Writing Linked Narratives: Interconnected Story Collections & Novels-In-Stories: an Interview with Antonio Ruiz-Camacho
by Writing Workshops Staff
6 months ago
As a writer, Antonio Ruiz-Camacho stands out for weaving time, place, and human experience into interconnected stories. His award-winning debut collection, Barefoot Dogs, received acclaim from Kirkus Reviews and the San Francisco Chronicle. As a National Magazine Award finalist and former Knight Journalism fellow, he brings valuable insights into narrative craft.
Antonio is offering a new six-part seminar focused on the art of interconnected storytelling. Designed for intermediate and advanced writers, the course delves into linked narratives and novels-in-stories. Participants will study works like Olive Kitteridge and A Visit from the Goon Squad to learn techniques for unifying individual stories into a cohesive narrative.
This seminar provides an opportunity to refine manuscripts and deepen understanding of craft elements such as characterization, voice, and perspective. Under Ruiz-Camacho's guidance, writers will explore what connects stories in meaningful ways and learn the mechanics of creating linked narratives.
Whether you're seeking feedback on your drafts or aiming to enhance your storytelling skills, Antonio Ruiz-Camacho's seminar offers practical learning and personalized instruction to advance your writing.
Writing Workshops: Your class focuses on interconnected story collections and novels-in-stories. What drew you to this particular narrative structure, and why do you think it resonates so strongly with both readers and writers?
Antonio-Ruiz Camacho: From the writing perspective, linked collections/novels-in-stories represent a double feat: Each story needs to work on its own, as a standalone narrative, but the sum of all the stories must also create a narrative arch. From the reading perspective, they offer readers a singular experience — you can read the same book in as many different ways as you want, sometimes starting from the very beginning, other times at media res, and always discover something different. From the craft perspective, they allow the writer to experiment with form, voice, description and point of view freely, all while keeping a sense of cohesiveness.
WW: In the course description, you mention analyzing books like "Jesus' Son," "There There," and your own "Barefoot Dogs." What unique insights can participants gain from studying these works in the context of linked narratives?
ARC: One thing immediately stands out when you read multiple linked collections or novel-in-stories back to back: They all share more common elements than you might think. For example, a strong sense of place to the point where place itself can be the main protagonist. Also, recurring characters whose narrative and emotional relevance defies the traditional concept of “main protagonist.”
WW: One of the key takeaways from your class is understanding how elements like setting, characterization, plot, language, voice, and perspective contribute to linked narratives. Could you share an example of how one of these elements can transform a series of stories into a cohesive collection?
In Sherwood Anderson’s “Winesburg, Ohio,” a classic linked collection published more than a century ago, not only are all the stories connected by the place where they happen — a fictional place called Winesburg, Ohio. Anderson’s descriptions and characterizations are also incredibly unique — the way he describes the physicality of the characters in these stories is a unifying element that clearly ties the book together. So a linked collection or novel-in-stories can be bound by elements as seemingly obvious as place or plot, but also by more subtle elements related to craft, like physical description or the use of dialogue.
WW: Your workshop component sounds incredibly hands-on. How will you guide participants in revising their own work to create interconnected narratives? Can you give us a glimpse of what the workshop sessions will entail?
ARC: In each manuscript we will try to identify the different elements that might help create a cohesive vision and narrative arch throughout multiple stories. Especially when you only have one or two stories written, you wonder how they can be interconnected in a way that propels a larger narrative forward, or what elements they have in common that can translate into future stories. You have to workshop a story from a linked collection or a novel-in-stories with the larger narrative in the back of your head.
WW: In the final session, you offer a first-person account of writing and publishing "Barefoot Dogs." What do you hope participants will learn from your personal journey and experiences in bringing a linked story collection to life and to the market?
ARC: Story collections, novels — these are just labels that sometimes marketing departments in publishing houses try to push, or avoid, in order to sell more books. Does the writer need to keep that in mind as they work on their own book? Is it ethical to publish a “novel” when you know that what you wrote was actually a “story collection”? Do these questions matter? These are some of the topics we’ll discuss in class.
WW: For writers interested in linked narratives but unsure where to start, what advice would you give them for beginning to think about their stories in a more interconnected way?
ARC: To read as many interlinked collections as they can with an eye on looking under the hood and discerning how their narrative machines are working. Understanding the possibilities — and rules — of interlinked narratives can help you make decisions on your own work. This seminar is a good starting point.
WW: This class is geared toward intermediate and advanced writers. What specific skills or prior experience should participants have to make the most of this intensive? What can even experienced writers expect to learn that will elevate their craft?
ARC: A good sense of the different elements of the craft can help participants analyze the books and manuscripts we’ll discuss during the seminar. And reading like a writer is a skill that can help any writer observe and self-edit their own work.
You can learn more about Antonio Ruiz-Camacho’s Writing Linked Narratives: Interconnected Story Collections & Novels-In-Stories 6-Week Zoom Intensive and apply now!
Led by Antonio Ruiz-Camacho, a National Magazine Award finalist. His debut story collection Barefoot Dogs won the Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Book of Fiction, and was named a Best Book by Kirkus Reviews, San Francisco Chronicle, Texas Observer and PRI's The World. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Salon, Texas Monthly, The Millions, and elsewhere. A former Knight Journalism fellow at Stanford University and a Dobie Paisano fellow in fiction by the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Institute of Letters, he earned his MFA from The New Writers Project at UT Austin.
