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| elements of craft in writing: Imaginative Writing Janet Burroway, 2011 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! |
| elements of craft in writing: Craft in the Real World Matthew Salesses, 2021-01-19 This national bestseller is a significant contribution to discussions of the art of fiction and a necessary challenge to received views about whose stories are told, how they are told and for whom they are intended (Laila Lalami, The New York Times Book Review). The traditional writing workshop was established with white male writers in mind; what we call craft is informed by their cultural values. In this bold and original examination of elements of writing—including plot, character, conflict, structure, and believability—and aspects of workshop—including the silenced writer and the imagined reader—Matthew Salesses asks questions to invigorate these familiar concepts. He upends Western notions of how a story must progress. How can we rethink craft, and the teaching of it, to better reach writers with diverse backgrounds? How can we invite diverse storytelling traditions into literary spaces? Drawing from examples including One Thousand and One Nights, Curious George, Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea, and the Asian American classic No-No Boy, Salesses asks us to reimagine craft and the workshop. In the pages of exercises included here, teachers will find suggestions for building syllabi, grading, and introducing new methods to the classroom; students will find revision and editing guidance, as well as a new lens for reading their work. Salesses shows that we need to interrogate the lack of diversity at the core of published fiction: how we teach and write it. After all, as he reminds us, When we write fiction, we write the world. |
| elements of craft in writing: A Writer's Craft Kendall Dunkelberg, 2017-09-16 This introductory creative writing text uses a unique, multi-genre approach to provide students with a broad-based knowledge of their craft, treating them as professional writers. Beginning by discussing elements common to all genres, this book underscores the importance of learning good writing habits before committing to a genre, encouraging writers to look beyond their genre expectations and learn from other forms. The book then devotes one chapter to each of the major literary genres: fiction, poetry, drama and creative nonfiction. These style-specific sections provide depth as they compare the different genres, furnishing students with a comprehensive understanding of creative writing as a discipline and fostering creativity. The discussion concludes with a chapter on digital media and an appendix on literary citizenship and publishing. With exercises at the end of each chapter, a glossary of literary terms, and a list of resources for further study, A Writer's Craft is the ideal companion to an introductory creative writing class. It has been listed as one of the 'Best Books for Writers' by Poets and Writers magazine. |
| elements of craft in writing: Bird by Bird Anne Lamott, 2007-12-18 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. Anne Lamott is a warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps (Los Angeles Times). “Superb writing advice…. Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.” —The New York Times Book Review For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title: “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’” |
| elements of craft in writing: The Elements of Writing Charles Euchner, 2015-05-15 Without peer. Trust me -- it works. Just the right blend of rigor, encouragement, and fun. Both useful and a pleasure. A bounty of usable information. Those are just a handful of raves for The Elements of Writing (previously published as The Big Book of Writing), the only comprehensive system for writing well. Building on the latest research on learning and the brain, The Elements offers a complete apprenticeship on writing. Every skill in this book has been tested in college and high school classrooms, business and nonprofit seminars, and coaching sessions with authors. The Elements of Writing is filled with case studies. In each one, a master of writing shows you a trick of the trade. So this book is really a group effort, with contributions from the ancients (Homer, Aristotle), timeless writers (Shakespeare, Twain, Charlotte Bronte, Crane, Miller, Hemingway, Henry Roth, Robert Penn Warren), modern masters (Capote, Kundera, Caro, Updike, McPhee, Martin Amis, Tom Wolfe, Gladwell, Agassi, O'Brien, and Zadie Smith, Mernissi), historic figures (Lincoln, Martin Luther King), and classic films (Casablanca, Vertigo, and Hannah and Her Sisters), and more. People in all fields -- high school, higher education, journalism and publishing, business and government -- have discovered the power of this unique system. Whether you're in business, school, government or nonprofit agencies, or journalism/blogging or publishing, The Big Book offers a powerful to improve your writing right away. Developed by author and teacher Charles Euchner, The Elements of Writing draws lessons from the masters to show the skills and tricks of the trade you need to write with clarity and power. The Elements also uses the latest research on learning and the brain to help you manage the creative process. Euchner is the author or editor of ten books, most recently the acclaimed Nobody Turn Me Around: A People's History of the 1963 March on Washington (Beacon Press, 2010). Euchner has also written a trilogy of the world of modern sports (Playing the Field, The Last Nine Innings, and Little League, Big Dreams), studies of grassroots politics (Urban Policy Reconsidered, with Steve McGovern, and Extraordinary Politics), and works on regional policy and planning (the two-part Governing Greater Boston series). |
