A fun new way to converse with your story… Remember my ‘writing a novella in 2 weeks’ series from a couple years ago? Me neither. But I loved that story and its characters and settings a lot, and I’ve been wanting to return to it and finish redrafting, except that I never seemed to be… Read More
At first I wasn’t sure how many writers would be interested in tips for writing a frame narrative. It seemed like a rather specific technique, limited to anonymous 18th & 19th-century gothic novels. But the more I considered the subject, the more it seemed to me that frame narratives are everywhere, and that they can… Read More
Our recent studies of Hamlet and The Castle of Otranto have made me realise that a sense of the theatrical can elevate both the style and structure of a story. The Play’s the thing It’s quite clear that Horace Walpole intended Otranto to be stage-y. He even remarks on this in the frame narrative (… Read More
While Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto isn’t exactly the most well-crafted narrative, I do think it offers some excellent shortcuts to crafting villains, in the character of Manfred, Prince of Otranto. Note: this article contains spoilers! ‘The next transition of his soul was to exquisite villainy.’ KIND CONTRAST Manfred’s villainy is in stark contrast… Read More
SUPERNATURAL LANGUAGE The Moon card in the Tarot’s Major Arcana perfectly exemplifies the feeling of the Underworld of Adventure. Nothing seems real; the character finds themselves in a world where everything is possible, but only within the purview of a dream landscape that they (perhaps rightly) mistrust. Jane Eyre, following her acceptance of Mr. Rochester’s… Read More