tropes

S30BE – The Unreliable Narrator

Don’t worry: These ramblings will not be insufferably gloomy…. When at first I proved unable to keep the tone light, Ozzie suggested that I be an unreliable narrator. “It worked for Agatha Christie in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” he said. In that first-person mystery novel, the nice-guy narrator turns out to be the murderer of Roger Ackroyd, a fact he conceals from the reader until the end. Understand, I am not a murderer. I have done nothing evil that I am concealing from you. My unreliability as a narrator has to do largely with the tense of certain verbs…. – Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas

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S30E4 – The Portal Fantasy

When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! – Lewis Caroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

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S30E2 – Rags to Riches

The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated. – My Fair Lady

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S27E3 – How Important is Being Unique?

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original. Whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence about how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. – CS Lewis

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S13E7 – When a Story is Fake or Forced

A novel must show how the world truly is, how characters genuinely think, how events actually occur. A novel should somehow reveal the true source of our actions. – Kevin Hood

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S7 Bonus – Women in Fiction

Why do you always write these strong women characters? Because you’re still asking me that question. – Joss Whedon

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S7E8 – Shoulder Angels

“The three natures of man. Good, evil, and the man struggling between!… The capacity for good and evil is within every person from birth, I think.” – Ted Dekker

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S7E7 – Plot Armor

“For any villains we may meet, we haven’t any fears;
Paramount will protect us, ’cause we’re signed for five more years.” – Road to Morocco

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S7E6 – Deus Ex Machina

“Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.” – Emma Coats

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S7E5 – MacGuffins

“The MacGuffin is the thing that the spies are after but the audience don’t care.” – Alfred Hitchcock

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