Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft (Penguin Academics Series)

by Burroway, Janet

• ISBN13: 9780321081919
• ISBN10: 0321081919
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780321357403
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Longman

Summary

Written by best-selling author Janet Burroway, Imaginative Writing is an introductory creative writing book that covers the four genres: essay, fiction, poetry, and drama,. Part I addresses the elements of craft (Image, Voice, Character, Setting, Story, and Development and Revision) while Part II explores the genres (Essay, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama). "Try This" Exercises appear throughout each chapter. Provocative and fun, the exercises help readers develop the specific writing skills discussed within the chapters. The book also includes an anthology of 90 complete readings in the four genres. Photographs and graphics, with accompanying warm-up activities, open each chapter. Appendices include collaborative exercises to emphasize the sensory foundations of imaginative writing, a description of standard formats for submitting finished work in each of the four genres, and an outline of the basic elements of prosody. For those interested in developing their creative writing skills.

Author Biography

Janet Burroway is the author of plays, poetry, children's books, and seven novels. She is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Florida State University in Tallahassee

Table of Contents

Preface to the Instructor	xv
Invitation to the Writer	xx
You...	xx
...and writing...	xxi
...and reading...	xxii
...and this book...	xxii
...and your journal...	xxiii
...and your workshop	xxvi
PART I The Elements of Chart
Image	2	(40)
Image and Imagination	3	(4)
Concrete, Significant Details	7	(4)
Metaphor and Simile	11	(3)
Essays	14	(5)
``The Giant Water Bug''	14	(1)
Annie Dillard
from A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius	15	(4)
Dave Eggers
Fiction	19	(12)
``Sister Godzilla''	19	(7)
Louise Erdrich
``Car Crash While Hitchhiking''	26	(5)
Denis Johnson
Poems
``The Hawk in the Rain''	31	(1)
Ted Hughes
``The Haunted Ruin''	32	(1)
Robert Pinsky
``Facing It''	33	(1)
Yusef Komunyakaa
``The Surface''	34	(1)
May Swenson
``How to Use This Body''	35	(1)
David Kirby
``Why Regret?''	36	(1)
Calway Kinnell
Drama	37	(5)
Act Without Words	37	(3)
Samuel Beckett
The Drummer	40	(2)
Athol Fugard
Voice	42	(44)
Your Voice	44	(1)
Persona	45	(2)
Character Voice	47	(2)
Point of View	49	(6)
Essays	55	(9)
from Angela's Ashes	55	(8)
Frank McCourt
``Invitation to a Transformation''	63	(1)
Vladimir Nabokov
Fiction	64	(10)
``In the Kindergarten''	64	(8)
Ha Jin
``The School''	72	(2)
Donald Barthelme
Poems	74	(8)
``Order in the Streets''	74	(1)
Donald Justice
``Black Hair''	75	(1)
Gary Soto
``Hawk Roosting''	76	(1)
Ted Hawks
``Kong Looks Back on His Tryout with the Bears''	77	(1)
William Trowbridge
``Father''	78	(1)
Hilda Raz
``A Mown Lawn''	79	(1)
Lydia Davis
``The Language of Bees''	80	(2)
Barbara Hamby
Drama	82	(4)
from Talking With . . . Handler and French Fries	82	(4)
Jane Martin
Character	86	(42)
As Desire	87	(2)
As Image	89	(2)
As Voice	91	(3)
As Action	94	(2)
As Thought	96	(1)
As Presented by the Author	97	(1)
As Conflict	98	(1)
Essay	99	(7)
``The Inheritance of Tools''	99	(7)
Scott Russell Sanders
Fiction	106	(9)
``Ysrael''
Junot Diaz
Poems	115	(6)
``I Knew a Woman''	115	(1)
Theodore Roethke
``Stonecarver''	116	(1)
Carole Simmons Oles
``My Brother's Work''	116	(1)
Stephen Dunn
``Old man Hansen comes in at ten to''	117	(1)
Fred Wah
``One Flesh''	118	(1)
Elizabeth Jennings
``Old Men Playing Basketball''	118	(1)