| elements of craft in writing: Writing Tools Roy Peter Clark, 2014-05-21 One of America 's most influential writing teachers offers a toolbox from which writers of all kinds can draw practical inspiration. Writing is a craft you can learn, says Roy Peter Clark. You need tools, not rules. His book distills decades of experience into 50 tools that will help any writer become more fluent and effective. WRITING TOOLS covers everything from the most basic (Tool 5: Watch those adverbs) to the more complex (Tool 34: Turn your notebook into a camera) and provides more than 200 examples from literature and journalism to illustrate the concepts. For students, aspiring novelists, and writers of memos, e-mails, PowerPoint presentations, and love letters, here are 50 indispensable, memorable, and usable tools. Pull out a favorite novel or short story, and read it with the guidance of Clark 's ideas. . . . Readers will find new worlds in familiar places. And writers will be inspired to pick up their pens. - Boston Globe For all the aspiring writers out there-whether you're writing a novel or a technical report-a respected scholar pulls back the curtain on the art. - Atlanta Journal-Constitution This is a useful tool for writers at all levels of experience, and it's entertainingly written, with plenty of helpful examples. -Booklist. |
| elements of craft in writing: Demon Tosca Lee, 2024-07-09 From the author of the New York Times best-selling Iscariot comes an award-winning novel that poses the question: if a demon came up to you and offered to tell his story, would you listen? Clay's life has reached a standstill. Recently divorced, he spends his days drifting from his drab apartment to his equally lackluster job as an editor for a small Boston press and back again. His dreary routine has left him mired in a seemingly meaningless existence, until the night he meets Lucian - a demon - and everything changes. With the simple words, I'm going to tell you my story, and you're going to write it down and publish it, Lucian catapults Clay's mundane life into turmoil. What begins as an intriguing mystery soon spirals into a chaotic obsession as Clay struggles to piece together Lucian's dark tale of love, ambition, and grace - only to discover the demon's story is strikingly similar to his own. And the only thing that matters now is finding out how the story ends ...--Publisher. |
| elements of craft in writing: Writing Deep Scenes Martha Alderson, Jordan Rosenfeld, 2015-09-04 Take a Deep Dive into Plot and Scene and Improve Your Writing Whether you're planning your first novel or have already written a first draft, you need to master the concepts of plot and scene to truly realize your story's potential. Writing Deep Scenes teaches you how to write strong, layered, and engaging scenes--the secret to memorable, page-turning plots. It's filled with practical tools for building layers and nuance into your scenes, employing the right scene types at the right junctures, and developing a profound understanding of how plot and scene intertwine. Inside you'll learn: • How scenes are comprised of three key layers: action, emotion, and theme. • How to recognize each layer and weave them seamlessly into a scene. • How to develop an intricate relationship between the action and emotion in every scene. • How thematic imagery embedded in scenes increases a story's tension and contributes to the story's meaning. Using contemporary examples from a variety of genres, Writing Deep Scenes provides an effective method for plotting at the scene level. Use these techniques and enrich your fiction and memoirs with page-turning suspense and pathos, and explore new depths in every story you write. |
| elements of craft in writing: The Art and Craft of Feature Writing William E. Blundell, 1988-11-29 Storytelling—how to catch and hold a reader’s interest through artful narration of factual material William E. Blundell, one of the best writers on one of America's best-written papers—The Wall Street Journal—has put his famous Journal Feature-Writing Seminars into this step-by-step guide for turning out great articles. Filled with expert instruction on a complex art, it provides beginners with a systematic approach to feature writing and deftly teaches old pros some new tricks about: · How and where to get ideas · What readers like and don’t like · Adding energy and interest to tired topics · Getting from first ideas to finish article · The rules of organization · How—and whom—to quote and paraphrase · Wordcraft, leads, and narrative flow · Self-editing and notes on style … plus many sample feature articles. |
| elements of craft in writing: Writing Fiction Janet Burroway, Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Ned Stuckey-French, 2019-04-01 This updated edition of the classic, comprehensive guide to creative writing features new topics and writing prompts, contemporary examples, and more. A creative writer’s shelf should hold at least three essential books: a dictionary, a style guide, and Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction. This best-selling classic is the most widely used creative writing text in America, and for decades it has helped hundreds of thousands of students learn the craft. Now in its tenth edition, Writing Fiction is more accessible than ever for writers of all levels—inside or outside the classroom. This new edition continues to provide advice that is practical, comprehensive, and flexible. Moving from freewriting to final revision, Burroway addresses “showing not telling,” characterization, dialogue, atmosphere, plot, imagery, and point of view. It includes new topics and writing prompts, and each chapter now ends with a list of recommended readings that exemplify the craft elements discussed. Plus, examples and quotations throughout the book feature a wide range of today’s best and best-known creators of both novels and short stories. |
| elements of craft in writing: Wondrous Words Katie Wood Ray, 1999 Examines the theoretical underpinnings of how students learn to write from reading other writers; describes various kinds of inquiry designed to help teachers and students learn how to learn from writers; and includes thoughts from the author on writing and teaching, as well as a selection of resource materials. |
