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How Do You Write Dialogue?
How to write dialogue in fiction? It’s not like dialogue in reality. So how is it different? How do you punctuate it?
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The Bridges Of Madison County Film Study
The Bridges of Madison County is a 1995 American one-true-love romance. The film is based on a 1992 best-selling, terribly written novel by Robert James Waller.
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Extra by Yiyun Li Short Story Analysis
“Extra” is a short story by Chinese-American author Yiyun Li. Deborah Treisman and Sarah Shun-lien Bynum discuss this story in 2021 at the New Yorker Fiction podcast. This was the second story Yiyun Li published anywhere. “Extra” was included in Li’s 2005 debut collection A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers. Brilliant and original, A Thousand Years…
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Films That Centre Characters Over 40
Are you weary of films about people younger than yourself? You may be over 40. Here are some suggestions.
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Writing Thumbnail Character Sketches
We see people and things not as they are, but as we are. Anthony de Mello Park: “What did he look like?” Girl: “Well, kind of plain.” Park: “In what way?” Girl: “Just……..ordinary.” Memories of Murder, Bong Joon-Ho (2003) Readers differ in the amount of description they need when reading a fictional character. I remember…
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A Sheltered Woman by Yiyun Li Short Story Analysis
“A Sheltered Woman” is a short story by Chinese-American writer Yiyun Li, and a subversion on the trope of the domestic suspense story. In a subcategory of these stories, an unstable woman enters the family home and threatens the family unit.
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Writing Activity: Describe The Outside Of A House
A writing activity in which you imaginatively approach a house and describe it.
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Marriage á la Mode by Katherine Mansfield Short Story Analysis
“Marriage á la Mode” (1921) is a Modernist short story by Katherine Mansfield, first published in a December edition of The Sphere: An Illustrated Newspaper for the Home. Magazines don’t normally publish summery stories in winter, but it makes more sense to know this magazine was aimed at British citizens living in the colonies. This…
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Stone Mattress Short Story by Margaret Atwood Analysis
“Stone Mattress” is a masterful short story written by Margaret Atwood, published in The New Yorker in 2011. You’ll also find this story in the Nine Wicked Tales collection.
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The Overview Effect In Fiction
If you’re reading a picture book and you ever come across a page like this one, you might be seeing the overview effect as utilised by storytellers.
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The Daughters of the Late Colonel by Katherine Mansfield Analysis
“The Daughters of the Late Colonel” (1922) is a modernist short story by Katherine Mansfield, included in The Garden Party And Other Stories.
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Writing Activity: Describe Main Street Of A Small Town
In this writing challenge, you’ll describe the main street of a small town, using artworks and expertly crafted paragraphs from books as inspiration.
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Making Use Of Cognitive Biases In Storytelling
Cognitive biases are at play when an audience interprets any work of art. Storytellers can make use of them, and regularly do.
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Foes by Lorrie Moore Short Story Analysis
“Foes” is a short story by American writer Lorrie Moore. The Guardian published it on the eve of the election which would see Obama to the presidency, and can be read in full here. It is also in Bark and in Collected Stories. This is such an American story, so Americans will have a more…
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Which novels are Australian high school English students studying?
This list is collected from online chats about children’s books studied in Australian high schools. Comments are from teachers who have used these books in class in 2020. Australian states and territories set quotas for the minimum amount of Australian content. In Victoria, for example, it’s a third. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas…