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Badjelly The Witch by Spike Milligan (1973)
“Badjelly The Witch” is better known as a radio play than as a picture book, at least to any New Zealand child of the 80s. There wasn’t much in the way of media entertainment back then, and I looked forward to Radio New Zealand’s Sunday morning children’s show with Constable Keith and Sniff the German […]
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I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore
Here’s what happens in the 2017 indie American film I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore: When a depressed woman is burgled, she finds a new sense of purpose by tracking down the thieves alongside her obnoxious neighbour. But they soon find themselves dangerously out of their depth against a pack of degenerate […]
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The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake
For fans of Into The Woods by John Yorke, The Enormous Crocodile is an example of a story which mirrors itself perfectly. PARATEXT The Enormous Crocodile is incredibly hungry-and incredibly greedy. His favourite meal is a plump, juicy little child, and he intends to gobble up as many of them as he can! But when […]
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Character Study: Walter White
Following a television trend started by The Sopranos, Walter White of Breaking Bad is an engaging example of a modern antihero. Like Tony Soprano, Walter White indulges in amoral familism — both Tony and Walt wreak havoc on the general public while justifying their own terrible behaviour under the delusion that they are doing it […]
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Must Fictional Heroes Be Likeable?
Short answer: Main characters don’t have to be likeable. But they do need to be interesting.
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The Homesman (2014) Film Study
With similarities to Million Dollar Baby, The Homesman is a film about an old man who has regrets but no character arc after meeting a young woman in desperate circumstances. The 2014 Homesman film is closely based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout, first published 1988. Glendon Swarthout died just four years after this novel […]
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A Glossary of Genre and Story Types
The purpose of fiction genre is to help readers find the stories they want. For a full list of Fiction Genres you can’t go past the Wikipedia article. These are my own notes on genre, incomplete, but with a different spin.ga Children’s literature is broken down into genres, just as adults’ stories are. But critics […]
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Storytelling Tips from Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman
Northern Lights is a young adult story with broad appeal for adults. The plot follows mythic structure.
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More and Better by Margaret Neve (1980) Analysis
People have a feeling of “Give it to me quick.” The contemporary mind feels a kind of relief when it sees things rapidly consummated. Saul Bellow Everything You Can’t Have by Morgan Housel SETTING OF MORE AND BETTER Once upon a time there was a green valley, with a hundred farmhouse windows shining across the meadows. […]
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Teachers In Children’s Literature
Teachers in children’s stories can be mentors, opponents, fake opponents, or very much background characters. In young adult literature, teachers can (problematically) be love opponents. Why is it that English, drama and music teachers are most often recalled as our mentors and inspirations? Maybe because artists are rarely members of the popular crowd. Roger Ebert […]
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We Are The Best (2013) Storytelling
We Are The Best is a Swedish film adaptation of Coco Moodysson’s (director Moodysson’s wife’s) autobiographical graphic novel which she never completely finished. PREMISE OF WE ARE THE BEST Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band — despite not having any instruments and being told by everyone that punk is dead. STORY […]
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Carrie by Stephen King Film Study
I want to talk about the 1976 movie based on Stephen King’s 1974 (breakout) novel, Carrie. Critics don’t like the new one much. The criticism is mostly that the remake was unnecessary because the first adaptation was so good. The original has a slower, more sinister pace and the main thing the reboot did was […]
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Desperate Housewives Storytelling Tips
Desperate Housewives ran for eight seasons from 2004 to 2012. This show is a great example of a ‘cozy mystery’. TAGLINES Taglines are for the marketing copy. Season One: Everyone has a little dirty laundry…/Secrets. Romance. Murder. All On One Street. THE LOGLINE/PREMISE For maximum narrative drive the premise should be all about the plot. […]
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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015) Novel Study
Me And Earl And The Dying Girl is a metafictive coming-of-age film based on a young adult novel by the same name. The book is an example of ‘sick-lit‘. Greg […] is coasting through senior year of high school as anonymously as possible, avoiding social interactions like the plague while secretly making spirited, bizarre films […]
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Storytelling Tips From Kings Of Summer (2013)
Sometimes when you find out a story used to be called something different right up until the marketing team stepped in, the original name can offer extra insight. Kings of Summer was originally called “Toy’s House”. The main character is called Joe Toy, and I did spend a bit of time wondering if this is a symbolic […]