| elements of craft in writing: Meander, Spiral, Explode Jane Alison, 2019-04-02 How lovely to discover a book on the craft of writing that is also fun to read . . . Alison asserts that the best stories follow patterns in nature, and by defining these new styles she offers writers the freedom to explore but with enough guidance to thrive. ―Maris Kreizman, Vulture A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019 | A Poets & Writers Best Books for Writers As Jane Alison writes in the introduction to her insightful and appealing book about the craft of writing: “For centuries there’s been one path through fiction we’re most likely to travel― one we’re actually told to follow―and that’s the dramatic arc: a situation arises, grows tense, reaches a peak, subsides . . . But something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculosexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Why not draw on them, too? W. G. Sebald’s Emigrants was the first novel to show Alison how forward momentum can be created by way of pattern, rather than the traditional arc--or, in nature, wave. Other writers of nonlinear prose considered in her “museum of specimens” include Nicholson Baker, Anne Carson, Marguerite Duras, Gabriel García Márquez, Jamaica Kincaid, Clarice Lispector, Susan Minot, David Mitchell, Caryl Phillips, and Mary Robison. Meander, Spiral, Explode is a singular and brilliant elucidation of literary strategies that also brings high spirits and wit to its original conclusions. It is a liberating manifesto that says, Let’s leave the outdated modes behind and, in thinking of new modes, bring feeling back to experimentation. It will appeal to serious readers and writers alike. |
| elements of craft in writing: How to Write a Novel Nathan Bransford, 2019-10-15 Author and former literary agent Nathan Bransford shares his secrets for creating killer plots, fleshing out your first ideas, crafting compelling characters, and staying sane in the process. Read the guide that New York Times bestselling author Ransom Riggs called The best how-to-write-a-novel book I've read. |
| elements of craft in writing: Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular Rust Hills, 2000-09-06 Wise advice on plot, character, and style from a legendary Esquire editor: “Every aspiring fiction writer ought to read this.” —Writer’s Digest Over the course of his long and colorful career as fiction editor for Esquire magazine, L. Rust Hills championed the early work of literary luminaries such as Norman Mailer, John Cheever, Don DeLillo, Raymond Carver, and E. Annie Proulx. His skill at identifying talent and understanding story made him a legend within the industry as an unparalleled editor of short fiction. Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular is a master class in writing—especially short story writing—from the master himself. Drawing on a lifetime of experience and success, this practical guide explains essential techniques of writing fiction—from developing character to crafting plots to effectively employing literary techniques. Clear and concise enough for any beginner but wise and powerful enough for any pro, Writing in General is a classic to be savored by both aspiring and seasoned writers. |
| elements of craft in writing: Writing the Breakout Novel Donald Maass, 2002-08-01 Take your fiction to the next level! Maybe you're a first-time novelist looking for practical guidance. Maybe you've already been published, but your latest effort is stuck in mid-list limbo. Whatever the case may be, author and literary agent Donald Maass can show you how to take your prose to the next level and write a breakout novel - one that rises out of obscurity and hits the best-seller lists. Maass details the elements that all breakout novels share - regardless of genre - then shows you writing techniques that can make your own books stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace. You'll learn to: • establish a powerful and sweeping sense of time and place • weave subplots into the main action for a complex, engrossing story • create larger-than-life characters that step right off the page • explore universal themes that will interest a broad audience of readers • sustain a high degree of narrative tension from start to finish • develop an inspired premise that sets your novel apart from the competition Then, using examples from the recent works of several best-selling authors - including novelist Anne Perry - Maass illustrates methods for upping the ante in every aspect of your novel writing. You'll capture the eye of an agent, generate publisher interest and lay the foundation for a promising career. |
| elements of craft in writing: Elements of the Writing Craft Robert Olmstead, 1997 More than 150 lessons for writers emulate the techniques of the masters who have built great narratives through a multitude of small but significant moves in their craft. |
| elements of craft in writing: The Emotional Craft of Fiction Donald Maass, 2016-12-30 Engage Your Readers with Emotion While writers might disagree over showing versus telling or plotting versus pantsing, none would argue this: If you want to write strong fiction, you must make your readers feel. The reader's experience must be an emotional journey of its own, one as involving as your characters' struggles, discoveries, and triumphs are for you. That's where The Emotional Craft of Fiction comes in. Veteran literary agent and expert fiction instructor Donald Maass shows you how to use story to provoke a visceral and emotional experience in readers. Topics covered include: • emotional modes of writing • beyond showing versus telling • your story's emotional world • moral stakes • connecting the inner and outer journeys • plot as emotional opportunities • invoking higher emotions, symbols, and emotional language • cascading change • story as emotional mirror • positive spirit and magnanimous writing • the hidden current that makes stories move Readers can simply read a novel...or they can experience it. The Emotional Craft of Fiction shows you how to make that happen. |
| elements of craft in writing: The Responsive Writing Teacher, Grades K-5 Melanie Meehan, Kelsey Sorum, 2021-02-18 This book is an instructive call to action for all of us who need to be reminded of what hope enacted as classroom practice can look like. — Cornelius Minor Every classroom is shaped by the skills, languages, social and cultural identities, perspectives, and passions of the children within it. When you approach writing instruction with a deep understanding of children in your classroom, everything else—assessment, planning, differentiated instruction, mentor and shared texts—begins to fall into place. And you can teach writing with inclusion, equity, and agency at the forefront. Authors Melanie Meehan and Kelsey Sorum show you how to adapt curriculum to meet the needs of the whole child. Each chapter offers intentional steps for responsive instruction across four domains: academic, linguistic, cultural, and social-emotional. Features include: Inspiration, classroom examples, and scaffolded tips for creating individualized resources Customizable information-gathering and planning tools, classroom charts, and writing samples Space for making notes and working through ideas Links to online content, including printable templates Just as you adapt instruction to your students, this book adapts to you. The authors designed every guide, tool, and resource to be usable in its original form, or customized as you see fit. This indispensable resource will make responsive instruction actionable—and your students feel valued and heard as they recognize the possibility and power they have as writers. |
