A Kite in the Wind: Fiction Writers on Their Craft Book

Introduction Peter Turchi Andrea Barrett ix

part 1 Narrative Distance and Narrative Voice

The Author-Narrator-Character Merge: Why Many First-Time Novelists Wind Up with Flat, Uninteresting Protagonists Frederick Reiken 3

Self-Awareness and Self-Deception: Beyond the Unreliable Narrator Sarah Stone 25

The Truthless Narrator Judy Doenges 42

First Person: Finding the Right Address Wilton Barnhardt 55

Comic and Cosmic Distance C. J. Hribal 70

part 2 Revealing Character

In the Garden: Revealing a Character at a Moment of Change Megan Staffel 89

The Space Between Stacey D'Erasmo 103

The Literature of Delusion: Approaches to Madness and Mania in Fiction Dominic Smith 119

The Absence of Their Presence: Mythic Character in Fiction Steven Schwartz 136

Emblem, Essence Robert Cohen 156

part 3 Seeing and Setting

"It's a Wooden Leg First": On the Nature of Seeing in Fiction Maud Casey 173

Matrix for Meaning: Physical Setting in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian Alexander Parsons 188

Some Reflections on the Concept of Place in Fiction Karen Brennan 207

The Heart One Knows by Heart: Operating Instructions for Operating Instructions Michael Martone 224

part 4 Pattern and Shape

Size Matters Debra Spark 237

Puzzles, Mysteries, and Other Problems; or, The Seven Bridges of Königsberg Peter Turchi 252

The Breakout Element: Unpredictability and the Novel Lan Samantha Chang 271

Lush Life Charles Baxter 289

On Suspense, Shower Murders, the Sword of Damocles, and Shooting People on the Beach Anthony Doerr 303

The About-to-Be Moment: Imminence in the Grimm Fairy Tales Kevin McIlvoy 324

Contributors 337

Credits 343