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In this episode, we discuss “Herman Wouk is Still Alive” by Stephen King. What can we learn from a short story by a master storyteller? How can we develop plot in a short story? How can we establish character?

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In this episode, we interview Benjamin Percy.

Find out more about Benjamin Percy here: https://benjaminpercy.com/

Buy The Ninth Metal here: https://www.contentbookstore.com/

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In this episode, we discuss “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. What can we learn from a 19th-Century Feminist short story? How does the diary-entry structure inform the way we read? How is a first-person point of view affected by the diary format? How does the horror genre help serve the story’s social commentary?

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In this episode, we discuss “With the Beatles” by Haruki Murakami. How does structure help move the story forward and inform its themes? How do the three phases of the structure function in the story? How can ruminating on an idea propel a story? What can we learn from an ambiguous ending? How does a story intrinsically suggest connections between disparate things?

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In this episode, we discuss “The Prairie Wife” by Curtis Sittenfeld. What can we learn from a story that unspools like a stone tumbling down a hill? How can we accomplish such mind-blowing twists? How can we use unconscious cultural dispositions to create tension in a story? How does setting the action of a story in a single day help us structure it?

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In this episode, we discuss “Wake for Susan” by Cormac McCarthy. What can we learn from a well-known author’s first publication? How can daydreams or telling stories to ourselves help drive a narrative? How can common experiences become the occassion for a story? How can the history of a place affect the stories that are set there? Can anyone send Kristine more vintage Garfield paraphernalia?

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In this episode, we discuss “Items Awaiting Protective Enclosure” by Téa Obreht. What can we say about a cli-fi (climate-fiction) story told with a second person point of view? How is such an intricate near-future setting realized so swiftly? How does the structure of the story reflect the emotional journey? How can we create connections between different parts of a story? How can language be so beautiful and evocative? How can so much be going on in such a simple story?

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In this episode, we discuss “The Comet” by W. E. B. Du Bois. What kind of science fiction did Du Bois write? How can the pace of the prose reflect the pace of the action? How can elevated language drive a story and help the depiction of characters and events? Why would we want to switch character point of view?

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In this episode, we discuss “The Art of Losing” by Yoon Choi. How does point of view help reveal a character’s mental state? How does point of view in this story help build tension? How can a story explore an idea with plot? How can side-plots and side-characters help explore a theme? How does point of view intersect with the show/tell advice? What can we learn about point of view from the cognitive predisposition for confabulation? Can JC connect story-craft with experiments on split-brain patients? How can giving all the information still create a tension of uncertainty in the story?

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In this episode we discuss “The Saddest Case of True Love” by Simon Van Booy. How does a story within a story within a story function? What effects can this structure create? Are there ambiguities in this story that suggest more than is said about the narrator? How does narrative perspective impact our understanding of whose story it is?

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