| elements of craft in writing: Making Shapely Fiction Jerome Stern, 2011-04-11 A deft analysis and appreciation of fiction—what makes it work and what can make it fail. Here is a book about the craft of writing fiction that is thoroughly useful from the first to the last page—whether the reader is a beginner, a seasoned writer, or a teacher of writing. You will see how a work takes form and shape once you grasp the principles of momentum, tension, and immediacy. Tension, Stern says, is the mother of fiction. When tension and immediacy combine, the story begins. Dialogue and action, beginnings and endings, the true meaning of write what you know, and a memorable listing of don'ts for fiction writers are all covered. A special section features an Alphabet for Writers: entries range from Accuracy to Zigzag, with enlightening comments about such matters as Cliffhangers, Point of View, Irony, and Transitions. |
| elements of craft in writing: Writing Fiction Janet Burroway, 1987 The most widely used and respected book on writing fiction, Writing Fiction guides the writer from first inspiration to final revision. Supported by an abundance exercises, this guide/anthology explores and integrates the elements of fiction while offering practical techniques and concrete examples. A focus on the writing process in its entirety provides a comprehensive guide to writing fiction, approaching distinct elements in separate chapters while building on what has been covered earlier. Topics include free-writing to revision, plot, style, characterization, dialogue, atmosphere, imagery, and point of view. An anthology of diverse and contemporary short stories followed by suggestions for discussion and writing exercises, illustrates concepts while offering variety in pacing and exposure to this increasingly popular form. The book also discusses key issues including writing workshops, using autobiography as a basis for fiction, using action in stories, using dialogue, and maintaining point of view. The sixth edition also features more short short stories than any previous edition and includes quotation boxes that offer advice and inspirational words from established writers on a wide range of topics--such as writing from experience, story structure, openings and endings, and revision. For those interested in developing their creative writing skills. |
| elements of craft in writing: The Elements of Song Craft Billy Seidman, 2020-08-15 An effective new songwriting vocabulary supported by ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. The Elements Of Song Craft does for songwriters what William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White’s The Elements Of Style did for English language students and writers alike; gives an all-in-one definitive manifesto for contemporary songwriters in every genre to organize, understand, and practice the rules, principles, definitions, forms, and song craft needed to create good songs, songs of undeniable creative power and beauty, songs that last. The Elements of Song Craft beelines directly to the most important aspect of writing good songs—identifying the key emotion living at the heart of the song—then offers a step-by-step process to harnessing that singular emotional power. Additionally, a dozen other strategies, formulas, perspectives, and exercises are offered in the book. The Elements of Song Craft introduces, for the first time to a general songwriting audience, an effective new songwriting vocabulary utilized by songwriters taught in the SONG ARTS ACADEMY method and supported by ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, the world’s leading Performance Rights Organizations at the heart of the songwriting business, as well as at NYU Steinhardt’s and The New School’s songwriting programs, for over sixteen years. Thousands of song arts participants, including hit songwriters and The Voice and American Idol contestants, have been trained in this method. |
| elements of craft in writing: Elements of Fiction Writing - Description Monica Wood, 1995 Description is most powerful when it's visible, aural, tactile. Make your descriptions fresh and they'll move your story forward, imbue your work with atmosphere, create that tang of feeling that editors cry for and readers crave. Monica Wood helps you squeeze the greatest flavor from the language. She segments description like an orange, separating its slices to let you sample each one. You'll learn about: Detail, and how you can use description to awaken the reader's senses of touch, taste, hearing, smell and sight Plot, from advancing story using only relevant description—and how to edit out sluggish, reader-stopping writing Style, and the use of description to create a mood that matches your story's content Point of view, how selecting omniscient, first person or third person limited narrative influences the descriptive freedom you have Creating original word depictions of people, animals, places, weather and movement Wood teaches by example, developing stories with characters in various situations, to show you how you can apply description techniques. You'll also see samples of work by such noted writers as Mark Helprin, Anne Tyler and Raymond Carver. And you'll find the dos and don'ts, lists and descriptive alternatives to common verbs and nouns, and tips for editing your work. |
