A beloved writing teacher compiles fifteen years of her expertise, exercises, and examples in a new primer for creative writers. Stacey Rae Brownlie - Library Journal This thorough primer on the craft of creative writing is evidence of LaPlante's valuable classroom expertise (she teaches creative writing at both San Francisco State and Stanford universities). The organization is familiar: the text begins with definitions of fiction and creative nonfiction and then moves through a discussion of the writer's impetus for putting words to paper. It continues with chapters that discuss the short story, description, narration, point of view, dialog, plot, character, and revision. Each chapter (except the last) has the same three-segment structure. In Part 1, LaPlante explains and illustrates a topic; in Part 2, she gives the reader corresponding exercises; and in Part 3, she offers short stories and essays for further illustration. LaPlante is especially helpful when she addresses clichéd writing axioms, acknowledging the foundational premises of catch phrases such as "show, don't tell" while warning against their tendency to limit truly creative writing. Because she emphasizes the importance of reading good writing as a means of self-improvement, her guide, though presented in textbook format, recalls Francine Prose's recent best seller, Reading Like a Writer. Suitable primarily for academic libraries.
Acknowledgments 19What Is This Thing Called Creative Writing? 23The Basics 23Getting Started 23Reconciling the Method with the Madness 24Some Basic Definitions 25Creative Nonfiction: A Working Definition 26Writing That Is Surprising Yet Convincing 27Resisting Paraphrase 28Creative Nonfiction: Capturing What Has Eluded Capture 30On Sentiment and Sentimentality 31Our First Job as Writers: To Notice 35Avoiding the "Writerly" Voice 36Exercises 38"I Don't Know Why I Remember..." 38I Am a Camera 39Reading as a Writer 40"On Keeping a Notebook" Joan Didion 40"Emergency" Denis Johnson 47The Splendid Gift of Not Knowing 57Writing as Discovery 57Getting Started 57What Do You Know? 58Creative Nonfiction: Making the Ordinary Extraordinary 61Writing Down What You Don't Know (About What You Know) 62On Rendering, Not Solving, the Mysteries That Surround Us 63Moving from "Triggering" to Real Subject 65Surprise Yourself, Interest Others 67Obsession as a Creative Virtue 68Exercises 69Things I Was Taught / Things I Was Not Taught 69I Want to Know Why 71Reading as a Writer 72"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Joyce Carol Oates 72"Welcome to Cancerland" Barbara Ehrenreich 87Details, Details 107Concrete Details as the Basic Building Blocks of Good Creative Writing 107Getting Started 107On Thinking Small 108Defining "Image" within a Literary Context 109Imagery That Works on Two Levels 111On Seeing the General in the Particular 113On Crowding the Reader Out of His Own Space 116Don't Lose Any of Your Senses 117Use of Concrete Details in Creative Nonfiction 119Use and Abuse of Metaphor 120When Should You Use Metaphor? 123Avoiding the "S" Word: Banishing Conscious Symbols from Your Writing 124Imagery as Creative Source 124Exercises 127Harper's Index on a Personal Level 127Render a Tree, Capture the Forest 130Reading as a Writer 131"The Things They Carried" Tim O'Brien 131"Nebraska" Ron Hansen 147The Shapely Story 152Defining the Short Story 152Getting Started 152Some Basic Definitions 152The Conflict-Crisis-Resolution Model 155Linear vs. Modular Stories 157To Epiphany or Not to Epiphany? 159Is Change Necessary? (The Debate Continues) 161On Not Becoming Slaves to Theory 162Exercises 165False Epiphanies I Have Had 165Opportunities Not Taken 166Reading as a Writer 167"What Makes a Short Story?" Francine Prose 167"Helping" Robert Stone 178Why You Need to Show and Tell 204The Importance of Narration 204Getting Started 204Some Basic Definitions 204Why "Show, Don't Tell" Is Such Common Advice 206The Show-and-Tell Balancing Act 210Traditional Uses of Narration (Telling) 213Why Narration Is Such an Important Creative Tool 214How Showing and Telling Complement Each Other 216Good Intentions, Bad Advice 216The Showing-Telling Continuum 218Showing and Telling in Creative Nonfiction 223Exercises 224Tell Me a Story 224What Everyone Knows / What I Know 226Reading as a Writer 227"Brownies" ZZ Packer 227"Winner Take Nothing" Bernard Cooper 245Who's Telling This Story, Anyway? 