Chance Particulars: A Writer's Field Notebook for Travelers, Bloggers, Essayists, Memoirists, Novelists, Journalists, Adventurers, Naturalists, Sketchers, and Other Not

An essential guide for writers on how to record and use rich detail to enliven their work. The goal of the writer is to live with the keenness of the foreigner. To experience, wide-eyed, the sensations aroused and the events offered up by peculiar surrounds and then to evoke them so brightly on the page that the reader, too, experiences the foreigner’s frisson. A time-honored way this is accomplished is through the keeping of a field notebook—through the faithful recording of the this-and-that of life; the atmospheres and incidents; the bells, the beer, the bread. Based on what accomplished nonfiction writer Sara Mansfield Taber learned in her many years of field notebook keeping, Chance Particulars is a unique and handy primer for writers who want to use their experiences to tell a lively, satisfying story. Often, writers try to turn their notes into a memoir, essay, travel piece, or story, only to find that they haven’t recorded enough of the concrete, sensory details necessary to create evocative description. To help writers overcome this problem, Taber has composed a true “field notebook for field notebook keepers.” Enhanced by beautiful illustrations, this charming and comprehensive guide is a practical manual for anyone who wishes to learn or hone the crafts of writing, ethnography, or journalism. Writers of all levels, genres, and ages, as well as teachers of writing, will appreciate this useful tool for learning how to record the details that build vibrant prose. With this book in hand, you will be able to recreate times and places, conjure up intricate character portraits, and paint pictures of particular landscapes, cultures, and locales.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. Elements of Fine Writing 2. Purpose of the Notebook Goal, Quest, Story 3. Chance Particulars Use of the Senses Specificity, Precision, and Concrete Detail 4. Place Landscape and Nature Towns, Streets, and Buildings 5. People Portraits and Interviews Encounters, Observations, and Activities 6. Facts, History, and Culture Basic Facts, History, and Cultural Observations 7. Technical and Other Pertinent Information Informational Notes 8. Chronicle Record of Daily Activities and Travels 9. Personal Responses Feelings and Contemplations 10. Commonplace Notes Quotations and Thoughts from Experts, Scholars, and Literary Forebears-and Other Miscellanea 11. Associations and Figurative Language Metaphor and Simile 12. Reflections Thoughts and Musings 13. Writing Notes Acknowledgments

About the Author :
Sara Mansfield Taber is the author of Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy’s Daughter, Dusk on the Campo: A Journey in Patagonia, Bread of Three Rivers: The Story of a French Loaf, and Of Many Lands: Journal of a Traveling Childhood. She has taught writing at Johns Hopkins University, the Bethesda Writer’s Center, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Maud Taber-Thomas is a classically trained, Washington, DC–based artist who specializes in oil paintings and charcoal drawings. Her portraits, interiors, and landscapes may be viewed at maudtaber-thomas.com.

Review :
The book also looks at the art of good journaling and how one can mine its information to enrich all other kinds of writing. —Y.S. Stephen What is especially lovely about this book, aside from its accessibility and art work, is the range of texts that are used. There are classic works of literature, travel writing, memoir; the advice provided is always exemplified. —Matthew Tett, Writing in Education