| elements of craft in writing: Every Child Can Write, Grades 2-5 Melanie Meehan, 2019-09-20 Empowering striving writers to thrive as writers! Somehow, in every classroom during every year, there are students who keep us up at night because of the instructional challenges they face as writers. These students—our striving writers—may find success exploring different entry points and pathways than those their classmates travel. Every Child Can Write will help you lead striving writers along their journey toward growth, confidence, and success. Filled with practical strategies, classroom-management ideas,and reproducible tools, this book also offers low- and high-tech solutions for increasing writing volume and boosting self-esteem. Plus, with suggestions for differentiating instruction based on standards and student needs, it will help you: Implement principles of UDL to optimize your classroom environment and student learning; Identify and honor students’ strengths throughout your writing instruction; Maximize the power of formative assessment to set goals with students; and Integrate the most appropriate technology that empowers students and leads them to independence. As essential as writing is in elementary school, it will be even more important when your students reach middle school. Now is the time to give them the skills, practice, and confidence they need to succeed. As we know, in distance learning caregivers and teachers partner more than ever to help students with writing. The Distance Learning companion to Every Child Can Write is for teachers to share with caregivers to help children develop their writing lives—even while learning at home. Each of the eight modules contains video clips that talk caregivers through tools for supporting their student writers, along with downloadable tools that can be used by teachers or caregivers. |
| elements of craft in writing: The Craft of Science Writing Siri Carpenter, 2024-11-05 A deeply sourced, inclusive guide to all aspects of science writing with contributions from some of the most skilled and award-winning authors working today. Science writing has never been so critical to our world, and the demands on writers have never been greater. On any given day, a writer might need to explain the details of AI, analyze developments in climate change research, or serve as a watchdog helping to ensure the integrity of the scientific enterprise. At the same time, writers must spin tales that hook and keep readers, despite the endless other demands on their attention. How does one do it? The Craft of Science Writing is the authoritative guide. With pieces curated from the archives of science writers’ go-to online resource, The Open Notebook, this book explores strategies for finding and shaping story ideas, pitching editors, and building a specialty in science writing. It delves into fundamental skills that every science writer must learn, including planning their reporting; identifying, interviewing, and quoting sources; organizing interview notes; and crafting stories that engage and inform audiences. This expanded edition includes new introductory material and nine new essays focusing on such topics as how to establish a science beat, how to find and use quotes, how to critically evaluate scientific claims, how to use social media for reporting, and how to do data-driven reporting. In addition, there are essays on inclusivity in science writing, offering strategies for eradicating ableist language from stories, working with sensitivity readers, and breaking into English-language media for speakers of other languages. Through interviews with leading journalists offering behind-the-scenes inspiration as well as in-depth essays on the craft offering practical advice, readers will learn how the best science stories get made, from conception to completion. Contributors: Humberto Basilio, Siri Carpenter, Jeanne Erdmann, Dan Ferber, Tina Casagrand Foss, Geoffrey Giller, Laura Helmuth, Jane C. Hu, Alla Katsnelson, Roxanne Khamsi, Betsy Ladyzhets, Jyoti Madhusoodanan, Amanda Mascarelli, Robin Meadows, Kate Morgan, Tiên Nguyễn, Michelle Nijhuis, Aneri Pattani, Rodrigo Pérez Ortega, Mallory Pickett, Kendall Powell, Tasneem Raja, Sandeep Ravindran, Marion Renault, Julia Rosen, Megha Satyanarayana, Christina Selby, Knvul Sheikh, Abdullahi Tsanni, Alexandra Witze, Katherine J. Wu, Wudan Yan, Ed Yong, Rachel Zamzow, Sarah Zhang, and Carl Zimmer |
| elements of craft in writing: All the Wild Hungers Karen Babine, 2019-01-08 A “lovely” memoir of caring for a mother with cancer, reflecting on our appetites for food and for life (Minneapolis Star Tribune). When her mother is diagnosed with a rare cancer, Karen Babine—cook, collector of vintage cast iron, and fiercely devoted daughter, sister, and aunt—can’t help but wonder: feed a fever, starve a cold, but what do we do for cancer? And so she commits to preparing her mother anything she will eat, a vegetarian diving into the unfamiliar world of bone broth and pot roast. In this series of mini-essays, Babine ponders the intimate connections between food, family, and illness. As she notes that her sister’s unborn baby is the size of lemon while her mother’s tumor is the size of a cabbage, she reflects on what draws us toward food metaphors to describe disease. What is the power of language, of naming, in a medical culture where patients are too often made invisible? How do we seek meaning where none is to be found—and can we create it from scratch? And how, Babine asks as she bakes cookies with her small niece and nephew, does a family create its own food culture across generations? Generous and bittersweet, All the Wild Hungers is an affecting chronicle of one family’s experience of illness and of a writer's culinary attempt to make sense of the inexplicable. “[Babine] continues to navigate her way through extraordinary challenges with ordinary comforts, finding poetry in the everyday. Reading this quiet book should provide the sort of balm for those in similar circumstances that writing it must have for the author.”―Kirkus Reviews “Profound…Anyone who has experienced a family member’s struggle with cancer will be stabbed by recognition throughout this book…In the end, the overriding hunger referred to in this lovely book’s title is the hunger for life.”―Minneapolis Star Tribune |
| elements of craft in writing: Steering the Craft Ursula K. Le Guin, 2015 A revised and updated guide to the essentials of a writer's craft, presented by a brilliant practitioner of the art |
