An accessible, supportive approach for beginning writers encourages them to write. Part One, A Writing Life, shows students that the things they already know how to do — observe, concentrate, and practice — are the very skills and habits they can use to become good writers. Throughout the book, students learn how to produce a lot of material, and how to concentrate and mine that material for writing that really lives and breathes. Revision is presented as taking your work public: workshops, live readings and publication are all means of motivating students to rewrite and improve their work.
A unique emphasis on reading as a writer teaches students to recognize the moves writers make to draw readers in, to hold their attention, to transport them to another world. Guided examples throughout the strategy chapters help students see how writers accomplish their goals; then students apply this instruction to the reading selections, paying close attention to how language works in a wide variety
of genres.
A practical focus on six creative strategies common to all good writing. Successful writing always has energy, tension, and structure; it is always grounded in images, and it always creates patterns and suggests insight. Part Two of the book covers these six strategies, which are the true nuts and bolts of all good creative writing, regardless of genre.
Imaginative writing activities throughout the text help students stockpile writing ideas, experiment with the strategies, and respond to student and professional work.
• Practices help students generate lots of material and build new skills. Some ask students to write briefly — about ordinary things like their summer jobs, favorite piece of clothing, and scariest memories and less ordinary things like their writing habits, foods they hate, and places they’ve slept. Other practices ask students to respond to a piece of writing in the text, focusing on strong verbs or images, monitoring tension, or identifying patterns.
• Projects provide prompts for full-length pieces of writing, asking students to apply specific strategies and techniques they have learned in the chapters.
• Writing Workshops provide questions that help students constructively discuss their peers’ work as well as their own.
Compelling readings in a wide variety of genres illustrate the principles the book teaches and help students appreciate a variety of contemporary voices.
• Writers featured include both new and established authors, such as Jamaica Kincaid, Michael Chabon, Richard Rodriguez, Art Spiegelman, Rita Dove, Akhil Sharma, Amy Fusselman, and Raymond Carver. Genres represented include short stories, short shorts, essays, memoirs, poems, prose poems, comics, and drama.
• Student writing is showcased throughout the text.
• Writers’ Quotations throughout the book offer inspiration and insights on the process and craft
of writing.