Table of Contents
*** indicate sections new to this edition.
Preface
1. Whatever Works: The Writing Process
Get Started
Journal Keeping
Freewriting
Exercises
The Computer
The Critic: A Caution
Choosing a Subject
Keep Going
A Word about Theme
Reading as Writers***
About the Writing Workshop***
How Workshops Work***
The Writer’s Role***
Writing Exercises
2. Seeing is Believing: Showing and Telling
Significant Detail
Writing about Emotion
Filtering
Comparison
Types of Metaphor and Simile***
Metaphoric Faults to Avoid***
The Active Voice
Prose Rhythm
Mechanics
“We Didn’t,” Stuart Dybeck***
“Big Me,” Dan Chaon
“The Red Fox Fur Coat,” Teolinda Gersao (Translated by Margaret Jull Costa)***
Freewriting
Exercises
The Computer
The Critic: A Caution
Choosing a Subject
Keep Going
A Word about Theme
Reading as Writers***
About the Writing Workshop***
How Workshops Work***
The Writer’s Role***
Writing Exercises
2. Seeing is Believing: Showing and Telling
Significant Detail
Writing about Emotion
Filtering
Comparison
Types of Metaphor and Simile***
Metaphoric Faults to Avoid***
The Active Voice
Prose Rhythm
Mechanics
“We Didn’t,” Stuart Dybeck***
“Big Me,” Dan Chaon
“The Red Fox Fur Coat,” Teolinda Gersao (Translated by Margaret Jull Costa)***
Writing Exercises
3. Building Character: Dialogue
The Direct Methods of Character Presentation
Dialogue
Summary, Indirect, and Direct Dialogue
Economy in Dialogue
Characterizing Dialogue
Other Uses of Dialogue
Dialogue as Action
Text and Subtext
“No” Dialogue
Specificity
Format and Style
Vernacular
“Fiesta, 1980,” Junot Diaz***
“Every Tongue Shall Confess,” Z.Z. Packer***
“His Hand on my Restless Leg,” Pia Z. Ehrhardt***
Writing Exercises
4. The Flesh Made Word: Characterization, Part II
The Direct Methods of Character Presentation
Appearance
Action
Thought
The Indirect Methods of Character Presentation
Authorial Interpretation
Interpretation by Another Character
Conflict between Methods of Presentation
The Universal Paradox
Credibility
Purpose
Complexity
Change
Reinventing Character
Creating a Group or Crowd
The Character Journal
Character: A Summary
“Mule Killers,” Lydia Peelle***
“Bullet in the Brain,” Tobias Wolff
“Tandolfo the Great,” Richard Bausch
Writing Exercises
5. Far, Far Away: Fictional Place
Place and Atmosphere
Harmony and Conflict Between Character and Place
Place and Character
Place and Emotion
Symbolic and Suggestive Place
Alien and Familiar Place
An Exercise in Place
“The Sea Fairies,” Maura Stanton***
“Love and Hydrogen,” Jim Shepard
“A Visit of Charity,” Eudora Welty
Writing Exercises
6. Long Ago: Fictional Time
Summary and Scene
Revising Summary and Scene
Flashback
Slow Motion
“Homonoids,” Jill McCorkle***
“Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter,” Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
“Feelers,” John Gould***
Writing Exercises
7. The Tower and the Net: Story Form, Plot, and Structure
Conflict, Crisis, and Resolution
The Arc of the Story
Patterns of Power
Connection and Disconnection
Story Form as a Check Mark
Story and Plot
The Short Story and the Novel
“What You Pawn, I Will Redeem,” Sherman Alexie***
“My Kid’s Dog,” Ron Hansen***
“Everything That Rises Must Converge,” Flannery O’Connor
Writing Exercises
8. Call Me Ishmael: Point of View
Who Speaks?
Third Person
Second Person
First Person
To Whom?
The Reader
Another Character
The Self
Interior Monologue
Stream of Consciousness
In What Form?
At What Distance?
Consistency: A Final Caution
“Missing Women,” June Spence***
“Who’s Irish?,” Gish Jen
“Reply All,” Robin Hemley***
Writing Exercises
9. Play It Again, Sam: Revision
Re-Vision
Worry It and Walk Away
Criticism and the Story Workshop
Asking the Big Question: “What Have I Written”
How Fictional Elements Contribute to Theme
Revision Questions
Further Suggestions for Revision
Examples of the Revision Process
“Notes on Keith” and early draft of “Keith,” Ron Carlson***
Final Draft of “Keith,” Ron Carlson
Writing Exercises
Appendix: Kinds of Fiction
Credits
Index
