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Shapes of Plots In Storytelling
The success of a novel is only five percent about the structure and ninety-five percent about the quality of the writing. Elizabeth Lyons, Manuscript Makeover Younger writers should be experimenting with form as well as material, like a water-seeker with a divining rod. We are āhauntedā by experiences, images, people, acts of our own or [ā¦]
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Mice in Childrenās Literature
Mice are widely represented in folktales, both as protagonists and as helpers. Apparently, there is a subconscious identification on the part of childrenās writers of a small and helpless child with one of the smallest animals, also knowāmaybe without reasonāfor its lack of courage.
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Other Selves In Storytelling
Thereās a prevailing idea that we are all cohesive, single selves. Sure, we might change over time, but if thereās such a thing as ābeing yourselfā then we must accept our own absorption of the idea that āyourselfā (singular) exists in the first place.
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Paralepsis in Childrenās Literature
Paralepsis*: (Faux) Omission. In rhetoric, paralepsis refers to the device of giving emphasis by professing to say little or nothing about a subject, as inĀ not to mention their unpaid debts of several million, but saying it all the same. I know who farted but I wouldnāt want to embarrass Charles. In the name of anonymity, [ā¦]
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The Carnivalesque in Childrenās Literature
Carnival: In the Bakhtanian sense, āa place that is not a place and a time that is not a timeā, in which one can ādon the liberating masks of liminal masqueradeā. Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society, 1974 Childrenās literature academic Maria Nikolajeva categorises childrenās fiction into three general forms: [ā¦]
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Animal Stories In Art and Storytelling
Why are there so many animal characters in childrenās literature? A better question might be: Why so many humans? As Barbara Ehrenreich observes when writing about a 1940s discovery of cave paintings, early humans spent much more time rendering their cave wall paintings of animals. The humans are āhumanoidā: crude stick figures. Ā If the Paleolithic [ā¦]
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How To Write Underdog Stories
The underdog is very popular as a main character in fiction. But there are ways to write underdogs well as well as pitfalls to avoid. What Is An Underdog? The Three Assumptions Behind Most Underdog Stories Itās worth thinking hard about our own attitudes towards social hierarchy before writing an underdog story. In contemporary stories, [ā¦]
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The Chaste Clarissa by John Cheever Analysis
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE CHASTE CLARISSA A twice-divorced philanderer holidays where he has always holidayed, on Marthaās Vineyard. On the ferry he meets for the first time a beautiful young woman who has recently married into a bird-watching, rock-collecting family of average Joes, but her husband wonāt be joining ClarissaĀ on the island, so our viewpoint [ā¦]
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The Wizard of Oz Novel Study
The Wizard of Oz is in some ways the inverse of Winnie the Pooh. Whereas L. Frank Baumās Oz series is so highly metaphorical every member of a thinking audience weaves their own symbolism into it, Milneās Pooh series is so devoid of symbolism that itās famous among specialists of childrenās literature for precisely the [ā¦]
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Reflection and Delusion In The Cure by John Cheever Analysis
In his story āThe Cureā, Cheever comes pretty close to writing a supernatural thriller story, with a few typical thriller genre beats. The stars are ordinary heroes, or to use Northrop Fryeās terms, mimetic heroes.
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Utopian Childrenās Literature
The word āutopiaā means different things to different people and even comes from two different words. In modern English, we colloquially use āutopiaā to mean our own version of a perfect society. Philosophers go deeper. For example, Nassim Nicholas Taleb defines a utopia as a society built according to some blueprint of what āmakes senseā. [ā¦]
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Pig The Pug by Aaron Blabey Picture Book Analysis
Pig the Pug and Trevor the sausage dog live together in a flat. Pig is greedy and selfish and refuses to share his toys. Trevor suggests they play together, but Pig refuses. He piles up all his toys and sits on top of them, but the pile collapses. Pig ends up covered in bandages, completely unable to escape Trevorās attentions.ā¦
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The Burgundy Weekend by Mavis Gallant Analysis
This is a wonderfully frustrating story. The awful character of Gilles will probably remind you of someone you have known at least once in your life. He is a caricature, to be sure, but not so much of one that he isnāt immediately recognisable. You will feel as if you are stuck inside a car [ā¦]
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Are You There, God? Itās Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
As an adolescent I was keen to get my hands on the complete works of Judy Blume, but unfortunately only a select few were available to me. Iāve only just read Are You There, God? Itās Me, Margaret, Margaret Simon, almost twelve, likes long hair, tuna fish, the smell of rain, and things that are [ā¦]
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Must Characters Change? How Much?
Theorists have been interested for a long while in the question: What makes a story? Aristotle noticed in The Poetics that a plot must allow for a significant change in the fortune of a main character. But youāve surely read stories in which characters donāt seem to change at all. Perhaps thatās why youāre here, [ā¦]