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River Symbolism In Storytelling
here there is a river there is symbolism. At least, in stories. The nature of rivers also differs between cultures.
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The Three Main Types Of Modern Myth Stories
In everyday English, a myth is a story which is not true. In a myth, the surface level story is not true, but the symbols running through the story say something deeper about humankind. This is what makes it true.
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Homes and Symbolism In Film and Literature
Homes are an outworking of the characters who live inside. Sometimes, in fiction, the house even seems to come alive in its own right.
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The Symbolism Of Altitude: Clifftops, Mountains and Roofs
Hills and valleys, cliffs, mountains — altitude in story is highly symbolic. When creating a story, remember to vary the altitude as much as you’d vary any other setting.
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How To Structure Any (Western-style) Story
Combining my study of film, novels, children’s literature and lyrical short stories, I’ve come up with a nine part story structure. Other cultures historically carve up stories differently. For instance, East Asian audiences expect different things from story, and also differ in the amount of work they expect to put in. Not all stories are…
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Thelma And Louise Story Structure
Thelma and Louise is an iconic 1991 film, hailed at the time as feminist. I don’t fall into the camp who consider this a feminist film, but it is still one of my all time favourites. I know Thelma and Louise so well it makes an excellent case study in storytelling technique. While I was…
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Short Story Study For Writers
In the 1880s Brander Matthews said that short stories should be spelt with a hyphen to distinguish between two different forms, which reminds me of the picture book vs picturebook debate. A short story is a story that is short. A short-story proper derives from the Romantic tradition and has its beginnings in myths and legends.…
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Buildings As Characters In Fiction
Sometimes in literature you’ll hear a setting interpreted in the same way as a character. What does this mean? When should you do this? See: How can setting be a character? This article focuses specifically on buildings as character. Most stories: Setting affects character. In some stories: Setting interacts with the characters. IS HOUSE AS CHARACTER A…
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Storytelling And Subversion: How is it done?
Subversion of reader expectation to challenge long-held beliefs is one of the most difficult — and the most important — things storytellers can do.
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What Is A Motif, Visual Motif and Leitmotif?
What is a motif, how is it different from symbolism, and what are the different kinds?
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What to watch if you LOVE Breaking Bad
Loved Breaking Bad? Fingers crossed you haven’t seen all of these recommendations already. The following descriptions are spoiler free.
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Singing My Sister Down by Margo Lanagan Analysis
“Singing My Sister Down” is a horror short story by Australian author Margo Lanagan. Find it in Lanagan’s collection Black Juice, published by Allen and Unwin. Black Juice was published in 2004, but “Singing My Sister Down” has proven especially resonant with readers, anthologised numerous times since. “Singing My Sister Down” is now a modern Australian…
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The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes by Beatrix Potter Analysis
Beatrix Potter was already popular by the time she published The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes (1911). The introduction to our 110th anniversary copy says the tale was created specifically to appeal to a new, American audience, with the inclusion of chipmunks. Unfortunately, Beatrix had never seen a chipmunk in real life. She must have relied…
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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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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.