The book on writing : the ultimate guide to writing well

A Dozen Guidelines to Good Writing -- Keep Sentences Short, and Keep to One Main Idea Per Sentence -- Avoid Pretensions, Gobbledygook, and Euphemisms -- Change Long and Difficult Words to Short and Simple Words -- Be Wary of Jargon, Fad, and Cliche -- Use the Right Wordxx 6: Avoid Beginning With Long Dependent Phrases -- Prefer Active Verbs and the Active Voice -- Cut Wordiness -- Avoid Vague Qualifiers -- Prune Prepositions -- Limit Number and Symbol -- Get Right to the Point. And Stay There -- Storytelling -- Archetype, Character, and Plot -- A Literary Analysis of a 'Real-Life' Story -- Don't Say Everything. At Least Don't Say it Right Now -- Let the Readers Do Some Work -- Quick, Get the Camera -- Masters of Metaphor -- Let Sound Echo Sense -- Write Fast, Edit Slow -- Speedbumps -- Logic and Speedy Reading -- A Brief (But Not Necessarily Easy) Quiz -- Dispelling the Myths -- Style Guide.

Wretched writing : a compendium of crimes against the English language

Shakespeare's language

The sea is my brother

Steampunk-style jewelry : Victorian, fantasy, and mechanical designs, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings

Is that a fish in your ear? : translation and the meaning of everything

Swallowed by the Great Land : and other dispatches from Alaska's frontier

The source of self-regard : selected essays, speeches, and meditations

Charles Bukowski : portions from a wine-stained notebook : uncollected stories and essays, 1944-1990

Anna Akhmatova : poet and prophet

The life of Captain James Cook.

The making of a story : a Norton guide to creative writing

Acknowledgments -- What is this thing called creative writing? -- basics -- Getting started -- Reconciling the method with the madness -- Some basic definitions -- Creative nonfiction : a working definition -- Writing that is surprising yet convincing -- Resisting paraphrase -- Creative nonfiction : capturing what has eluded capture -- On sentiment and sentimentality -- Our first job as writers : to notice -- Avoiding the "writerly" voice -- Exercises -- Exercise 1 : "I don't know why I remember..." -- Exercise 2 : I am a camera -- Reading as a writer -- "On keeping a notebook" / "Emergency" / splendid gift of not knowing -- Writing as discovery -- Getting started -- What do you know? -- Creative nonfiction : making the ordinary extraordinary -- Writing down what you don't know (about what you know) -- On rendering, not solving, the mysteries that surround us -- Moving from "triggering" to real subject -- Surprise yourself, interest others -- Obsession as a creative virtue -- Exercises -- Exercise 1 : Things I was taught/things I was not taught -- Exercise 2 : I want to know why -- Reading as a writer -- "Where are you going, where have you been?" / "Welcome to cancerland"

Details, details -- Concrete details as the basic building blocks of good creative writing -- Getting started -- On thinking small -- Defining "images" within a literary context -- Imagery that works on two levels -- On seeing the general in the particular -- On crowding the reader out of his own space -- Don't lose any of your senses -- Use of concrete details in creative nonfiction -- Use and abuse of metaphor -- When should you use metaphor? -- Avoiding the "S" word : banishing conscious symbols from your writing -- Imagery as creative source -- Exercises -- Exercise 1 : Harper's Index on a personal level -- Exercise 2 : Render a tree, capture the forest -- Reading as a writer -- things they carried" / "Nebraska"

shapely story -- Defining the short story -- Getting started -- Some basic definitions -- conflict-crisis-resolution model -- Linear vs. modular stories -- To epiphany or not to epiphany? -- Is change necessary? (the debate continues) -- On not becoming slaves to theory -- Exercises -- Exercise 1 : False epiphanies I have had -- Exercise 2 : Opportunities not taken -- Reading as a writer -- "What makes a short story?" / "Helping" / Why you need to show and tell -- importance of narration -- Getting started -- Some basic definitions -- Why "show not tell" is such common advice -- show-and-tell balancing act -- Traditional uses of narration (telling) -- Why narration is such an important creative tool -- How showing and telling complement each other -- Good intentions, bad advice -- showing-telling continuum -- Showing and telling in creative nonfiction -- Exercises -- Exercise 1 : Tell me a story -- Exercise 2 : What everyone knows/What I know -- Reading as a writer -- "Brownies" / "Winner take nothing"

