Episode 39: In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

Here’s what I learned from In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado: I can write a cohesive story that is made up of little stories, all strung together with a unifying theme.  When writing about moments of inebriation or vulnerability, it’s funny to include present-tense comments of your thoughts at the time, like a question you thought, or something ridiculous that would not make sense if you were sober.  Metaphors don’t need to be explicitly explained, as long as there's context surrounding it.  Surprise your reader with a different format at some point in the book: in this case, she did a whole section of Choose Your Own Adventure. When you find it difficult to explain something, analogies are a great tool.