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 ***
José 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
About the Author :
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.
