SWRT 286 | Writers Book Club: A Christmas Carol
More than a holiday classic, Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a classic of story craft. This novella offers lessons to carry throughout the year.
This week, Alida and Kathryn tackle a holiday classic, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Most of us have seen the story dramatized annually, whether on television or in the theatre. But how many of us have actually read it? It was my first time and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. No surprise, however, Dickens packs this tale with more than good cheer. There is a lot to examine as writers, lessons that we can carry into our craft year round.
One of the things connected to the humor and also the voice and style that really struck me is that this is meant to be read aloud and shared with people. This narrator is clearly an essayist or a storyteller narrator. And so reading this, I could just imagine a Victorian family sitting around the fire. And the language, the narrative voice, lends itself so well to performance, even if you aren't acting it, but you just read it as it's written, as it's punctuated, you're going to pick up a rhythm and a performative aspect to it.
This is episode 286 of the Story Works Round Table podcast. You can get it here for free.
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