Chance Particulars: A Writer's Field Notebook for Travelers, Bloggers, Essayists, Memoirists, Novelists, Journalists, Adventurers, Naturalists, Sketchers, and Other Note-Takers and Recorders of Life

by Sara Mansfield Taber

Overview

“A guide to paying attention to the concrete, sensory details of experience and the process of getting them down on the page.” —James Barilla, author of My Backyard Jungle

Based on what accomplished nonfiction writer Sara Mansfield Taber learned in her many years of field notebook keeping, Chance Particulars is a unique and handy primer for writers who want to use their experiences to tell a lively, satisfying story. Often, writers try to turn their notes into a memoir, essay, travel piece, or story, only to find that they haven’t recorded enough of details necessary to create evocative description. To help writers overcome this problem, Taber has composed a true “field notebook for field notebook keepers.” Enhanced by beautiful illustrations, this charming and comprehensive guide is a practical manual for anyone who wishes to learn or hone the crafts of writing, ethnography, or journalism.

Writers of all levels, genres, and ages, as well as teachers of writing, will appreciate this useful tool for learning how to record the details that build vibrant prose. With this book in hand, you will be able to recreate times and places, conjure up intricate character portraits, and paint pictures of particular landscapes, cultures, and locales.

“At once a delicious read and the distilled wisdom of a long-time teacher and virtuoso of the literary memoir. Her powerful lessons will give you rare and vital skills: to be able to read the world around you, and to read other writers, as a writer, that is, with your beadiest conjurer’s eye and mammoth heart. This is a book to savor, to engage with, and to reread, again and again.” —C. M. Mayo, author of Miraculous Air

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421425092
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	02/03/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	6 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sara Mansfield Taber is the author of Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy’s Daughter, Dusk on the Campo: A Journey in Patagonia, Bread of Three Rivers: The Story of a French Loaf, and Of Many Lands: Journal of a Traveling Childhood. She has taught writing at Johns Hopkins University, the Bethesda Writer’s Center, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts.Maud Taber-Thomas is a classically trained, Washington, DC–based artist who specializes in oil paintings and charcoal drawings. Her portraits, interiors, and landscapes may be viewed at maudtaber-thomas.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Elements of Fine Writing
2. Purpose of the Notebook
Goal, Quest, Story
3. Chance Particulars
Use of the Senses
Specificity, Precision, and Concrete Detail
4. Place
Landscape and Nature
Towns, Streets, and Buildings
5. People
Portraits and Interviews
Encounters, Observations, and Activities
6. Facts, History, and Culture
Basic Facts, History, and Cultural Observations
7. Technical and Other Pertinent Information
Informational Notes
8. Chronicle
Record of Daily Activities and Travels
9. Personal Responses
Feelings and Contemplations
10. Commonplace Notes
Quotations and Thoughts from Experts, Scholars, and Literary Forebears-and Other Miscellanea
11. Associations and Figurative Language
Metaphor and Simile
12. Reflections
Thoughts and Musings
13. Writing Notes
Acknowledgments

What People are Saying About This

C. M. Mayo

Sara Mansfield Taber's Chance Particulars is at once a delicious read and the distilled wisdom of a long-time teacher and virtuoso of the literary memoir. Her powerful lessons will give you rare and vital skills: to be able to read the world around you, and to read other writers, as a writer, that is, with your beadiest conjurer's eye and mammoth heart. This is a book to savor, to engage with, and to reread, again and again.

From the Publisher

Encouraging and intelligent, Taber instructs writers on how using a field notebook can lead to more useful, comprehensive, precise, and vivid notes that will result in fully realized scenes, characters, and settings.
—Dinty W. Moore, Ohio University, author of The Mindful Writer

Chance Particulars is the literary equivalent of a pair of binoculars. It's a guide to paying attention to the concrete, sensory details of experience and the process of getting them down on the page.
—James Barilla , University of South Carolina, author of My Backyard Jungle: The Adventures of an Urban Wildlife Lover Who Turned His Yard into Habitat and Learned to Live with It

Sara Mansfield Taber's Chance Particulars is at once a delicious read and the distilled wisdom of a long-time teacher and virtuoso of the literary memoir. Her powerful lessons will give you rare and vital skills: to be able to read the world around you, and to read other writers, as a writer, that is, with your beadiest conjurer's eye and mammoth heart. This is a book to savor, to engage with, and to reread, again and again.
—C. M. Mayo, author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico

Sara Mansfield Taber has written—in an accessible style and with well-chosen examples—a practical and readable field guide for writers to practice the necessary skills of observation. More than a guide, this is a sketchbook, notebook, and inspirational commonplace book in one, meant to show writers how to make readers walk in their shoes.
—Robin Hemley, Yale-NUS College, author of A Field Guide For Immersion Writing: Memoir, Journalism, and Travel

Robin Hemley

Sara Mansfield Taber has written—in an accessible style and with well-chosen examples—a practical and readable field guide for writers to practice the necessary skills of observation. More than a guide, this is a sketchbook, notebook, and inspirational commonplace book in one, meant to show writers how to make readers walk in their shoes.

James Barilla

Chance Particulars is the literary equivalent of a pair of binoculars. It's a guide to paying attention to the concrete, sensory details of experience and the process of getting them down on the page.

Dinty W. Moore

Encouraging and intelligent, Taber instructs writers on how using a field notebook can lead to more useful, comprehensive, precise, and vivid notes that will result in fully realized scenes, characters, and settings.

Editorial Reviews

The book also looks at the art of good journaling and how one can mine its information to enrich all other kinds of writing.
—Y.S. Stephen

What is especially lovely about this book, aside from its accessibility and art work, is the range of texts that are used. There are classic works of literature, travel writing, memoir; the advice provided is always exemplified.
—Matthew Tett, Writing in Education

From the Publisher

The book also looks at the art of good journaling and how one can mine its information to enrich all other kinds of writing.

Y.S. Stephen

What is especially lovely about this book, aside from its accessibility and art work, is the range of texts that are used. There are classic works of literature, travel writing, memoir; the advice provided is always exemplified.

Writing in Education - Matthew Tett