| elements of craft in writing: How to Write a Damn Good Thriller James N. Frey, 2010-03-30 A quick look at any fiction bestseller list reveals that thrillers make up most of the titles at the top. HOW TO WRITE A DAMN GOOD THRILLER will help the aspiring novelist or screenwriter to design, draft, write, and polish a thriller that is sure to grab readers. Frey uses examples from both books and movies and addresses the following hot topics: *Germinal ideas *Breathing life into great thriller characters *Crafting a gripping opening *Maintaining tension *Creating obstacles and conflicts *Writing a mean, lean thriller scene *Adding surprise twists *Building a smashing climax and many more. In his trademark approachable and humorous style, Frey illuminates the building blocks of great thrillers and gives the reader the tools to write his or her own. |
| elements of craft in writing: Murder in a Teacup Nancy Curteman, 2017-02-16 Corporate Trainer Lysi Weston leaves San Francisco to present a sexual harassment seminar in Big Sky Country. She isn't surprised at resistance from a bunch of red neck Montana Marlboro Men but the murder of her colleague stuns her. She sniffs out a maze of suspects and tracks each one with the single-mindedness of a bloodhound. Cheyenne detective, James Tennyson tolerates Weston's meddling until it jeopardizes his investigation. He orders her to stay out of his case, a directive she ignores. Things get hotter than a Montana heat wave when Weston finds herself immersed in a hostile world that includes a lecherous cowboy, a corporate casanova, a sex-obsessed judo junkie and a terrified gay victim. Somewhere a killer lurks. Weston needs to find the killer before the killer finds her. |
| elements of craft in writing: Girlhood Melissa Febos, 2021-03-30 National Book Critics Circle Award Winner National Bestseller Lambda Literary Award Finalist NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TIME * NPR * The Washington Post * Kirkus Reviews * Washington Independent Review of Books * The Millions * Electric Literature * Ms Magazine * Entropy Magazine * Largehearted Boy * Passerbuys “Irreverent and original.” –New York Times “Magisterial.” –The New Yorker “An intoxicating writer.” –The Atlantic “A classic!” –Mary Karr “A true light in the dark.” –Stephanie Danler “An essential, heartbreaking project.” –Carmen Maria Machado A gripping set of stories about the forces that shape girls and the adults they become. A wise and brilliant guide to transforming the self and our society. In her powerful new book, critically acclaimed author Melissa Febos examines the narratives women are told about what it means to be female and what it takes to free oneself from them. When her body began to change at eleven years old, Febos understood immediately that her meaning to other people had changed with it. By her teens, she defined herself based on these perceptions and by the romantic relationships she threw herself into headlong. Over time, Febos increasingly questioned the stories she'd been told about herself and the habits and defenses she'd developed over years of trying to meet others' expectations. The values she and so many other women had learned in girlhood did not prioritize their personal safety, happiness, or freedom, and she set out to reframe those values and beliefs. Blending investigative reporting, memoir, and scholarship, Febos charts how she and others like her have reimagined relationships and made room for the anger, grief, power, and pleasure women have long been taught to deny. Written with Febos' characteristic precision, lyricism, and insight, Girlhood is a philosophical treatise, an anthem for women, and a searing study of the transitions into and away from girlhood, toward a chosen self. |
| elements of craft in writing: The Writer's Notebook , 2009 The Writer's Notebook offers aspiring authors the most enlightening and engaging seminars and essays from some of Tin House's favorite writers. Jim Shepard, Aimee Bender, Steve Almond, Antonya Nelson and others break down specific elements of craft and share insights into the joys and pains of their own writing. |
| elements of craft in writing: The Art & Craft of Novel Writing Oakley M. Hall, 1994 Timeless advice with examples from literary masters -- Flaubert to Hemingway to Oates.-- |
| elements of craft in writing: How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method Randy Ingermanson, 2014-07-18 The Snowflake Method-ten battle-tested steps that jump-start your creativity and help you quickly map out your story. |
| elements of craft in writing: Murder on the Seine Nancy Curteman, 2014-11-11 In Murder on the Seine, Corporate trainer Lysi Weston is on assignment in Paris when a woman's body is pulled from the Seine River with no identification-except Lysi's business card. Lysi's plans for a memorable tour of the City of Light didn't include having to investigate the woman's suspicious death. Nor did she expect to have to deal with Basque separatists, a French supremacist gang leader, and an overzealous Hercule Poirot-wannabe detective who targets her as his prime suspect. To prove her innocence, Lysi, aided by her brash, Harlem-raised friend Grace Wright, has to find the real killer. When her Australian fiance, homicide detective Maynard Christie arrives in Paris for an amorous interlude he discovers murder takes precedence over romance. From the Paris streets to the Pyrenees Weston, Christie and Wright follow a dangerous trail of clues as they try to uncover the murderer's identity before one of them becomes the next victim. |
| elements of craft in writing: Writing Popular Fiction Dean Ray Koontz, 1973 Aspiring novelists are given advice on writing polishing, and marketing mysteries, suspense tales, Westerns, science fiction, and romances |
| elements of craft in writing: Cracking Open the Author's Craft (Revised) Lester Laminack, 2016-07-29 15 ready-to-use mini-lessons introduce students to techniques and literary elements they can use to craft their own writing. On the companion website, the author explains how writers work with both audible and visual craft. |
| elements of craft in writing: Try Dying James Scott Bell, 2007-10-24 eBook Bonus Material: Video: Watch Your Back by James Scott BellPhotos: key landmarks around L.A. that are referenced in the text Two essays:Why I Named the Character Ty BuchananWhy I Write About L.A. Ty Buchanan is a rising star in his L.A. law firm, until the suspicious death of his fiancee forces him into the underbelly of the city to discover the truth behind her death. He soon has more than his career on the line, as he finds himself tangled up with a mysterious group of former gang members, and becomes the target of a killer. |
