The Practice of Creative Writing: A Guide for Students
by Sellers, HeatherEdition: 1st
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2007-07-27
Publisher(s): Bedford/St. Martin's
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Summary
The Practice of Creative Writingis designed for all students in the introductory course, including those who may never take another writing class. Its message is, simply put: you can do this, and it's worthwhile to try. Heather Sellers, who writes in multiple genres herself, has developed an approach that focuses on the habits and strategies that produce good writing in any genre. These habits and strategies make it possible for students to focus, to generate lots of writing, and to get to the good stuff the powerful imagery and the stories they really want to tell. She makes creative writing fun by providing opportunities to be playful and to experiment at the same time she teaches students the importance of discipline and craft.
Author Biography
HEATHER SELLERS (Ph.D., Florida State University) is professor of English at Hope College in Michigan, where she teaches fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Fiction and a Barnes and Noble New Discovery Writers Award, she has published widely in a variety of genres. Her books include Georgia Under Water, a collection of linked stories; Drinking Girls and Their Dresses: Poems; Page After Page, a memoir of the writing life; and Spike and Cubby’s Ice Cream Island Adventure, a children’s book.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction for Students
What Creative Writers Do
Questions Creative Writers Ask
The Four Parts of Creative Writing
PART I. A WRITING LIFE
1. Finding Focus
The Mind's Eye
Subject: Focus on What?
Practicing Focus
Lack of Focus
Writing Projects
2. Writing and Reading
Reading Work in Progress
Reading Finished Work
Types of Creative Writing
Reading to Write: The Art of Imitation
Writing Projects
READINGS:
James Tate, Consolations After an Affair (poetry)
Ellen Bryant Voigt, Winter Field (poetry)
Lorraine L—pez, The Night Aliens in a White Van Kidnapped My Teenage Son Near the Baptist Church Parking Lot (fiction)
Kathleen Norris, Rain (nonfiction)
Sebastian Matthews, Buying Wine (poetry)
Gevorg Emin, The Question Mark (poetry)
A. Van Jordan, Af • ter • glow (poetry)
Jamaica Kincaid, Girl (fiction)
Anna Deavere Smith, From Twilight: Los Angeles: 1992 (drama)
Art Spiegelman, From Maus (comic)
Amy Fusselman, From The Pharmacist's Mate (nonfiction)
PART II. STRATEGIES
3. Energy
The Principles of Energy
Manipulating Energy
Troubleshooting: Energy
Writing Projects
Energy Workshop
READINGS:
Beth Ann Fennelly, From The Impossibility of Language (poetry)
Rick Moody, Boys (fiction)
Robert Morgan, Squirt Gun (poetry)
Brian Arundel, The Things I've Lost (nonfiction)
4. Images
The Principles of Images
Creating With Images
A Word on Ideas
Writing Projects
Images Workshop
READINGS:
Rita Dove, Driving Through (poetry)
Akhil Sharma, Surrounded by Sleep (fiction)
Gary Soto, Everything Twice (poetry)
Aleida Rodr'guez, My Mother in Two Photographs, Among Other Things (nonfiction)
Anne Panning, Candy Cigarettes (fiction)
5. Tension
The Principles of Tension
Maintaining Tension
Manipulating Tension
Writing Projects
Tension Workshop
READINGS:
Marisa Silver, What I Saw From Where I Stood (fiction)
Thomas Lux, The Man Into Whose Yard You Should Not Hit Your Ball (poetry)
Jessica Shattuck, Bodies (fiction)
Peter Morris, Pancakes (drama)
Ethan Canin, Fly-fishing for Doctors (nonfiction)
6. Pattern
Pattern by Ear
Ofelia Zepeda, Her Hair Is Her Dress (poetry)
E.E. Cummings, Me up at does (poetry)
Pattern by Eye
Layering Patterns
Writing Projects
Pattern Workshop
READINGS:
Mary Paumier Jones, The Opposite of Saffron (nonfiction)
Carolyn Kizer, Parents' Pantoum (poetry)
Lorrie Moore, How to Become a Writer (fiction)
Marie Howe, The Boy (poetry)
7. Insight
Principles of Insight
Ways to be Wise: Creating Insight
Ways to Be Unwise: What Not to Do
Writing Projects
Insight Workshop
READINGS:
Michael Cunningham, White Angel (fiction)
Marianne Boruch, Bad Cello (poetry)
Lynne McMahon, Carpe Diem (poetry)
Adam Gopnik, The Last of the Metrozoids (nonfiction)
Migdalia Cruz, From Telling Tales (drama)
Billy Collins, Introduction to Poetry (poetry)
8. Structure: Elements
Images
Parts of Narrative
Parts of Poems
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
Beth Bachmann, Colorization
Writing Projects
Structure Workshop
READINGS:
Raymond Carver, Cathedral (fiction)
Richard Rodriguez, Proofs (nonfiction)
Timothy Liu, In Hot Pursuit (poetry)
9. Structure: Forms
Forms for Any Genre
Forms for Poems
Peter Meinke, Atomic Pantoum
Ellen DorŽ Watson, Ghazal
Wesli Court, The Obsession
Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
Writing Projects
Forms Workshop
READINGS:
Naomi Shihab Nye, How to Get There (nonfiction)
Dana Levin, Techno (poetry)
Michael Chabon, Along the Frontage Road (fiction)
Sharon Olds, Visiting My Mother's College (poetry)
Dinty W. Moore, Son of Mr. Green Jeans: An Essay on Fatherhood, Alphabetically Arranged (nonfiction)
David Lehman, Abecedarius (poetry)
Diane Wakoski, Sestina to the Common Glass of Beer: I Do Not Drink Beer (poetry)
John Yau, Chinese Villanelle (poetry)
PART III. WRITING IN THE WORLD
10. Revision
Conquering Your Fear of Revision
Principles of Revision
Revision Tools
Editing
Revise Your Writing Life
11. Publication
Public Readings
Literary Magazines
Chapbooks and Portfolios
12. Resources for Writers
Websites for Writers
Writing Magazines
Books
Introduction for Students
What Creative Writers Do
Questions Creative Writers Ask
The Four Parts of Creative Writing
PART I. A WRITING LIFE
1. Finding Focus
The Mind's Eye
Subject: Focus on What?
