Why Is This Good?

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...

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 vivid...

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 sti...

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 prem...

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...

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 ey...

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 sub...

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 int...

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 driv...

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 alt...

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 narra...

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 rete...

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 c...

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 motiva...

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...

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...

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 s...

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...

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 emo...

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 ser...

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 s...

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 t...

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 a...

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&#822...

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...