B.H. Fairchild
``Portrait of a Writer''	119	(2)
Edward Hursch
Drama	121	(7)
Brother	121	(7)
Mary Gallagher
Setting	128	(50)
As the World	130	(3)
As a Camera	133	(3)
As Mood and Symbol	136	(1)
As Action	137	(2)
Essays	139	(8)
``At the Dam''	139	(2)
Joan Didion
``Landscape and Narrative''	141	(6)
Barry Lopez
Fiction	147	(9)
``Snow''	147	(9)
Charles Baxter
Poems	156	(5)
``Deer Ghost''	156	(1)
Joy Harjo
``Earthmoving Malediction''	157	(1)
Heather McHugh
``Vacation''	158	(1)
Rita Dove
``Nude Interrogation''	158	(1)
Yusef Komunyakaa
``Advice From the Extractor''	159	(2)
George MaBbeth
Drama	161	(17)
Dutchman	161	(17)
Imamu Amiri Baraka
Story	178	(38)
As a Journey	179	(2)
As a Power Struggle	181	(2)
As Connection/Disconnection	183	(7)
Essay	190	(4)
``Red Sky in the Morning''	190	(4)
Patricia Hempl
Fiction	194	(8)
``Missing''	194	(7)
Robert Olen Butler
``Worry''	201	(1)
Ron Wallace
Poems	202	(6)
``A Story About the Body''	202	(1)
Robert Hass
``Digging for China''	202	(1)
Richard Wilbur
``Short Story''	203	(1)
Ellen Bryant Voigt
``Woodchucks''	204	(1)
Maxine Kumin
``The Hammock''	205	(1)
Li-Young Lee
``Vita Nova''	206	(2)
Louise Gluck
Drama	208	(8)
The Battle of Bull Run Always Makes Me Cry	208	(8)
Carole Real
Development and Revision	216	(26)
Developing a Draft	218	(4)
Revision and Editing	222	(4)
The Workshop	226	(3)
Examples	229	(8)
First and final drafts of ``One Art''	229	(2)
Elizabeth Bishop
``The Opening of Time Lapse: a revision narrative''	231	(6)
Janet Burroway
Developing Scene	237	(1)
Undrafting	238	(1)
Line Editing	239	(3)
PART II The Genres
Essay	242	(30)
Kinds of Essay	244	(3)
Essay Techniques	247	(4)
Fact and Truth	251	(3)
Readings	254	(18)
``The Female Body''	254	(3)
Margaret Atwood
``Those Words That Echo . . . Echo . . . Echo Through Life''	257	(4)
Jamaica Kincaid
``The Knife''	261	(7)
Richard Selzer
``Belongings''	268	(4)
Susan Lester
Fiction	272	(34)
Story and Plot	273	(3)
Scene and Summary	276	(2)
Backstory and Flashback	278	(3)
Text and Subtext	281	(2)
Readings	283	(23)
``The Diamond Mine''	283	(6)
Nadine Gordimer
``Your Fears Are Justified''	289	(1)
Rick De Marinis
``Mockingbird''	290	(1)
Laurie Berry
``It's Water, It's Not Going to Kill You''	291	(11)
Heather Sellers
``Tomorrow's Bird''	302	(4)
Ian Frazier
Poetry	306	(30)
Free Verse and Formal Verse	308	(2)
Imagery, Connotation, and Metaphor	310	(2)
Density and Intensity	312	(4)
Prosody, Rhythm, and Rhyme	316	(6)
Readings	322	(14)
``Stillborn''	322	(1)
Sylvia Plath
``The Grammar Lesson''	323	(1)
Steve Kowtt
``The Poet, Trying to Surprise God''	323	(1)
Peter Meinke
``Like This Together''	324	(2)
Adrienne Rich
``Romantic, at Horseshoe Key''	326	(1)
Enid Shomer
``Locking Yourself Out, Then Trying to Get Back In''	327	(1)
Raymond Carver
``Prose Poem''	328	(1)
James Tate
``Black Silhouettes of Shrimpers''	329	(1)
Dave Smith
``Repetition''	330	(1)
Ruth Stone
``Ghazal''	331	(1)
Agha Shahid Ali
``The Language of the Brag''	332	(1)
Sharon Olds
``Dream Song 14''	333	(1)
John Berryman
``My Uncle Guillermo Speaks at His Own Funeral''	334	(2)
Yvonne Sapia
Drama	336	(43)
The Difference Between Drama and Fiction	337	(2)
Sight: Sets, Action, Costumes, Props	339	(3)
Sound: Nonverbal and Verbal	342	(5)
Some Notes on Screenwriting	347	(2)
Readings	349	(30)
The Road to Ruin	349	(8)
Richard Dresser
Duet for Bear and Dog	357	(5)
Sybil Rosen
Gas	362	(5)
Jose Rivera
Eukiah	367	(4)
Lanford Wilson
The Philadelphia	371	(8)
David Ives
APPENDIX A Collaborative Exercises	379	(8)
APPENDIX B Formats	387	(6)
1. Prose fiction and nonfiction	387	(1)
2. Poetry	387	(1)
3. Drama	387	(6)
APPENDIX C A Basic Prosody	393	(8)
Glossary	401	(6)
Index	407