Thrice Told Tales: Three Mice Full of Writing Advice

147 Pages·2013·4.86 MB·English

by  Catherine Lewis

also by
Postcards to Father Abraham
Dry Fire
illustrated by Joost Swarte
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

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Text copyright © 2013 by Catherine Lewis
Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Joost Swarte
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Book design by Debra Sfetsios-Conover
The text for this book is set in Archer.
The illustrations for this book are rendered in ink.
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lewis, Catherine.
Thrice told tales / Catherine Lewis. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4169-5784-3
ISBN 978-1-4424-6076-8 (eBook)
1. Literature—Terminology. 2. Authorship—Juvenile literature.
I. Title.
PN44.5.L438 2013
803—dc23 2012010644
Mus
To all in captivity. May your days of suffering
soon come to an end.
_
C. L.
To my youngest daughter, Loulou
_
J. S.
CONTENTS
Story 1 Allegory 32
Plot 2 Epigram 33
Metafiction 3 Fairy Tale 34
The Lenses of Farce 36
Psychic Distance 4
F_ _K 38
Immediacy 5
Intertextuality 40
Irony 6
Keyboard Digression 41
Red Herring 8
Picaro 42
Suspension of Disbelief 10
Sex in the Story 43
Names 11
Revision 44
Leitmotif 12
Translation 46
Avant-Garde 13
Style 48
Cause and Effect 14
Premise 50
Stream of Consciousness 15
Flashback 52
Legend 16
Coincidence 53
Vocabulary and Syntax 18
Formula 54
Showing and Telling 20
Cliché 58
Dialogue 21
Sentence Diagram 59
Interior Monologue 22
Hero (Not) 60
Setting 23
Description 62
Sentimentality 24
Repetition 64
Title 26
Prologue 65
Mechanics 27
Unreliable Narrators 66
Transitions 28
Simile, Metaphor,
Foreshadowing 29 and Conceit 68
Insertion 30 Frame Story 69
Detail 70 Archetype 101
Dialect, Ain’t It? 71 Oxymoron 102
Epistolary Novel 72 Structure 103
Diction 74 Tale 104
Symbolism 75 Short Short Story 105
Point of View 76 Character 106
Beginning 78 Character Presentation
(Indirect Method) 107
Suspense 79
Character Presentation
Stereotype 80
(Direct Method) 108
Exposition 81
Narrator 110
Research 82
Subplot 111
Deus ex Machina 85
Grotesque 112
Character 86
Science Fiction 113
Pathetic Fallacy 87
Humors 114
Bildungsroman 88
Tragedy 115
Denouement 89
Epilogue 116
Fable 90
Tour de Force 117
Parable 91
Introduction, Preface,
Myth 92
Foreword 118
Mise-en-Scène 94
Appendix 121
Roman à Clef 95
Ambiguity 96
Verisimilitude 98
Catharsis 99
Allusion 100

Story
Three blind mice ran after the farmer’s wife.
She cut off their tails with a carving knife.

: On the most basic level, a sequence of events.
Snip of the Tale
1