| elements of craft in writing: Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint Orson Scott Card, 1999-03-15 Vivid and memorable characters aren't born: they have to be made. &break;&break;This book is a set of tools: literary crowbars, chisels, mallets, pliers and tongs. Use them to pry, chip, yank and sift good characters out of the place where they live in your memory, your imagination and your soul. &break;&break;Award-winning author Orson Scott Card explains in depth the techniques of inventing, developing and presenting characters, plus handling viewpoint in novels and short stories. With specific examples, he spells out your narrative options–the choices you'll make in creating fictional people so real that readers will feel they know them like members of their own families. &break;&break;You'll learn how to: &break; draw the characters from a variety of sources, including a story's basic idea, real life–even a character's social circumstances&break; make characters show who they are by the things they do and say, and by their individual style&break; develop characters readers will love–or love to hate&break; distinguish among major characters, minor characters and walk-ons, and develop each one appropriately&break; choose the most effective viewpoint to reveal the characters and move the storytelling&break; decide how deeply you should explore your characters' thoughts, emotions and attitudes |
| elements of craft in writing: Method Writing Jack Grapes, 2017-07 Method Writing is a powerful approach to finding your deep voice and activating the creative process. Based on a series of concepts and exercises Grapes has used in his writing workshops over the last 30-plus years, Method Writing does more than describe techniques: it takes you step-by-step through a process that will empower your writing and make it unique. |
| elements of craft in writing: Elements of The Writing Craft Olmstead Robert, 2011-05-30 Great narratives are built piece by piece, through myriad small tasks and careful moves. In this landmark book, Robert Olmstead shows how distinguished writers past and present have built their fiction and nonfiction. Through this writer's-eye analysis of more than 150 of literature's most finely crafted passages, you'll learn to read like a writer. Then, more than 500 innovative exercises challenge you to experiment with - and expand upon - the techniques of the masters, so you can use them for great narratives of your own. |
| elements of craft in writing: The Skin Above My Knee Marcia Butler, 2017-02-21 The unflinching story of a professional oboist who finds order and beauty in music as her personal life threatens to destroy her. Music was everything for Marcia Butler. Growing up in an emotionally desolate home with an abusive father and a distant mother, she devoted herself to the discipline and rigor of the oboe, and quickly became a young prodigy on the rise in New York City's competitive music scene. But haunted by troubling childhood memories while balancing the challenges of a busy life as a working musician, Marcia succumbed to dangerous men, drugs and self-destruction. In her darkest moments, she asked the hardest question of all: Could music truly save her life? A memoir of startling honesty and subtle, profound beauty, The Skin Above My Knee is the story of a woman finding strength in her creative gifts and artistic destiny. Filled with vivid portraits of 1970's New York City, and fascinating insights into the intensity and precision necessary for a career in professional music, this is more than a narrative of a brilliant musician struggling to make it big in the big city. It is the story of a survivor. One of 2017's 35 over 35 One of the Washington Post's Top 10 Classical Music Moments of the Year |
STYLE/CRAFT ELEMENT OF FICTION - SharpSchool
Style is the way authors express their ideas. It’s how they say something, not what they say. Craft is a purposeful choice of vocabulary, sentence formation, voice, and tone. Voice (nonfiction …
The Craft of Writing - Austin Oting Har
Plot overviews, glossaries of key terms, study exercises, information about the writer’s background, purpose, and inspirations, and tables discussing their use of different writing …
The Poem as Craft: Poetic Elements - University of Kentucky
When crafting poems, poets evoke and expose meaning, in part, by means of the following Poetic Elements: Music – Meaningful poems are pleasing to the ear. Poets use Sound Devices to …
The Writing Rope - Keys to Literacy
The Writing Rope (Sedita, 2019) is an instructional framework for teaching writing across all grades that identifies five components, or categories, of writing skills that students must learn …
The Strands That Are Woven Into Skilled Writing - Keys to …
The Writing Craft Strand This strand addresses skills and strategies often referred to as “writers’ craft” or “writers’ moves.” Students benefit from explicit instruction in the following: • Word …
The Art and Craft of Fiction: A Writer's Guide - students.aiu.edu
from learning your craft — to practicing art. Brief, friendly, and wonder-fully readable, The Art and Craft of Fiction gives you all you need — in under 400 pages. prepublication praise “Clear and …
ENGL 4363: Elements of Craft - orion.sfasu.edu
Analysis of selected examples (either prose or poetry) with emphasis on technical, generic, and aesthetic features. Elements of Craft further develops understanding, familiarity, and practical …
Analyzing the Author’s Craft/Style - Neshaminy School District
Definition of Craft/Style: How the author describes his/her ideas, events, objects, etc. is critical for the craft of writing. To analyze a piece, one must notice the ways that the author uses words: …
Creative Writing: Short Stories - San José State University
Let us examine the craft elements of character, plot, setting and time, metaphor, and voice so that they might do two things for you: 1. Guide your analysis of classic examples in the genre. 2. …
Studying Author’s Craft to Support Growing Writers
writing. Teachers can encourage students to implement the same craft features in their writing during writer’s workshop. This article summarizes how to implement the study of author’s craft …
Information Sheet: Writing Craft - Writers SA
All good writers learn their craft because they know that the more deeply they understand the rules, the more freely they will be able to break them to experiment, take risks, and truly find …
Standards Relating to Craft and Structure Craft and Structure ...
