In a Field of Words : A Creative Writing Text

by Estess, Sybil; McCann, Janet

• ISBN13: 9780130850355
• ISBN10: 0130850357
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-25
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This is an innovative, self-help guide for beginning-level creative writing, designed to help aspiring writers find words for their stories and give them shape. It includes all a writer needs to begin writing fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry including ways to get started, things to write about and where to find help in all elements of writing including first publication. The text incorporates practice exercises and a multi-cultural mini-anthology of work in all three genres.Discusses in detail the elements and techniques of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction. Provides practical exercises sections and features a Multi-cultural anthology.For aspiring writers interested in learning how to write poetry, prose and non-fiction.

Table of Contents

A Word of Introduction	v
Getting Started	1	(24)
Journal Keeping	2	(7)
Creative Reading	9	(4)
Critical Reading	13	(12)
Fiction	25	(50)
Fiction Fundamentals	25	(5)
Plot	30	(12)
Setting	42	(8)
Dialogue	50	(9)
Characterization	59	(10)
Point of View	69	(6)
Creative Nonfiction	75	(23)
Autobiographical Narrative	79	(5)
Character Essay	84	(14)
Poetry	98	(102)
Sources	98	(4)
Details and Images	102	(6)
Some Poetic Devices	108	(15)
Lyric and Narrative Poems	123	(8)
Language as Music	131	(8)
The Line	139	(9)
Meter	148	(5)
Formal Poetry	153	(19)
Political Poetry	172	(9)
Meaning and Ideas in Poetry	181	(19)
Revising	200	(11)
Short Stories and Essays	200	(6)
Poetry	206	(5)
Experimental Writing	211	(19)
Understanding Experimental Writing	211	(17)
Activities for Searching out the Postmodern Muse	228	(2)
Creative Writing Exercises	230	(14)
Appendix A Publishing in Journals	244	(6)
Appendix B Computers and Creative Writing	250	(5)
Appendix Suggested Readings	255	(8)
Index	263

Excerpts

This book is intended for the beginning creative writer who has perhaps written a few poems and stories but who has not had formal instruction. The book does not expect that its user knows the language of poetry or fiction, or that he or she has read more literature than the average college freshman has read. Its main goal is to provide basic instruction in three genres--poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. But its method is to present ways to get started, things to write about, and directions to look for help in all elements of writing including first publication.The book assumes that creative writing provides personal fulfillment and that most people who are interested in writing have an aptitude for it and can, through creative writing courses and other means, find ways to develop their abilities. Also, it assumes that everyone has a story to tell or a poem to write, and that people learn to write mostly by writing. This book will help beginning creative writers to find words for their stories and to give their stories a shape.Besides serving as a basic text, this book can be used as a self-help book by individual writers putting forth their first efforts. The chapters of the book need not be used in order, since the organization is flexible and responsive to the user's needs. There is enough material in each chapter to use it as a beginning text for a one- or two-genre course, or the book can be used to introduce all three genres--fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry--to the aspiring writer.We have included an abundance of examples of everything that we discuss, and these vary from the immediately accessible to the difficult, partly to enthrall very different new writers in the pleasure of words, but also to underscore our shared belief that good writing is a wide and varied field.The text was fun to write. We hope that it will be equally fun to read and that it will be an enjoyable guide for those who wish to wander through the word-field, gathering and scattering.