The Re-re-read: Craft Talks on Classic Literature
A fiction writer and recovering academic seeks craft lessons in classic literature. All works are in the public domain and available on https://www.gutenberg.org. The talks are 5-10 minutes, perfect for today's on-the-go author. Earlier and even more pedantic versions of these talks are available on my blog, swerveandvanish.blogspot.com.
The podcast is currently on hiatus, but please enjoy the archived episodes!
Episodes
58 episodes
The Hound of the Baskervilles: Justice and Pleasure in the Mystery Story
What makes a good ending--in a mystery story, or in any story? A combination of the unexpected and the inevitable, of course. But there's also something to be said for one final twist (or trick, depending on how you see it), plus a few moral lo...
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Season 1
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5:36
The Hound of the Baskervilles: Mystery Writing and the Uncanny
In this week's episode, Conan Doyle shows us how to make reason and logic--in other words, detective work--not only enchanting, but downright spooky.
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Season 1
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7:14
The Hound of the Baskervilles: More about Character in the Mystery Genre
You know that old saw: genre fiction is about plot, literary about character. But in The Hound of the Baskervilles--and, I suspect, in most satisfying mystery stories--the complexities of character drive the plot forward. Also, an update on the...
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Season 1
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4:58
The Hound of the Baskervilles: Epistemology, or Dealing with the Dreaded Info Dump
In Sherlock Holmes's world, and perhaps in ours as well, you can never be certain that you know what you know, at least until the end of the story. Conan Doyle balances the need to preserve mystery with the equal need to provide information tha...
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Season 1
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6:10
The Hound of the Baskervilles: Establishing Character through Dialog, Part II
In this extra-short episode, we take another look at how Conan Doyle establishes character through dialog--this time focusing not on what characters say, but how they say it. Also, you can hear me attempt to say "dolichocephalic," a word I have...
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Season 1
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3:36
The Hound of the Baskervilles: How to Establish Character through Dialog
In our first foray into Conan Doyle's creepy classic "The Hound of the Baskervilles," we examine the subtly cruel dynamic between Watson and Holmes, as revealed by their seemingly playful opening conversation. By showing these two as much more ...
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Season 1
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6:10
The Secret Agent: Did Conrad Screw Up the Ending?
Probably not. But as I constantly struggle with endings to my own stories, I wonder...did Conrad force a change in Winnie's character in order to wrap the plot up? What do you think?
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Season 1
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7:52
The Secret Agent: Knowing When to Drag Things Out
Plots should be fast-paced, with plenty of action and well-timed jolts, right? In The Secret Agent, however, Conrad sidelines the big events and makes the revelation of those events the real story. This is no more true than near the end, when W...
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Season 1
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9:30
The Secret Agent: Creating Tension through Structure
The Secret Agent is not an action-packed novel. Yes, it includes a grisly bombing, but that central event occurs too early according to Freitag's Triangle--and it's reported, not even presented directly. Yet TSA is an exceptionally suspenseful ...
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Season 1
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6:39
The Secret Agent: Writing The Horror! The Horror!
Even a squeamish reader like me has to admit that there are certain times, in certain stories, when depicting horror is necessary. In this episode, Conrad shows us how to do it, relatively subtly but still very distressingly. (CW: gore, violenc...
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Season 1
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7:12
The Secret Agent: Characterization and the Omniscient Point of View
Is it OK for an author to hate their characters, even the most evil among them? If you don't offer just a little sympathy, won't they turn out to be cardboard villains? Learn from Joseph Conrad how to dispense with sympathy while crafting a vil...
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Season 1
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4:23
The Secret Agent: Starting Off with a Bell
In this week's short craft talk, we begin a new series on Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. This compact but deeply disturbing novel oozes evil, and Conrad makes sure we get a good look at all of it right from the start--by literally r...
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Season 1
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6:01
The Brothers Karamazov: The End of BK vs. the Last Episode of Lost
Are you still mad about the last episode of Lost, even though it happened almost twelve years ago? Would you like Dostoevsky to show you how not to write such an infuriating ending--while still preserving your favorite metaphysical/religious tr...
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Season 1
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8:36
The Brothers Karamazov: In Praise of Brain Fever and the Devil
Last time Dostoevsky showed us how to make children interesting. Now let's learn how to do the same for the devil--by way of Ivan's helpful attack of "brain fever."
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Season 1
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8:28
The Brothers Karamazov: How to Make Children Interesting
Kolya Krassotkin is a pompous, imperfectly self-aware, but ultimately well-intentioned thirteen-year-old who attracts our hero Alyosha's attention. He deserves ours as well--for through him, we learn how to keep child characters from beco...
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Season 1
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6:15
The Brothers Karamazov: Characters Behaving Irrationally
In this short craft talk, we learn why it's sometimes good to have your characters do senseless things--especially if your book is about human senselessness.
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4:50
The Brothers Karamazov: Physical Gesture in Fiction
Do your characters stub out cigarettes or twist their hair while conversing? Do you wish you could think of more interesting and revealing physical gestures that break up dialog or other scenes? Dostoevsky shows us how, through a surprisingly s...
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Season 1
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5:50
The Brothers Karamazov: On Killing Your Darlings and Letting Them Rot
Just as The Brothers Karamazov is becoming a truly exciting psychological mystery, Dostoevsky takes us on a long detour into the life of a seemingly minor character. Did Dostoevsky really need an editor? Or does this digression turn out to enla...
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6:30
The Brothers Karamazov: Depression as Plot Driver
Are you depressed about the progress of your novel? Take a lesson from Dostoevsky and his author insert, Ivan Karamazov, on how depression can move your story forward.
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7:55
The Brothers Karamazov: The Grand Inquisitor, or Creating a Truly Great Story-within-a-Story
The Grand Inquisitor, perhaps the greatest set piece in all of (classic) literature, is also a lesson creating a story-within-a-story. The whole novel grinds to a halt while one character narrates a twenty-page philosophical treatise, and yet i...
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4:53
The Brothers Karamazov: Where Is the Fault?
Do you believe humans are masters of their own destinies? Or that an all-powerful creative force controls identity? In this week's episode, we'll see how the way we answer these questions shapes our stories and characters. Also, Alyosha gets hi...
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Season 1
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5:52
The Brothers Karamazov: Simultaneous Characterization
Having trouble portraying your characters as complex beings? Want to reveal their many layers over time, instead of in a boring info dump? Learn how Dostoevsky characterizes several people at once by having one character consider and reconsider...
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Season 1
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5:47
The Brothers Karamazov: What We Write About When We Write About Money
How does money work in fiction? Must it always *really* mean something else, like power or virtue or the lack thereof? In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky shows how a specific amount of money can be just what it is--pure cash--while serving t...
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Season 1
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3:31
The Brothers Karamazov: The Uses of Shame
Are you looking for a new emotion to explore in your fiction? Are you tired of suburban ennui, unrequited love, and anger? Consider shame. Shame can jump-start your plot and enliven your characters by generating layers of morbid self-consciousn...
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Season 1
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4:59
The Brothers Karamazov: How to Make Your Novel of Ideas Less Boring
So you want to write a Big Philosophical Novel, but don't want to create pages of dry dialog representing various positions. Like Dostoevsky, you can lay out the human stakes of these viewpoints by staging a cringeworthy Simpsons episode in a m...
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Season 1
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4:51