Who's telling this story, anyway? -- Introduction to point of view -- Getting started -- Some basic definitions -- First person -- Whose story is it? -- Second person -- Third person -- word about attitude -- Distance and point of view -- Shifts in narrative distance -- Choosing a point of view for your creative work -- Point of view and creative nonfiction -- Common point of view problems -- Exercises -- Exercise 1 : Change point of view and dance -- Exercise 2 : Using point of view as a way "in" to difficult material -- Reading as a writer -- lady with the little dog" / "Moonrise" / How reliable is this narrator? -- How point of view affects our understanding of a story -- Getting started -- How we judge the integrity of the stories we hear and read -- First person point of view and reliability -- Third person point of view and reliability -- Exercises -- Exercise 1 : He said, she said -- Exercise 2 : See what I see, hear what I hear -- Reading as a writer -- swimmer" / You talking to me? -- Crafting effective dialogue -- Getting started -- What dialogue is good for -- What dialogue is not -- word about attribution -- Five important tips on dialogue -- On subtext -- word about dialect -- Using placeholders -- Dialogue in creative nonfiction -- Exercises -- Exercise 1 : Nonverbal communication -- Exercise 2 : Them's fighting words -- Reading as a writer -- "Hills like white elephants" / "Inside the bunker"

plot thickens -- Figuring out what happens next -- Getting started -- Story vs. plot : some basic definitions -- word about causality -- Render how - don't try to answer why -- On metafiction -- Character-based plotting -- On conflict -- Analyzing plot points -- Avoiding Scènes à Faire : recognizing clichéd plot twists -- Exercises -- Exercise 1 : What's behind the door of room 101? -- Exercise 2 : "By the time you read this..." -- Reading as a writer -- "Sonny's blues" / Recognizable people -- Creating surprising-yet-convincing characters -- Getting started -- Flat vs. round characters -- Eschewing the general in favor of the particular -- Consistency as the hobgoblin of characters -- Ways of defining character -- Character and plot -- Wants and needs -- Characters in relationships -- Character in creative nonfiction -- Exercises -- Exercise 1 : Emptying pockets -- Exercise 2 : Sins of commissions/Sins of omission -- Exercise 3 : Seven or eight things I know about him/her -- Reading as a writer -- "Surrounded by sleep" / "No name woman"

Raising the curtain -- Beginning your story, novel, or nonfiction piece -- Getting started -- Your contract with the reader -- Characteristics of a good opening -- Unbalancing acts -- Starting in the middle -- Beginning with action -- On the nature of suspense -- Beginning your creative nonfiction piece -- Exercises -- Exercise 1 : Give it your best shot -- Exercise 2 : Start in the middle -- Exercise 3 : Make them squirm -- Reading as a writer -- "People like that are the only people here : canonical babbling in Peed Onk" / What's this creative work really about? -- art of transferring true emotions onto sensory events -- Getting started -- Many different answers to the same question -- Writing about what matters -- Transference : borrowing from Freud -- We are made of dust -- road to universality -- But it's the truth! and other common pleas for clemency -- Creative nonfiction : on being true as well as factual -- Making things carry more emotional weight than they logically should -- Transference and creative nonfiction -- Exercises -- Exercise 1 : Getting an image to spill its secrets -- Exercise 2 : What I lost -- Reading as a writer -- "Ralph the duck" / knife"

Learning to fail better -- On revision -- Getting started -- Advice for writers from writers -- Perfection is our enemy -- workshop method -- Undue influence : a cautionary tale -- developmental stages of a creative work -- "Hot spots" and other noteworthy aspects of an early draft -- exercise-based approach to deep revision -- word about constraints -- Exercises -- Analytical/mechanical exercises -- Creative exercises -- Research-based exercises -- Chance-based exercises -- Revision example : "The company of men" / Reading as a writer -- "Shitty first drafts" / Carver chronicles" / bath" / small, good thing" / Getting beyond facts to truth -- Some final thoughts on creative nonfiction -- Getting started -- Just the facts, ma'am -- Recollections and re-creations -- Ethical considerations -- Subjectivity vs. objectivity -- trip of self-discovery -- To be in or out of the story? -- Reading as a writer -- "Learning to drive" / Glossary-- Bibliography -- List of stories -- Permissions -- Index.