Part 1. Lecture 1. Artful reading and everyday reading ; Lecture 2. Authors, real and implied ; Lecture 3. Narrators: their voices and their visions ; Lecture 4. Characters: beyond round and flat ; Lecture 5. Descriptions: people, places, and the things ; Lecture 6. Minimalists to maximalists to lyricists ; Lecture 7. Explosive devices: irony and ambiguity ; Lecture 8. Reading for the plot: five simple words ; Lecture 9. Master plots: the stranger and the journey ; Lecture 10. The game is afoot: Sherlock Holmes ; Lecture 11. The plot thickens: Scott and Brontë ; Lecture 12.The plot vanishes: Faulkner and Woolf.

Part 2. Lecture 13. Chapters, patterns and rhythms ; Lecture 14. Scene and summary, showing and telling -- Disc 8. Lecture 15. Subtexts, motives, and secrets ; Lecture 16. Dialogue: the good, the bad, the ugly --Disc 9. Lecture 17. Metafiction: fiction about fiction ; Lecture 18. Adaptation: from fiction to film -- Disc 10. Lecture 19. Realism times four ; Lecture 20. Thumbs up?: interpretation and evaluation --Disc 11. Lecture 21. A long short story: "Runaway" ; Lecture 22. A classic novel: The age of innocence -- Disc 12. Lecture 23. A baggy monster: War and peace ; Lecture 24. Picking up the tools.