Creative Writer'S Handbook

by Jason, Philip K.; Lefcowitz, Allan B.

• ISBN13: 9780131893719
• ISBN10: 0131893718
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

This handbook is the perfect reference for beginning creative writers. It offers abundant illustrations, exercises, and useful techniques in all genres. While emphasizing problem-solving and the mastery of literary conventions, this handbook also takes the apprentice writer on a journey from inspiration to revision.Explores the work of ¿classic¿ modern as well as active contemporary writers through examples of effective stories, essays, poems and plays. An extensive look at fundamental creative writing issues includes attitudes, habits, journal-keeping, point of view, language, invention and research, and more.Appropriate for apprentice creative writers.

Table of Contents

A Writer's Concerns

Working like a Writer

Keeping a Journal

Point of View

Rhody's Path

Language Is Your Medium

Invention and Research

Ellis Island: Then and Now

The Concerns of the Poet

The Elements of Poetry

Practicing Poetry

Poetry Problems

The Concerns of the Storyteller

The Elements of Fiction

Narration and Its Problems

Creative Nonfiction

Stories and Memoirs

The Thing with Willie

A Very Short Story

The Boarding House,James Joyce

Sunday in the Park

The First Day

Just Married

Chinese Medicine

Close Encounters of the Sneaky Kind

The Concerns of the Playwright

The Elements of Drama

Dialogue and Its Problems

The Day They Shot John Lennon

Plays and Screen Plays

Procedure

Last Day of Camp

The Writer's Business

From Revision to Submission

Tools and Resources

Glossary of Key Terms

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

In this edition we have given more attention to the interrelationships among genres. Though techniques of character development or dialogue may appear irrelevant to writing poetry or nonfiction, they are not. Nor are the techniques of sound patterns beside the point when one comes to write a play or a story. As we tell students in our workshops, what makes writing both fascinating and difficult is the fact that everything counts. Almost everywhere, we have added and replaced examples, expanded sections, deleted some material and added other material. We have tried to make the book more readable, and we have added tools like the "scam sheet" and "Proofreading Check List" in Chapter 16. Chapter 2 has new material on the journal as a literary form. Chapter 4 includes an enhanced discussion of style. Chapter 5 attends more fully to electronic research. We have added new stories to Chapter 12 as well as a creative nonfiction essay that is not a memoir. In Chapter 15, two ten-minute plays have replacedTriflesbecause we felt shorter plays would be more helpful models for beginning writers. We have deleted and added exercises. In short, we have tried to do what a revision ought to do. If you are coming toThe Creative Writer's Handbookfor the first time, you may be overwhelmed by both the amount of detail and the number of questions we ask you to consider as well as the sizeable number of exercises. Don't be. Our idea was to provide you with a smorgasbord from which to choose what tempts your palate. We wish to thank the following reviewers for their valuable contribution: Joan Connor, Ohis University, and Juliet W. Kincaid, Johnson County Community College. We want to stress again that this book is about useful techniques for the beginner. No book teaches; practice does. Finally, we want to thank those students, colleagues, and friends who have helped us to improve the work. ABL