Let's Deconstruct a Story featuring Jim Shepard

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to this free preview video! Normally, videos are for paid subscribers, but we’re making this one available to everyone here and on YouTube.

In this episode, I sit down with Jim Shepard to deconstruct his short story “The Queen of Bad Influences.” If you haven’t read the story yet, I recommend reading it first—this is a full short story analysis and writing craft breakdown, and we go deep.

This conversation is all about how a story works beneath the surface. We break down point of view (POV), story structure, character tension, and emotional conflict, and how these elements come together in strong historical fiction writing.

At the center of the story is the relationship between Constance and Minna—two young women navigating intimacy, repression, and expectations in early 20th-century England. Set against the backdrop of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, this story shows how catastrophe in fiction creates pressure that reveals character.

If you’re interested in:

• how to write stronger short stories

• how POV shapes character

• how structure impacts emotional payoff

• or how historical fiction can explore complex relationships

this episode will give you a clear breakdown you can apply to your own writing.

Bio:

JIM SHEPARD is the author of seven previous novels, most recently The Book of Aron (winner of the 2016 PEN New England Award, the Sophie Brody medal for achievement in Jewish literature, the Ribalow Prize for Jewish literature, the Clark Fiction Prize, and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award) and five story collections, including Like You’d Understand, Anyway, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and won The Story Prize. His short fiction has appeared in, among other magazines, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Esquire, Tin House, Granta, Zoetrope, Electric Literature, and Vice, and has often been selected for The Best American Short Stories and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. He lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with his wife, three children, and three beagles, and he teaches at Williams College.

Want Your Story Deconstructed on the Podcast?

I’m offering a Craft Report Card right here on the show. If you want my professional feedback on your short story, here’s how it works:

1. Join the paid subscriber community at letsdeconstructastory.substack.com

2. Leave a review for the podcast on Apple Podcasts (and send me a screenshot!)

3. Email your draft (up to 15 pages) to kfordon450@gmail.com

Let me know if you’d like your feedback to be anonymous or if you want your name shared.

I’ll be selecting one story each month to deconstruct live on the podcast.

I cannot wait to read your work.

Upcoming Episode:

June 1st: Molly Dektar:

Please read “The Bed and Breakfast” before listening to the episode.

Molly Dektar is the author of two novels, The Absolutes and The Ash Family. Her short stories have been published in the Best American Short Stories 2024, the Yale Review, N+1, the Harvard Review, Ploughshares, and the Sewanee Review, among others. The recipient of a Dakin Fellowship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and a residency at Hawthornden, Brooklyn, she is from North Carolina and lives in Queens, NY.

Bio: Jim Shepard has written eight novels, including The Book of Aron, which won the Sophie Brody Medal for Jewish Literature, the PEN/New England Award for Fiction, The Ribalow Prize for Fiction, and the Clark Fiction Prize, as well as six story collections, including Like You’d Understand, Anyway, a finalist for the National Book Award and Story Prize winner, and the forthcoming The Queen of Bad Influences. Eight of his stories have been chosen for the Best American Short Stories, two for the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and three for Pushcart Prizes. He’s been a recipient of the Rea Award for the Short Story, the ALEX Award for Fiction, the Library of Congress/Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. For seven years he was a columnist on film for the magazine The Believer, and his film essays have been collected in The Tunnel at the End of the Light. He’s also written screenplays for two films made from his fiction, And Then I Go (2017) and The World to Come (2020). He lives in Williamstown with his wife, Karen Shepard, and two beagles, and from 1983 to 2024 taught film and creative writing at Williams College.