This week on the Story Works Round Table, Alida and Kathryn discuss bookending a story, drawing on our recent discussion of Ethan Frome. Edith Wharton masterfully uses prologues and epilogues to frame the story and provide meaning. We analyze how the framing devices are essential to understanding the themes and events. Then explore examples of other books that also use framing devices well to provide narrative distance and allow readers to understand the story’s significance.
This week on the Story Works Round Table, we talk about Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton’s great American tragic love story.
How do you approach a short story collection? And when do you know you are writing one? What is the difference between a collection of short stories and a novel-in-stories? And what are the challenges of writing a short story collection? Why do some genre’s seem to lend themselves to serialization? And what is the difference between a serialized work, and a collection of short stories?
We all know short stories are short, but how does that change the way you write them? What is it with short stories and the ambiguous ending? And how can you tell if you are writing a short story, a lead magnet, or just a scene? Short stories are a great tool to use to better your writing craft so go out and write some, read some more, and enjoy yourself!
What should you do with dialogue heavy passages? How can you break it up? Should you worry about it in the first draft? What are revision techniques to catch your dialogue heavy sections? How can you approach teaching your character? What are some techniques to layer in information? And how do you use them correctly? The most important thing is to focus on what you want to achieve, and figure out how best to communicate that with your reader.
How do we address character motivation? Do we struggle with it? When do we work it into our stories? How can you get to know your character better in order to develop that motivation? What are the three layers of motivation? And how do you plan for your characters motivation over a series? What happens when your character has competing motivations?
What is psychic distance and filtering? How can we use our writers gaze properly? How do you get rid of your frame and allow the reader to fill in the gaps? Don’t forget to use all your senses and put your characters in action in your space in order to show effectively.
What does “show, don’t tell” actually mean? And how is it misleading? How should you use narrative summary to your benefit as a writer? Do you need scene breaks? And how do you make your telling showy? How present is your narrator? And what are the dangers of losing your narrator in a first-person point of view?
What is narrative drive? And why is it so important to your story? How can you craft drive with characters choices, cause, and effect? What happens when your character comes alive? How does it affect your plot, their agency, and the surprising inevitability of your story? And finally what are some ways you can develop these narrative drive skills?
What drew Emma to historical fiction, and what is it’s allure? How important is your motivation for writing, and what you are trying to communicate to your reader? How does theme drive your story? Emma explains some ways she uses structural tools to make her writing better. And finally, we talk about the trap of authenticity in our writing.
Why do first encounter stories fascinate us? What sort of problems are typical in first encounter fiction? How does it make us deal with our own humanity? And how can you use first encounters outside of its typical alien invasion genre?