The Creative Writing Coursebook Forty Authors Share Advice and Exercises for Fiction and Poetry

by Bell, Julia; Magrs, Paul; Motion, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780333782255
• ISBN10: 0333782259
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Macmillan UK

Summary

This is the perfect book for people who are just starting to write as well as for those who want some help honing work already completed. It will suit people writing for publication or just for their own pleasure, those writing on their own or writing groups.

Author Biography

Julia Bell and Paul Magrs are both novelists and teachers of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Foreword	x
Andrew Motion
Introduction	xi
Julia Bell
Gathering
Getting Started
Introduction	3	(4)
Julia Bell
Notebooks	7	(4)
Paul Magrs
On Keeping a Diary	11	(4)
Nicole Ward Jouve
Clearing Some Space	15	(5)
Paul Magrs
Training the Eye
Introduction	20	(4)
Julia Bell
Creative Writing Workshy	24	(4)
Ali Smith
Keeping Your Eyes Open	28	(6)
Alicia Stubbersfield
Articles of Faith	34	(5)
Esther Morgan
What Are You Looking At?	39	(5)
Paul Magrs
Abstracts
Introduction	44	(6)
Julia Bell
Deconstructing Beds . . .	50	(3)
Alison Fell
Finding Out	53	(6)
Sara Maitland
Poetry and Science	59	(6)
John Latham
Out of the Abstract	65	(5)
Paul Magrs
Autobiography
Introduction	70	(5)
Paul Magrs
Memory: The True Key to Real Imagining	75	(4)
Lesley Glaister
Writing from Experience	79	(3)
Nell Dunn
The Shared Past	82	(6)
Anna Garry
Where You're Coming From	88	(7)
Julia Bell
Shaping
Characterization
Introduction	95	(6)
Julia Bell
The Things They Carry	101	(3)
Susan Perabo
Somebody Else's Shoes	104	(6)
Paul Magrs
Room of Leaves	110	(6)
Amanda Dalton
Character and Characterization	116	(14)
Malcolm Bradbury
Real Life	130	(5)
Paul Magrs
Point of View
Introduction	135	(6)
Paul Magrs
Eye Level	141	(7)
Jenny Newman
Punto de Vista	148	(6)
Maureen Freely
Writing in the First Person	154	(4)
Elleke Boehmer
Multiple Points of View	158	(6)
Victor Sage
Whose Story Is It Anyway?	164	(4)
Julia Bell
Setting
Introduction	168	(6)
Paul Magrs
Exploring Home	174	(3)
David Almond
Landscapes and Language	177	(9)
Graham Mort
Imagining Rooms	186	(5)
David Craig
Outside Your Front Door	191	(4)
Julia Bell
Plotting and Shaping
Introduction	195	(6)
Julia Bell
On Narrative Structures	201	(6)
Patricia Duncker
Plotting a Novel	207	(6)
Ashley Stokes
Decisions, Decisions	213	(8)
Val Taylor
Peaceful Symmetries	221	(6)
Carol Rumens
Shapes of Things	227	(6)
Paul Magrs
Finishing
Stepping Back
Introduction	233	(5)
Paul Magrs
Reading Yourself	238	(7)
David Lodge
Standards in Creative Writing Teaching	245	(3)
Russell Celyn Jones
Anxiety of Influence	248	(3)
Julia Bell
Revising
Introduction	251	(5)
Paul Magrs
Going the Last Inch	256	(5)
Lindsay Clarke
Redrafting Your Novel	261	(9)
James Friel
Judith: The Making of a Poem	270	(19)
Vicki Feaver
Feeling the Burn	289	(3)
Julia Bell
Workshops
Introduction	292	(4)
Julia Bell
A Brief History of Workshops	296	(7)
Jon Cook
Collective Works: Tindal Street Fiction Group	303	(8)
Alan Mahar
Listening to Criticism	311	(4)
Richard Aczel
Dynamics	315	(5)
Paul Magrs
Off the Page
Introduction	320	(5)
Julia Bell
How to Cook a Book	325	(7)
Julian Jackson
The Rise of Literacy Consultancies	332	(6)
Rebecca Swift
Agents and How to Get One	338	(4)
Candi Miller
Final Revisions and Submission	342	(30)
Penny Rendall
Carrying On	372	(3)
Paul Magrs
Conclusion
A Good Thing	375	(5)
Paul Magrs
Bibliography	380	(4)
Biographies	384