The Re-re-read: Craft Talks on Classic Literature

If you are spatially and directionally challenged like me, you may be especially impressed (and also a little annoyed) by how specifically James renders the three-dimensional spaces in this story. But it's worth making the effort to literally map out exactly where your characters are at all times.

Ann Gelder on Bluesky: @anngelder.bsky.social

Did you just catch yourself writing "palpable silence" or "heavy sorrow"? Don't delete that cliché. Learn from Henry James, and turn (see what I did there?) it into something entirely new and wonderful.

Ann Gelder on Bluesky: @anngelder.bsky.social

Do you want to write a scene with a shadowy apparition that seems fully grounded and hallucinatory at the same time? Watch and learn from Henry James, as the governess first encounters the visitant.

Ann Gelder on Bluesky: @anngelder.bsky.social

We all know dialog has to do more than one thing. But if one of the things it does is exposition, how do we keep it from becoming a boring Q and A session? Henry James knows how. Here's how important information about the governess's "charming" charges becomes more like a battle and a hunt.

Ann Gelder on Bluesky: @anngelder.bsky.social

In the first episode on Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw," we look at the very complicated way in which James sets up the storytelling before even getting to the story itself. What's the deal with all these delays, with these layers of narrators telling stories others have told them, in the distant past, right before dying? With a guest appearance by H. G. Wells.

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In our final podcast on Moby-Dick, we look at the novel's two distinct endings, the big one and the small one, and consider why you might want such an ending for your own story.

Ann Gelder on Bluesky: @anngelder.bsky.social

With so much buildup, the first appearance of the white whale has to do much more than meet expectations. Here's how Melville handles the big reveal, by acknowledging and then brilliantly upending conventional monster entrances.

Ann Gelder on Bluesky: @anngelder.bsky.social

Ahab's crew knows he's insane and leading them all to certain death. So why don't they just kill him? The answer may surprise you...and help you with pivotal moments in your own fiction.

Ann Gelder on Bluesky: @anngelder.bsky.social

As Ahab screams at God during a thunderstorm, we learn not only how to create memorable characters, but vivid, embodied life.

Ann Gelder on Bluesky: @anngelder.bsky.social

Point of view is hard enough for us merely mortal writers to wrestle with. But what if, like Melville, we decide to make it even more confusing? Might making the problem worse actually solve it? Call this episode Fun with Ishmael.

Ann Gelder on Bluesky: @anngelder.bsky.social