Practicing Focus
Lack of Focus
Writing Projects
2. Writing and Reading
Reading Work in Progress
Reading Finished Work
Types of Creative Writing
Reading to Write: The Art of Imitation
Writing Projects
READINGS:
James Tate, Consolations After an Affair (poetry)
Ellen Bryant Voigt, Winter Field (poetry)
Lorraine L—pez, The Night Aliens in a White Van Kidnapped My Teenage Son Near the Baptist Church Parking Lot (fiction)
Kathleen Norris, Rain (nonfiction)
Sebastian Matthews, Buying Wine (poetry)
Gevorg Emin, The Question Mark (poetry)
A. Van Jordan, Af • ter • glow (poetry)
Jamaica Kincaid, Girl (fiction)
Anna Deavere Smith, From Twilight: Los Angeles: 1992 (drama)
Art Spiegelman, From Maus (comic)
Amy Fusselman, From The Pharmacist's Mate (nonfiction)
PART II. STRATEGIES
3. Energy
The Principles of Energy
Manipulating Energy
Troubleshooting: Energy
Writing Projects
Energy Workshop
READINGS:
Beth Ann Fennelly, From The Impossibility of Language (poetry)
Rick Moody, Boys (fiction)
Robert Morgan, Squirt Gun (poetry)
Brian Arundel, The Things I've Lost (nonfiction)
4. Images
The Principles of Images
Creating With Images
A Word on Ideas
Writing Projects
Images Workshop
READINGS:
Rita Dove, Driving Through (poetry)
Akhil Sharma, Surrounded by Sleep (fiction)
Gary Soto, Everything Twice (poetry)
Aleida Rodr'guez, My Mother in Two Photographs, Among Other Things (nonfiction)
Anne Panning, Candy Cigarettes (fiction)
5. Tension
The Principles of Tension
Maintaining Tension
Manipulating Tension
Writing Projects
Tension Workshop
READINGS:
Marisa Silver, What I Saw From Where I Stood (fiction)
Thomas Lux, The Man Into Whose Yard You Should Not Hit Your Ball (poetry)
Jessica Shattuck, Bodies (fiction)
Peter Morris, Pancakes (drama)
Ethan Canin, Fly-fishing for Doctors (nonfiction)
6. Pattern
Pattern by Ear
Ofelia Zepeda, Her Hair Is Her Dress (poetry)
E.E. Cummings, Me up at does (poetry)
Pattern by Eye
Layering Patterns
Writing Projects
Pattern Workshop
READINGS:
Mary Paumier Jones, The Opposite of Saffron (nonfiction)
Carolyn Kizer, Parents' Pantoum (poetry)
Lorrie Moore, How to Become a Writer (fiction)
Marie Howe, The Boy (poetry)
7. Insight
Principles of Insight
Ways to be Wise: Creating Insight
Ways to Be Unwise: What Not to Do
Writing Projects
Insight Workshop
READINGS:
Michael Cunningham, White Angel (fiction)
Marianne Boruch, Bad Cello (poetry)
Lynne McMahon, Carpe Diem (poetry)
Adam Gopnik, The Last of the Metrozoids (nonfiction)
Migdalia Cruz, From Telling Tales (drama)
Billy Collins, Introduction to Poetry (poetry)
8. Structure: Elements
Images
Parts of Narrative
Parts of Poems
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
Beth Bachmann, Colorization
Writing Projects
Structure Workshop
READINGS:
Raymond Carver, Cathedral (fiction)
Richard Rodriguez, Proofs (nonfiction)
Timothy Liu, In Hot Pursuit (poetry)
9. Structure: Forms
Forms for Any Genre
Forms for Poems
Peter Meinke, Atomic Pantoum
Ellen DorŽ Watson, Ghazal
Wesli Court, The Obsession
Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
Writing Projects
Forms Workshop
READINGS:
Naomi Shihab Nye, How to Get There (nonfiction)
Dana Levin, Techno (poetry)
Michael Chabon, Along the Frontage Road (fiction)
Sharon Olds, Visiting My Mother's College (poetry)
Dinty W. Moore, Son of Mr. Green Jeans: An Essay on Fatherhood, Alphabetically Arranged (nonfiction)
David Lehman, Abecedarius (poetry)
Diane Wakoski, Sestina to the Common Glass of Beer: I Do Not Drink Beer (poetry)
John Yau, Chinese Villanelle (poetry)
PART III. WRITING IN THE WORLD
10. Revision
Conquering Your Fear of Revision
Principles of Revision
Revision Tools
Editing
Revise Your Writing Life
11. Publication
Public Readings
Literary Magazines
Chapbooks and Portfolios
12. Resources for Writers
Websites for Writers
Writing Magazines
Books
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