Table of Contents
Introduction 1
1 Truthtelling: Finding the Best Story Material 5
What Are Our Stories? 7
How Do We Know Our Stories? 12
2 Facing Down the Monsters: Quieting the Fears That Hold Back Stories 19
Stop and Write 19
Monsters 21
Stop and Write 22
Name Those Monsters 22
The Inner Mom 22
Bare Naked Cannibals 23
Born Too Loose 23
Roadkill 23
Point Blank 24
Fear of Not Flying 24
Stop and Write 24
Facing Down My Monsters 25
Facing Down Your Monsters 27
Talk Back 28
Eat Up 29
Bring on the Judge 30
Raise the Dead 30
Shoot 33
Collect Frequent Flyer Miles 34
The Meaning of Writer's Block 35
Stop and Write 37
Playing With Blocks 40
3 Jumping Into the Abyss: Understanding the Creative Process 41
Magnetism 42
Gravity 46
Bait 49
Here, Kitty Kitty Kitty 49
Care, Feeding, and Training 51
Bring on the Catnip 52
4 Willing the Flesh: Applying Methods of Strong Storytelling 59
Language Matters 60
I Feel Your Pain 63
The Truth Is in the Details 64
How Do You Know Which Details to Include? 65
Tell, Don't Show 68
But Really-Show, Don't Tell 70
The Truth About Details 73
Show Yourself 74
Saying the Unsalable 74
5 Telling It Slant Using Indirection to Reveal Truth 77
Do Facts Matter? 78
Telling It Slant 81
What I Did on My Summer Vacation 82
And so She Told Him 82
No Cheese, Please 83
From a Distance 84
Writing Slant 84
The Ladder of Tears 86
Can You Hear Me Now? 89
Practicing Slant 92
6 Choosing Directions: Considering Genre Choices 95
Put Yourself on the Stand 95
Poetry or Prose? 95
Fiction and Nonaction: The Three Differences 99
The Truth 100
Voice 100
Structure 101
Fiction or Nonaction? 101
Reasons for Telling 101
Nothing But the Facts 109
The Voice of the Story 110
I'm Gonna Te-elll 113
Morphing Genres 114
Listen to Me 115
7 Splashing in the Abyss: Applying Special Technical Tips 117
Swimming Pool Lessons 117
Voice 118
Speaking in Tongues 121
It's All About You 124
Voice Lessons 126
Other Voices 126
He Said, She Said (Take 1) 126
He Said, She Said (Take 2) 128
Beginning? 129
Middles 130
Endings 131
Structure 133
Of Refraction and Diffusion: Poetry Lessons 135
Image = Truth 136
Line Breaks and Stanzas 139
Rhyme and Rhythm 141
Form 143
Playing with Form 146
Leaps and Surprises 147
Making Leaps 149
8 Listening to the Critics: Dealing with Readers 153
Who Are Your Best Critics? 153
How to Play Critic 155
Dos 156
Marginalia 158
Don'ts 160
Workshop Hazards 162
Hard Hat Zone 163
Meg's House Rules 165
When Workshops Go Bad 166
Back to the Workshop 167
9 Knowing What's True: Revising Stories 169
The Purpose of Drafts 170
From Draft to Draft 176
The Big Questions 178
Spray and Wash 179
Unnecessary Words 180
Redundancies 181
Oops 181
The Unengaged Brain 182
Mixed Metaphors 182
Clichés 182
Writerisms 183
Body Parts 184
Bad Images, Bad Metaphors 185
Turning Purple 186
Practicing Purple 187
Knowing When to Quit 187
Permissions 189
About the Author 192
Index 193
