James Hynes
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English
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Description
Told from the perspective of an enslaved boy being raised in a Roman brothel, a stunning literary historical novel of identity, family, suffering, and freedom
In a brothel on the Spanish coast during the waning years of the Roman Empire, a young enslaved boy of unknown parentage is growing up. His world is a kitchen, then an herb-scented garden, followed by a loud and dangerous tavern, and finally, the mysterious upstairs where the âwolvesâ...
In a brothel on the Spanish coast during the waning years of the Roman Empire, a young enslaved boy of unknown parentage is growing up. His world is a kitchen, then an herb-scented garden, followed by a loud and dangerous tavern, and finally, the mysterious upstairs where the âwolvesâ...
Author
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English
Formats
Description
Paul Trilby is having a bad day. If he were to be honest with himself, Paul Trilby would have to admit that he's having a bad life. His wife left him. Three subsequent girlfriends left him. He's fallen from a top-notch university teaching job, to a textbook publisher, to, eventually, working as a temp writer for the General Services department of the Texas Department of General Services. And, even here, in this world of carpeted partitions and cheap...
Author
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English
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Description
Combining the wit of David Lodge with Poe's delicious sense of the macabre, these are three witty, spooky novellas of satire set in academia-a world where Derrida rules, love is a "complicated ideological position," and poetic justice is served with an ideological twist.
Author
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English
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Description
One of America's most distinctive voices, James Hynes taps his dark humor for this startling novel. In the wake of a terrorist attack, neurotic Kevin Quinn flies to Austin, Texas, for a job interview. But when he lands, he finds himself following the beguiling young woman who sat next to him on the plane.
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English
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Description
Nelson Humbolt is a visiting adjunct English lecturer at prestigious Midwest University, until he is unceremoniously fired one autumn morning. Minutes after the axe falls, his right index finger is severed in a freak accident. Doctors manage to reattach the finger, but when the bandages come off, Nelson realizes that he has acquired a strange power-he can force his will onto others with a touch of his finger. And so, he obtains an extension on the...
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English
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Description
After years of violence, a tense calm pervades Northern Ireland, soon to be broken by Jimmy Coogan, an IRA veteran gone renegade. Jimmy has stolen ten pounds of plastic explosive, intending to destroy the parliamentary ambitions of the IRA leadership.
Into Jimmy's turbulent world come two young Americans: Brian, vain, ironic, but well-meaning; and Clare, a beautiful, earnest college student. In Ireland on an errand for his Irish Republican family...
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 21
Language
English
Description
So far, this course has focused on the individual elements of good fiction. Now that you have a complete toolkit of writing techniques, how do you put it all together to create a whole story? Professor Hynes discusses the process of writing an entire draft, and offers some words of wisdom to help you maintain momentum.
8) Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques: He, She, It - Third-Person Point Of View
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 17
Language
English
Description
While first-person narration is an effective way to tell a story, third-person narration offers a wonderful range and flexibility, and allows you to dive just as deeply into your characters' heads - if not more deeply - than the first-person perspective. Survey the spectrum of third-person voices, from the objective and external to the interior stream of consciousness.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 20
Language
English
Description
A good scene serves two functions: it advances the larger narrative, and it's interesting in its own right. How do you build compelling scenes? How do you transition from one scene to the next? Learn the fine art of moving from point to point in your narrative so that your story remains smooth and compelling.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 11
Language
English
Description
Now that you've learned the basic elements of storytelling, it's time to go beyond the fundamentals and explore several smaller-scale techniques that can make your plot more subtle and satisfying. Your study includes the elements of suspense, flash-forwards, flashbacks, and foreshadowing.
11) Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques: How Characters Are Different From People
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 3
Language
English
Description
Characters are illusions, and the illusion often hinges on how much access a writer gives us to a character's thoughts. Begin this unit on character with an examination of how writers choose which moments in a character's life to dramatize, and then consider how knowledge of a character's thoughts affects the story.
12) Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques: Building Fictional Worlds Through Evocation
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 2
Language
English
Description
Show, don't tell is the mantra of many writing workshops. But what does this mean? Find out how to choose just the right detail to evoke a scene, develop a character, and advance your story. After arming yourself with several strategies for "showing," you'll consider when it's OK to "tell."
13) Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques: Fictional Characters, Imagined And Observed
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 4
Language
English
Description
Continue your study of character with a look at several approaches for building a character. Some writers draw from life, whereas others draw from the imagination. Some build characters "inside out," others from the "outside in." Some develop characters by psychology, others by circumstances. Professor Hynes shows you a range of options.
14) Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques: Seeing through Other Eyes - Point Of View
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 15
Language
English
Description
What happens in a story depends in large part on who tells it. The three-lecture unit on point of view begins with a quick tour of the major points of view, from the third-person omniscient to the subjective first person. You'll also see how point of view is linked to time. As it turns out, when a story is told matters just as much as who tells it.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 19
Language
English
Description
Every narrative has a tempo. Some stories are short, while others are long. Some move at breakneck speed, while others linger over every detail. Discover how to strike the right balance between length and time (the pacing), between length and detail (the density), and between scene and summary.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 7
Language
English
Description
Shift your attention from building characters to figuring out what they should say. This lecture provides an overview of the nuts and bolts of dialogue, from the rules of punctuation to the way writers use dialogue tags to add clarity to a conversation. See how what a character says can create meaning and evoke mood.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 13
Language
English
Description
Revisit beginnings. How do you get started with a story? In this lecture, Professor Hynes shifts from the techniques of plotting to offer several clear strategies for putting these techniques into action. He also provides invaluable advice about making choices on the page - and understanding the implications of those choices.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 10
Language
English
Description
Whether you're writing literary fiction or a potboiler, your story needs a structure. Freytag's Pyramid is the classic structure for moving a story from an initial situation through a series of conflicts to a resolution. Examine every stage of the pyramid with examples ranging from The Wizard of Oz to Middlemarch to Game of Thrones.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 12
Language
English
Description
Not all stories have a traditional plot that can be modeled along Freytag's Pyramid. Contemporary short fiction, for instance, is often relatively plotless. See what drives momentum in stories such as Chekhov's "The Kiss" and Joyce's "The Dead," and then turn to "plotless" novels such as Mrs. Dalloway.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 9
Language
English
Description
Characters breathe life into your story, but without plot, even the most engaging character can fall flat. This lecture opens a six-lecture unit on plotting, a critical skill for any writer who wants to keep the reader turning pages. Professor Hynes begins the unit by breaking down story and plot into a few fundamental components.
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