Table of Contents

	Introduction	p. 3
	The General Disciplines That Every Writer Needs	p. 7
	Writing Every Day	p. 7
	Learning How to Write Without Restraint	p. 10
	Avoidance, False Starts, and Dead-End Thinking	p. 13
	A Final Note About Process	p. 14
	The Elements of Fiction	p. 17
	The Narrative Voice	p. 17
	First-Person Narrative	p. 18
	Third-Person Narrative	p. 22
	The Omniscient Narrator	p. 25
	Final Notes on Narrative Voice	p. 29
	Showing and Telling	p. 30
	Sensations	p. 34
	Emotions	p. 35
	The Pedestrian in Fiction	p. 36
	Metaphor and Simile	p. 37
	Final Note on Showing and Telling	p. 40
	Character and Character Development	p. 40
	A Final Note on Character Development	p. 47
	Story	p. 48
	Intuition Versus Structure	p. 51
	Engagement	p. 55
	Plot	p. 56
	Final Thoughts on Plot and Story	p. 61
	The Uses of Poetry in Fiction Writing	p. 62
	Where to Begin	p. 65
	Congratulations	p. 65
	First Words	p. 65
	The Midlands of the Novel	p. 69
	Research	p. 70
	Rewriting, or Editing	p. 73
	The First Draft	p. 73
	The Second Draft	p. 74
	The Many Drafts That Follow	p. 76
	The Elements of Rewriting	p. 78
	The Nexus of Character, Story, Theme, and Plot	p. 78
	The Devil and the Details	p. 81
	Repetition	p. 81
	Descriptions and Condensation	p. 82
	Dialogue	p. 87
	A Solitary Exercise	p. 92
	Music	p. 93
	When Am I Finished Rewriting?	p. 95
	Miscellany	p. 97
	On Genre	p. 97
	A Note on Aesthetics	p. 98
	Writing Workshops	p. 99
	Literary Organizations, Agents, Publishers...and Getting Published	p. 101
	In Summation	p. 103
	Index	p. 105

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