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Heart Songs by Annie Proulx Storytelling Short Story Analysis
“Heart Songs” by Annie Proulx utilises a dynamic employed by a number of other stories in the same-named Heart Songs collection — an outsider comes into a rural community and misunderstands local ways.
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Ghost Stories Are Not About Ghosts
What’s the point of ghost stories? A really good and scary ghost story focuses me. It pulls me from my ordinary, self-focused fears and connects me with something older and more mysterious. Claire Cronin at Rumpus The ghost story was designed for the short form. It emerged a long time ago, from folklore and oral…
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A Country Killing by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“A Country Killing” may sound a bit like the title of a cosy mystery set in Surrey but no, this is a story by Annie Proulx, about coercive control and domestic abuse, set in the poorest demographic of New England in the 1990s.
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Halloweensie 2018: Delight Night
No Tricks, No Treats. Felina Nightbone used jagged teeth to rip sticky tape. She affixed the cardboard sign to her letterbox. “Right. I’m off to bed.” She shut the iron gate. Inside she snuffed candles. Still they came, giggling in ridiculous dress-up. They thought she’d carved the pumpkins for them. They thought this house had…
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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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Runaway by Alice Munro Short Story Short Story Analysis
“Runaway” is the first short story of Alice Munro’s 2004 collection. It was also published in The New Yorker, where you can read it online. “Runaway” makes for a great mentor text for the following reasons: Nuance of human motivations. The desire is at the ‘complex’ end of the spectrum — our main character doesn’t…