Whose Opinion Is This Sentence? Reading Free Indirect Style
Learn to recognise free indirect style through an original miniature scene, and explore how a narrator can borrow a character’s judgement without quoting it.
Stories, closely read.
Essays and reading guides for the space between the page and the screen.
A Novel’s Repeated Journey Can Feel Different Without Changing the Route
A character takes the same journey twice, but the second trip may feel entirely different. Comparing what the narration chooses to notice can reveal that…
A Character Reading Aloud Gives a Written Passage a Second Audience
When a character reads a document aloud inside a novel, the words reach more than one audience. Someone hears them within the scene, while you read the…
Keep the Book Review’s Recommendation Separate from Its Interpretation
“This novel handles silence beautifully” and “this is the right book for you” are different claims. A useful review explains its reading of the book while…
An Adaptation Can Turn a Private Habit into a Public Performance
In a novel, a narrator can tell us that a character rehearses a greeting alone. A film might place that rehearsal in a busy corridor where another person…
A Misheard Sentence Can Give a Novel Two Conversations at Once
A character hears “take the key” when someone actually says “leave the key.” The invented mistake is simple, but a story can build two different…
A Sequel’s Recap Decides What the Earlier Story Will Mean Now
The opening of a sequel may remind us of earlier events in a few lines. That reminder is also a selection: some relationships become essential, while other…
The Unfinished Task That Follows a Character Across Chapters
A drawer stays half repaired. A letter remains unsealed. A character begins a practical task, leaves it, and returns after a conversation has changed the…
When an Adaptation Turns a Description into a Place We Can Hear
A novel describes a crowded street in several sentences. Its adaptation gives us footsteps, a vendor’s call and a passing vehicle before we have time to…