Writing Great Fiction

person narration. A character’s thoughts may be indicated by italics or quotation marks, although those treatments may not be ap ...

Lecture 17: He, She, It—Third-Person Point of View o A generation later, we hear a similar voice in Jane Austen, who seems to st ...

of this kind of narrative dexterity is found in chapter 11 of George Eliot’s 0LGGOHPDUFK. o ,QWKH¿UVWSDUWRIWKHFKDSWHU(OL ...

Lecture 17: He, She, It—Third-Person Point of View Combining Points of View z Although it may be true that the close third pers ...

Pick a stressful or contentious situation between two characters—an argument between a husband and wife, for example, or an int ...

Lecture 18: Evoking Setting and Place in Fiction Evoking Setting and Place in Fiction Lecture 18 E very story has a setting, but ...

o At the end of the novel, the Irish Republican Army burns the hotel to the ground, not only destroying the hotel but metaphoric ...

Lecture 18: Evoking Setting and Place in Fiction z Even if we hadn’t already been told that this is a haunted house, it would b ...

Setting to Evoke Time and Movement z Setting can also be used to evoke the passage of time and the movement of characters throu ...

Lecture 18: Evoking Setting and Place in Fiction RIVSULQJIURQGVSLHUFLQJPRVVJUHHQ¿QJHUHGODUFKHVDQG ÀRZHUVRSHQLQJLQ ...

o When a standalone description of setting is told from the OLPLWHGWKLUGSHUVRQRU¿UVWSHUVRQSRLQWRIYLHZLWDOVRHYRNHV c ...

Lecture 18: Evoking Setting and Place in Fiction Hawkes, -XOLDQ¶V+RXVH. Pelecanos, 7KH&XW. Sutcliff, 7KH(DJOHRIWKH1LQW ...

Pacing in Scenes and Narratives ................................................... Lecture 19 E very narrative has a tempo. Som ...

Lecture 19: Pacing in Scenes and Narratives z A third kind of balance to consider is that between action and exposition or betw ...

detail and a sharper focus on his day-to-day moments as Ivan weakens. As the story reaches Ivan’s last day, it slows down HYHQP ...

Lecture 19: Pacing in Scenes and Narratives summarizes Rose and Patrick’s unhappy 10-year marriage in ¿YHSDUDJUDSKVEHIRUHJLYL ...

psychology of one or more of the characters in it. But on the whole, the novel moves at a steady and unvarying pace, as the read ...

Lecture 19: Pacing in Scenes and Narratives z In contrast, intensely dramatic or violent scenes can be played out either fast o ...

Tolkien, 7KH/RUGRIWKH5LQJV. Tolstoy, 7KH'HDWKRI,YDQ,O\LFK. Select one incident from something you’ve written and try wr ...

Lecture 20: Building Scenes Building Scenes .............................................................................. Lectu ...