Chapter 1. The writer as artist: basic brush strokes. Concepts. Writing as seeing -- Introducing the five basic brush strokes. Lesson 1. Painting with participles -- Lesson 2. Painting with absolutes -- Lesson 3. Painting with appositives -- Lesson 4. Painting with adjectives shifted out of order -- Lesson 5. Painting with action verbs -- Using multiple strokes in paragraphs, stories, and poems -- Strategies. Strategy 1. Create an artist's image palette -- Strategy 2. Explore images from films of best-selling novels -- Strategy 3. Examine the art of Sue Grafton -- Strategy 4. Stimulate images with derived poetry -- Strategy 5. Tour a writers gallery -- Chapter 2. The artist's eye: seeing specific details. Concepts. Recognizing image blanks -- Getting specific with nouns and verbs -- Techniques for adding details -- Expanding the artist's eye: using art and film as tools for enhancing details -- Exploring the image/word relationship -- Strategies. Strategy 1. Zoom and layer (Blind Pew, the pirate) -- Strategy 2. Paint the personality behind the clothes -- Strategy 3. Create a shooting script on location -- Strategy 4. Search for details in abstract slides -- Strategy 5. Focus on word-image senses -- Strategy 6. Go on a humor hunt -- Strategy 7. Examine the contents of the Mystery purse -- Strategy 8. Breathe life into dead character descriptors -- Strategy 9. Replicate Janet Olson's experiment -- Strategy 10. Locate humorous images on the Internet -- Tour the Net museums -- Chapter 3. The artist's rhythms: the music of parallel structures. Concepts. Using parallel structures: listening for the beat -- Making music in sentences, paragraphs, and novels -- Strategies. Strategy 1. Add grammatical music to a description -- Strategy 2. Try a rhythmic experiment in horror -- Strategy 3. Travel into the twilight zone -- Strategy 4. Revise your rhythm -- Strategy 5. Analyze the music in "We are connectors" -- Strategy 6. Imitate the rhythms of parallel structure -- Strategy 7. Explore musical rhythms to write poetry -- Strategy 8. Create rhythms describing authors -- Chapter 4. From imitation to creation: learning from the masters. Concepts. Imitating without plagiarizing -- Moving from imitation to creation -- Moving toward creation with method writing -- Creating with scripted fantasy -- Strategies. Strategy 1. Keep a writer's sketchbook -- Strategy 2. Paint from a family photo -- Strategy 3. Tray Hamill's imitation approach -- Strategy 4. Imitate poetic sentences -- Strategy 5. Do your own Edgar Allen Humpty -- Strategy 6. Search for a personal voice -- Strategy 7. Create a poem from a scripted fantasy -- Strategy 8. Explore plagiarism -- Strategy 9. Learn to imitate without plagiarizing -- Chapter 5. Advanced techniques: grammatical chunks. Concepts. Chunk 1. Painting with the noun collage -- Chunk 2. Painting with the mixed collage -- Chunk 3. Painting with run-ons -- Chunk 4. Painting objects that are invisible -- Chunk 5. Painting with Hemingway and Chandler -- Chunk 6. Brush stroke combinations -- Chunk 7. Triple combinations -- Chunk 8. Brush stroke variations -- Chunk 9. Brush strokes in a series -- Chunk 10. A specific noun and its modifiers -- Chunk 11. A Sfumato mood -- Chunk 12. Painting images with analogies -- Chunk 13. Simplifying abstract concepts with concrete visualizations -- Chunk 14. Adding relative clauses to appositives -- Strategies. Strategy 1. Describe a setting using a noun collage -- Strategy 2. Paint objects that are not there -- Strategy 3. Use brush stroke combinations -- Strategy 4. Share Carl Sagan's classic analogy -- Strategy 5. Paint images from graphic novels.

Chapter 6. The artist's special effects: the grammar-meaning connection -- Concepts. Creating special effects with punctuation -- Creating special effects with clauses and phrases -- Creating special effects with Greek speak -- Creating special effects with page designs -- Creating special effects with mood filtering -- Creating special effects with tantalizing titles -- Strategies. Strategy 1. Play with run-ons -- Strategy 2. Return to Erasmus -- Strategy 3. Listen to the beat of punctuation -- Strategy 4. Go live on Channel 5 -- Strategy 5. Search to titles on Amazon -- Chapter 7. Toward a grammar of passages: linking images beyond the sentence. Concepts. Exploring a grammar of passages -- Tracking a grammar of passages in exposition -- Painting passages using Christensen's approach -- Introducing the logical level in periodic passages -- Introducing logical levels with a photo shoot -- Using Stadia to explain nontopic sentence sequences -- Using Jon Franklin's image cluster approach -- Connecting the logic of images with transitions -- Strategies. Strategy 1. Paint passages from experiences of touch -- Strategy 2. Construct titles as thesis statements -- Strategy 3. Draw conclusions form an ad campaign -- Strategy 4. Evaluate Henry's Paper on the seasons -- Strategy 5. Solve the gruesome Charles Benchley murder -- Strategy 6. Perform a magic trick -- Strategy 7. Surf with Shaughnessy's idea -- Chapter 8. Story grammar and scenes: shapes for fiction. Concepts. Understanding how reading teachers define story grammar -- Understanding how writing teachers define story grammar -- Understanding how Gary Provost defines story grammar -- Painting plot archetypes -- Teaching the art of scene writing -- Providing guidelines for scene writing -- Painting characters with a character wheel -- Moving from scenes to stories -- Opening stories with a scene -- Strategies. Strategy 1. Paint a character from six perspectives -- Strategy 2. Build visualized scenes with urban myths -- Strategy 3. Discuss comic-book plot paintings -- Strategy 4. Use music to paint scenes -- Strategy 5. Build a bulleting board photo collection -- Strategy 6. Write a memoir of an exotic vacation -- Chapter 9. A closer look at one form of nonfiction: writing a feature article or a research paper. Concepts. Writing introductory leads -- Writing the body of an article -- Writing conclusions -- Putting it all together -- Avoiding the rigidity trap -- Strategies. Strategy 1. Stuff a sack of shapely ideas -- Strategy 2. Run a magazine search competition -- Strategy 3. Experiment with forms -- Strategy 4. Mix forms with a multigenre research paper -- Strategy 5. Create an instant tabloid article -- Strategy 6. Create a research paper with the nonfiction model -- Chapter 10. Systematic revision: form, style, content, and conventions. Concepts. Recognizing revision roadblocks -- Using short checklists for systematic revision -- Combining checklists -- Strategies. Strategy 1. Administer the grammar income test -- Strategy 2. Punctuate that that is is -- Strategy 3. Editing the County Line Newsletter -- Strategy 4. Decoding abstract statements -- Strategy 5. Evaluate the short story "Lost, " by Ben Dover -- Strategy 6. Beat the deadline for $500 a word -- A concluding note.