258Introduction to Point of View 258Getting Started 258Some Basic Definitions 259First Person 259Whose Story Is It? 261Second Person 265Third Person 267A Word about Attitude 272Distance and Point of View 272Shifts in Narrative Distance 275Choosing a Point of View for Your Creative Work 276Point of View and Creative Nonfiction 278Common Point of View Problems 280Exercises 282Change Point of View and Dance 282Using Point of View as a Way "In" to Difficult Material 283Reading as a Writer 284"The Lady with the Little Dog" Anton Chekhov 284"Moonrise" Penny Wolfson 299How Reliable Is This Narrator? 318How Point of View Affects our Understanding of a Story 318Getting Started 318How We Judge the Integrity of the Stories We Hear and Read 318First Person Point of View and Reliability 319Third Person Point of View and Reliability 324Exercises 328He Said, She Said 328See What I See, Hear What I Hear 329Reading as a Writer 330"The Swimmer" John Cheever 330You Talking to Me? 341Crafting Effective Dialogue 341Getting Started 341What Dialogue Is Good For 342What Dialogue Is Not 343A Word about Attribution 344Five Important Tips on Dialogue 345On Subtext 350A Word about Dialect 351Using Placeholders 353Dialogue in Creative Nonfiction Writing 354Exercises 355Nonverbal Communication 355Them's Fighting Words 355Reading as a Writer 356"Hills Like White Elephants" Ernest Hemingway 356"Inside the Bunker" John Sack 360The Plot Thickens 375Figuring Out What Happens Next 375Getting Started 375Story vs. Plot: Some Basic Definitions 375A Word about Causality 377Render How-Don't Try to Answer Why 379On Metafiction 380Character-Based Plotting 380On Conflict 381Analyzing Plot Points 384Avoiding Scenes a Faire: Recognizing Cliched Plot Twists 386Exercises 388What's Behind the Door of Room 101? 388"By the Time You Read This..." 389Reading as a Writer 390"Sonny's Blues" James Baldwin 390Recognizable People 418Creating Surprising-Yet-Convincing Characters 418Getting Started 418Flat vs. Round Characters 419Eschewing the General in Favor of the Particular 420Consistency as the Hobgoblin of Characters 422Ways of Defining Character 423Character and Plot 427Wants and Needs 431Characters in Relationships 433Character in Creative Nonfiction 434Exercises 435Emptying Pockets 435Sins of Commission, Sins of Omission 437Seven or Eight Things I Know about Him/Her 438Reading as a Writer 441"Surrounded by Sleep" Akhil Sharma 441"No Name Woman" Maxine Hong Kingston 453Raising the Curtain 465Beginning Your Story, Novel, or Nonfiction Piece 465Getting Started 465Your Contract with the Reader 465Characteristics of a Good Opening 467Unbalancing Acts 468Starting in the Middle 469Beginning with Action 471On the Nature of Suspense 473Beginning Your Creative Nonfiction Piece 474Exercises 475Give It Your Best Shot 475Start in the Middle 477Make Them Squirm 478Reading as a Writer 479"People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk" Lorrie Moore 479What's This Creative Work Really About? 507The Art of Transferring True Emotions Onto Sensory Events 507Getting Started 507Many Different Answers to the Same Question 508Writing about What Matters 508Transference: Borrowing from Freud 509We Are Made of Dust 510The Road to Universality 511But It's the Truth! And Other Common Pleas for Clemency 512Creative Nonfiction: On Being True as Well as Factual 513Making Things Carry More Emotional Weight than They Logically Should 513Transference and Creative Nonfiction 516Exercises 518Getting an Image to Spill Its Secrets 518What I Lost 519Reading as a Writer 521"Ralph the Duck" Frederick Busch 521"The Knife" Richard Selzer 533Learning to Fail Better 542On Revision 542Getting Started 542Advice for Writers from Writers 543Perfection Is Our Enemy 544The Workshop Method 544Undue Influence: A Cautionary Tale 548The Developmental Stages of a Creative Work 549"Hot Spots" and Other Noteworthy Aspects of an Early Draft 550An Exercise-Based Approach to Deep Revision 551A Word about Constraints 552Exercises 553Analytical/Mechanical Exercises 553Creative Exercises 554Research-Based Exercises 555Chance-Based Exercises 556Revision Example: "The Company of Men" Jan Ellison 556Reading as a Writer 574"Shitty First Drafts" Anne Lamott 574"The Carver Chronicles" D. T. Max 578"The Bath" Raymond Carver 591"A Small, Good Thing" Raymond Carver 597Getting beyond Facts to Truth 619Some Final Thoughts on Creative Nonfiction 619Getting Started 619Just the Facts, Ma'am 620Recollections and Re-creations 621Ethical Considerations 624Subjectivity vs. Objectivity 626A Trip of Self-Discovery 628To Be In or Out of the Story? 630Reading as a Writer 633"Learning to Drive" Katha Pollitt 633Glossary 643Bibliography 647List of Stories 657Permissions 659Index 665