If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut . What can we learn from this classic of speculative fiction? How does its cartoonishness impact its humanity? How important is it for fiction to be grounded in human experience? How does our modern technology affect how we read this story? Is Vonnegut’s prose really “m...
Nov 15, 2023•24 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu . What can we learn from this fanciful story? How does language help create the mood of the unfolding of the story? How can summaries benefit from little vivid moments? How can we make richly realized momentary characters? Alternate version here...
Nov 01, 2023•30 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Man Who Lost the Sea” by Theodore Sturgeon . What can we learn from this dreamlike science fiction story? How versatile and variable is point of view? How many different kinds of second person are there? What can we learn about point of view for our own stories? How do point of view and other devices ...
Oct 15, 2023•31 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “And of Clay Are We Created” by Isabel Allende . What can we learn from this story based on real events? How does point of view help define the emotional distance of a story? How can we turn real events or disasters into stories? For daily writing tips, industry news, and great short fiction, join our Face...
Oct 01, 2023•22 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Spring in Fialta” by Vladimir Nabokov . What can we learn from Nabokov and his ability to capture moments? How can detailed moments build up a story? How can a compelling character sketch create a strong story? How does great fiction grapple with the ineffable? How can we make non-visual descriptions vivi...
Sep 15, 2023•31 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu . What can we learn from this affecting story with a touch of magic to it? How can we use a bit of magic or fantasy to enliven a story? How can magic help create cultural distinctions? How does magic and fantasy affect literary fiction? For daily writing tips, industry news...
Sep 01, 2023•24 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen” by Tadeusz Borowski . What can we learn from this devastating account of prisoners at Auschwitz? How can a stark, simple depiction create such a vividly moral story? How can characters raise and discuss moral dilemmas that the story confronts? How can we turn ho...
Aug 15, 2023•30 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood . What can we learn from this playful bit of metafiction? How can we be playful and experimental when writing a story? How can a metafiction or playful form still have an emotional story arc? Can letting go of the rules and writing to discover what’s possible help us with...
Aug 01, 2023•24 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe . What can we learn from this classic horror story? How much is needed to create the main effect of the story? What can be done with a good story premise? How do we choose the central character for a story based on a good premise? How has style and language chan...
Jul 15, 2023•23 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “How to Eat Chicken Wings” by Kristen Arnett . What can we learn from this fun little piece? Are chicken wings a metaphor? Can a metaphor change through a story? How can food help develop an idea in a story? How can we push the boundaries of form? For daily writing tips, industry news, and great short fict...
Jul 01, 2023•18 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Frog Prince” by Robert Coover . What can we learn from this retelling of a classic fairy-tale trope? Should we take a story like this literally? What does it mean to have a writer’s eye? How do we find the perfect details? How is seeing great details not merely a matter of choosing the best words? For...
Jun 15, 2023•26 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Milkwishes” by Kristen Roupenian . What can we learn from this story that happens so much in the character’s thoughts? How can memories be the main focus of a story? How can we develop subtle narrative voice in a third-person story? What can you do with a really long sentence? For daily writing tips, indu...
Jun 01, 2023•21 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Redemption” by John Gardner . What can we learn from this story based on true events from the author’s childhood? How important is it that depictions feel real? How can we very quickly introduce characters? How important is it to develop the arc of a story to depict true events? For daily writing tips, in...
May 15, 2023•22 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri . What can we learn from this story with such a simple premise? How can memory inform a story? How does memory differ from flashback? How can a story be driven by a character’s thoughts? How can a secret help develop drama? For daily writing tips, industry news, and gr...
May 01, 2023•26 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Worshipful Society of Glovers” by Mary Robinette Kowal . What can we learn from this historical fantasy story? Do fantasy stories have a steep learning curve? How can we quickly build an alternate world in a short story? How can mixing genres create exciting stories? Despite the trappings of genre, ho...
Apr 15, 2023•23 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “To Build a Fire” by Jack London . What can we learn from this classic, straightforward story? How can immediacy drive a story? How can the story’s setting be an intrinsic part of the narrative? What can we learn from the line “And then it happened”? How does point of view shape our experience of the immed...
Apr 01, 2023•22 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In our one-hundredth episode, we discuss “The Lady with the Pet Dog” by Joyce Carol Oates . What can we learn from this retelling of Anton Chekhov’s story “The Lady with the Little Dog” ? How does the retelling affect our understanding of the characters? How does the non-linear narrative help the story develop? How does varied senten...
Mar 15, 2023•27 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl . What can we learn from this classic story? How versatile can a story’s point of view be? How can subtle shifts of point of view change how we see a character moment to moment? What is the value of a great story idea? How can we use indirect dialogue? For daily writin...
Mar 01, 2023•20 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Father” by Raymond Carver . What can we learn from this very short story? How much needs to be explained? How do we know where to end a story? How can we layer character reactions and motivations upon each other in a complex dialogue? How can distilling each character’s personal story help structure c...
Feb 15, 2023•23 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes . What can we learn from this classic science-fiction story? What happens when a story is driven by plot over character? How does the changing diction help develop the story? How can we depict a character’s increasing intelligence? For daily writing tips, industry new...
Feb 01, 2023•19 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Incarnations of Burned Children” by David Foster Wallace . What can we learn from this work of flash fiction by a master writer? Does it matter what “really” happens at the end? How do we read fiction, and what should we expect to get out of reading? What can we learn about how style helps a story? What p...
Jan 15, 2023•23 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning” by Haruki Murakami . What can we learn from this simple tale? How can a story be driven by hypotheticals? How can a feeling drive a story? How can a feeling inspire a story? How should we guide a reader through a story? What crazy tangent will w...
Jan 01, 2023•24 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway . What can we learn from a Hemingway story? How can we depict a character who isn’t experiencing reality as it really is? How can this help us get at the root of character? What is the Hemingway style? Does he really avoid adjectives? For daily writing tips, i...
Dec 15, 2022•28 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Dinosaur” by Bruce Holland Rogers . What can we learn from a 300-word piece of flash fiction? How does a story so short manage to depict an entire lifetime? How does it invoke such a complex emotion? How important is it to specify a time-period for a story? How can we make a lifetime into a coherent story...
Dec 01, 2022•27 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Venus Effect” by Violet Allen . What can we learn from this work of metafiction? How can metafictional elements help a story accomplish its effects? What function can an author construct serve in a story? How can going over a story again and again with different attention help us fully explore the sto...
Nov 15, 2022•24 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” by F. Scott Fitzgerald . What can we learn from this story built around the strange premise of aging in reverse? How can a single concept be the seed for a story? How can we develop an idea into a complete story? How can we create realistic characters? For daily writin...
Nov 01, 2022•22 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor . What can we learn from this classic story from a great writer? How does its structure work? How are background and flashback handled? How does the structure help develop the points of view, and how does shifting perspective strengthen the themes of the story? Ho...
Oct 15, 2022•27 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders . What can we learn from yet another great story from Saunders? What is voice, and does an author have a voice separate from the characters? How much are we meant to read into a story? What can we learn from the unusual structure of this story? How can thinking a...
Oct 01, 2022•39 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0” by Caroline M. Yoachim . What can we learn from a “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style story? How can the form help develop a theme? How can metafiction reinforce themes and reach for “universal” truths...
Sep 15, 2022•21 min
If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Swimmer” by John Cheever . What can we learn from this fantastic story? What can we say about the point of view? How does Neddy’s journey drive the way we understand the story? Does a story need to be real? Does it have to mean anything? How do we figure out a story’s theme? How is emotion expressed i...
Sep 01, 2022•26 min