Craft and Structure: Relevance and Essential Questions: What’s the point? Essential Questions (Drive Intellectual Curiosity-The Hook) Big Idea Statements (What students need to discover) …
Author’s raft Unit - High Point University
Aug 4, 2013 · They will understand what author’s craft is and how they can use the studied craft in their own writing. NCSCOS Objectives: English/Language Arts – (italicized objective is what is …
The Writer’s Craft, Grade 12 - oesasia.org
Jul 24, 2018 · This course emphasizes knowledge and skills related to the craft of writing. Students will analyse models of effective writing; use a workshop approach to produce a range …
Course Information Proseminar: Elements of the Writer's Craft …
Students explore the potential and possibilities of different approaches to writing, and, by the end of the course, apply their close reading to their own fiction and nonfiction. The goal of this …
Your Guide to Succeeding in Advanced English Module C: The …
Module C provides you with an opportunity to work on this craft, and for all English students to “strengthen and extend their knowledge, skills and confidence as writers” (rubric). WHY DO I …
Chap3Ter The Writer’s Craft - Pearson
poems, and other types of writing. The Six TraiTS Nearly 20 years ago, researchers at Education Northwest identified six techniques of the writer’s craft, which they called traits: ideas, …
The Art and Craft of Memoir Writing - ReadWriteThink
The Art and Craft of Memoir Writing A good memoir requires two elements—one of art, the other of craft. The first element is integrity of intention. Memoir is the best search mechanism that …
Imaginative Writing The Elements Of Craft
Writing discusses elements of craft common to all creative writing before delving into the individual genres Each of the first five chapters investigates a specific 1.
STYLE/CRAFT ELEMENT OF FICTION - SharpSchool
Style is the way authors express their ideas. It’s how they say something, not what they say. Craft is a purposeful choice of vocabulary, sentence formation, voice, and tone. Voice (nonfiction …
The Craft of Writing - Austin Oting Har
Plot overviews, glossaries of key terms, study exercises, information about the writer’s background, purpose, and inspirations, and tables discussing their use of different writing …
The Poem as Craft: Poetic Elements - University of Kentucky
When crafting poems, poets evoke and expose meaning, in part, by means of the following Poetic Elements: Music – Meaningful poems are pleasing to the ear. Poets use Sound Devices to …
The Writing Rope - Keys to Literacy
The Writing Rope (Sedita, 2019) is an instructional framework for teaching writing across all grades that identifies five components, or categories, of writing skills that students must learn …
The Strands That Are Woven Into Skilled Writing - Keys to …
The Writing Craft Strand This strand addresses skills and strategies often referred to as “writers’ craft” or “writers’ moves.” Students benefit from explicit instruction in the following: • Word …
The Art and Craft of Fiction: A Writer's Guide - students.aiu.edu
from learning your craft — to practicing art. Brief, friendly, and wonder-fully readable, The Art and Craft of Fiction gives you all you need — in under 400 pages. prepublication praise “Clear and …
ENGL 4363: Elements of Craft - orion.sfasu.edu
Analysis of selected examples (either prose or poetry) with emphasis on technical, generic, and aesthetic features. Elements of Craft further develops understanding, familiarity, and practical …
Analyzing the Author’s Craft/Style - Neshaminy School District
Definition of Craft/Style: How the author describes his/her ideas, events, objects, etc. is critical for the craft of writing. To analyze a piece, one must notice the ways that the author uses words: …
Creative Writing: Short Stories - San José State University
Let us examine the craft elements of character, plot, setting and time, metaphor, and voice so that they might do two things for you: 1. Guide your analysis of classic examples in the genre. 2. …
Studying Author’s Craft to Support Growing Writers
writing. Teachers can encourage students to implement the same craft features in their writing during writer’s workshop. This article summarizes how to implement the study of author’s craft …
Information Sheet: Writing Craft - Writers SA
All good writers learn their craft because they know that the more deeply they understand the rules, the more freely they will be able to break them to experiment, take risks, and truly find …
Standards Relating to Craft and Structure Craft and Structure ...
Craft and Structure: Relevance and Essential Questions: What’s the point? Essential Questions (Drive Intellectual Curiosity-The Hook) Big Idea Statements (What students need to discover) …
Author’s raft Unit - High Point University
Aug 4, 2013 · They will understand what author’s craft is and how they can use the studied craft in their own writing. NCSCOS Objectives: English/Language Arts – (italicized objective is what is …
The Writer’s Craft, Grade 12 - oesasia.org
Jul 24, 2018 · This course emphasizes knowledge and skills related to the craft of writing. Students will analyse models of effective writing; use a workshop approach to produce a range …
Course Information Proseminar: Elements of the Writer's …
Students explore the potential and possibilities of different approaches to writing, and, by the end of the course, apply their close reading to their own fiction and nonfiction. The goal of this …
Your Guide to Succeeding in Advanced English Module C: …
Module C provides you with an opportunity to work on this craft, and for all English students to “strengthen and extend their knowledge, skills and confidence as writers” (rubric). WHY DO I …
Chap3Ter The Writer’s Craft - Pearson
poems, and other types of writing. The Six TraiTS Nearly 20 years ago, researchers at Education Northwest identified six techniques of the writer’s craft, which they called traits: ideas, …
The Art and Craft of Memoir Writing - ReadWriteThink
The Art and Craft of Memoir Writing A good memoir requires two elements—one of art, the other of craft. The first element is integrity of intention. Memoir is the best search mechanism that …
Imaginative Writing The Elements Of Craft
Writing discusses elements of craft common to all creative writing before delving into the individual genres Each of the first five chapters investigates a specific 1.
