Janet Burroway's bestselling Imaginative Writng: The Elements of Craft explores the craft of creative writing in four genres: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Creative Nonfiction. A trade author as well as a professor of creative writing, Burroway brings her years of teaching and writing to this book. "Try-This" exercises appear throughout each chapter. Provocative and fun, these exercises help writers develop the specific writing skills discussed within the text. "Working toward a draft" exercises encourage writers to develop their ideas into complete drafts. In response to reviewer requests, the preface "Invitation to the Writer" has been expanded into a full chapter. This new chapter introduces writers to important skills such as reading like a writer, journaling, and participating in the writer's workshop. This book offers lots of ideas and encouragement at a great price!
Table of Contents
*** indicate selections new to this edition. CHAPTER 1 Invitation to the writer You ... and writing ... and reading... and this book ... and your journal ... JOURNAL EXCERPTS Ayelet Waldeman*** Billy Collins *** Cris Mazza *** Patricia Henley*** Philip Graham*** A word about your workshop ... PART I The Elements of Craft CHAPTER 2 Image Image and Imagination Concrete, Significant Details Figures of Speech READINGS Creative Nonfiction Annie Dillard fromHeaven and Earth in Jest David Sedaris What I Learned *** Fiction Nadine Gordimer The Diamond Mine Poems Roger Bonair-Agard American history looks for light--a prayer for the survival of Barak Obama *** Billy Collins Snow Day Yusef Komunyakaa Facing It Drama Don Nigro Come into the Garden, Maud *** CHAPTER 3 Voice Your Voice Persona Character Voice Point of View READINGS Creative Nonfiction Alice Walker Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self Warren J. Bowe Guns for Teachers *** Calvin Trillin Rock Threat Subsides *** Fiction Thomas McGuane Cowboy *** Jorge Luis Borges The Book of Sand *** Poems William Trowbridge Kong Looks Back on His Tryout with the Bears SianB. Griffiths Fistful *** Matt Bondurant The Pathos of Charles Schultz *** Barbara Hamby Ode to American English *** Drama Jane Martin French Fries CHAPTER 4 Character As Desire As Image As Voice As Action As Thought As Presented by the Author As Conflict Stock and Flat Characters READINGS Creative Nonfiction Stuart Dybek Thread *** Lois-Ann Yamanaka JohnJohn's World *** Fiction Alice Monroe Prue *** Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World *** Poems Theodore Roethke I Knew a Woman Carole Simmons Oles Stonecarver Allen Ginsberg To Aunt Rose Elizabeth Jennings One Flesh Ted Kooser Tattoo *** Drama Alan Bennett Bed Among the Lentils *** CHAPTER 5 Setting As the World As a Camera As Mood and Symbol As Action READINGS Creative Nonfiction Joan Didion At the Dam Paul Theroux The Slow Train to Kandy *** Fiction Donald Barthelme The School Angela Carter The Werewolf *** Poems ShermanAlexie At Navajo Monument Valley Tribal School Heather McHugh Earthmoving Malediction Philip Appleman Nobody Dies in the Spring *** Yusef Komunyakaa Nude Interrogation Drama David Ives The Philadelphia CHAPTER 6 Story As a Journey As a Power Struggle As Connection and Disconnection READINGS Creative Nonfiction Patricia Hampl Red Sky in the Morning Fiction David Foster Wallace Incarnations of Burned Children *** Naguib Mahfouz Half a Day *** Poems Robert Hass A Story About the Body Albert Goldbarth Columbine High School/Littleton, CO Ellen Bryant Voigt Short Story Maxine Kumin Woodchucks Li - Young Lee The Hammock Drama Michael Golamco Heartbreaker *** CHAPTER 7 Development And Revision Developing a Draft Structuring Research Revision Editing The Workshop EXAMPLES Elizabeth Bishop: First and Final Drafts of One Art Patty Seyburn: Anatomy of Disorder *** Janet Burroway: The Opening of Indian Dancer: A Revision Narrative Mark Vinz: The Penitent *** Rita Mae Reese: A History of Glass *** PART II THE GENRES CHAPTER 8 Creative Nonfiction The Essay and Creative Nonfiction Memoir and the Personal Essay Techniques of Creative Nonfiction Fact and Truth READINGS Gayle Pemberton Do He Have Your Number, Mr. Jeffrey? Margaret Atwood The Female Body S. L. Wisenberg Margot's Diary *** Studs Terkel Jack Culberg, 79 *** Creative Nonfiction Format CHAPTER 9 Fiction Story and Plot Scene and Summary Backstory and Flashback Text and Subtext READINGS Amy Bloom The Story Ernest Hemingway A Very Short Story *** Tobias Wolff Powder *** Ron Carlson Bigfoot Stole My Wife Fiction Format CHAPTER 10 Poetry Formal and Free Verse Working with Sound The Poetic Line Imagery, Connotation, and Metaphor Density and Intensity READINGS Gerald Stern Columbiathe Gem Sound: Verbal and Nonverbal The Ten-Minute Play Some Notes on Screenwriting READINGS Anton Chekhov The Proposal *** Jose Rivera Gas Alice O ' Neill What I Came For *** Lanford Wilson Eukiah Drama Format Appendix A: Basic Prosody Appendix B: Line Editing Glossary Credits Index
Author Biography
JANET BURROWAY is the author of plays, poetry, essays, children's books, and eight novels including The Buzzards, Raw Silk (runner up for the National Book Award), Opening Nights, Cutting Stone, and Bridge of Sand. Her publications include a collection of personal essays, "Embalming Mom," in addition to a volume of poetry, Material Goods, and two children's books in verse, The Truck on the Track and The Giant Jam Sandwich. Her most recent plays, Medea with Child (The Reva Shiner Award), Sweepstakes, Division of Property (Arts & Letters Award), and Parts of Speech, have received readings and productions in NewYork, London, San Francisco, Hollywood, Chicago, and various regional theatres. Her textbook Writing Fiction, now in its eighth edition, is the most widely used creative writing text in the United States. She is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Emerita at the Florida State University in Tallahassee.
