Creative Writer's Handbook, 5/E
Philip K. Jason, Professor Emeritus, United States Naval Academy
Allan B. Lefcowitz, Professor Emeritus, United States Naval Academy

ISBN-10: 0136050522
ISBN-13: 9780136050520

Publisher: Longman
Copyright: 2010
Format: Paper; 432 pp
Published: 03/23/2009

Suggested retail price: $62.60
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For Creative Writing courses.

This handbook is the perfect reference for beginning creative writers. It offers abundant illustrations, exercises, and useful techniques in all genres. While emphasizing problem-solving and the mastery of literary conventions, this handbook also takes the apprentice writer on a journey from inspiration to revision.

  • NEW - Updated examples of effective stories, essays, poems and plays.

    • Explores the work of “classic” modern as well as active contemporary writers.

  • An extensive look at issues—Includes attitudes, habits, journal-keeping, point of view, language, invention and research, and more.

    • Presents students with the fundamental issues that are of importance to every creative writer.

  • Multiple exercises on each issue and genre explored—Includes many that are connected to the sample writing.

    • Involves students in the conventions and methods of literary craft, offering guidelines that may spark raw material worth developing into poems, stories, personal essays, or plays.

  • New to the 5th Edition:

    • Fresh writing exercises
    • Research tips reflecting technological and media advances (Chapter 2 and 15)
    • Quotations on writing from renowned writers relating to topics
    • New poetry, fiction, non-fiction and plays.  See below for a detailed list.
    • Chapter and part opening images relevant to chapter topics 
    • Revised journal keeping chapter incorporating Internet research
    • Information on receiving feedback (Chapter 15)
    • Using the internet to sell your writing
    • Updated illustrations of techniques (tricks of the trade)
    • Increased demonstration of skills useful for writing all genres

     

New Selections

 

JOURNAL AND RESEARCH EXAMPLES

Allison Klein   “A Gate-Crasher's Change of Heart”

Lee Lawrence  Journal Excerpts 

 

SHORT STORIES

Kate Blackwell, “You Won’t Remember This”

Robert Coover “Grandmother’s Nose”

Dorothy Canfield Fisher “Sex Education” 

 

POETRY

Krista Benjamin “Letter from my Ancestors”

Christian Bok, “Vowels”

Geoffrey Brock “Flesh of John Brown’s Flesh: Dec. 2, 1859”

Sterling Brown, selection from “Old Lem”

Billy Collins “The Brooklyn Museum of Art” 

Albert Goldbarth “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

Jessica Goodheart “Advice for a Stegosaurus”

Bob Hicok, “So I know”

Vicki Hudspith “Ants”

Joanie Mackowski “When I was a Dinosaur”

Richard Newman “Briefcase of Sorrow”

Linda Pastan “Death Is Intended”

John Godfrey Saxe “The Blind Men and the Elephant” 

William Stafford, “What’s in My Journal”

Kevin Young “Black Cat Blues”

 

NOVEL SELECTION

Alice McDermott, selection from Charming Billy.  

 

CREATIVE NON-FICTION

Philip Gerard, “The Fact Behind the Facts”

E. Ethelbert Miller, sections from Fathering Words: The Making of an African American Writer  

Naomi Shihab Nye  “Mint Snowball”

Marjorie Schwarzer, Riches Rival Radical

  

PLAY

Michel Wallerstein “Off Hand”

 

Contents

X

Anthology of Poems        

                                                               

Preface to Fifth Edition                                                                 

 

Part I  A Writer’s Concerns                                                           

            Typical page from a journal                    

                             

1      Working like a Writer                                                                  

Pleasure and Passion     0   ~    Attitudes  0  ~ The Writer Participates in Writing 0  ~  A Digression for the Classroom User   ~  On Being Unprofessional   ~  Working Habits   ~ A Word About Intentions  

 

2      Journal/Research/Invention                                                          

Why Keep a Journal?   

Your Journal    ~  What to Write in the Journal   ~  Getting Started   ~   Keeping Up   ~  What Will You Do with It All?    

The Relationship between Invention and Research

   Searching and Imagining  ~ A Word about Resources

 

3      Point of View                                                                                  

What Is It?  ~ Who Will Do the Telling?  ~ The Decision and Its Consequences  ~ The Range of Perspectives  ~ Third Person  ~ First Person,  

 “Sex Education” by  Dorothy Canfield Fisher

 

4      Language Is Your Medium                                                           

There Is No Such Thing as a Synonym   

Choosing Well   

Accuracy,  ~  Precision,  ~  Concreteness,  ~ Appropriateness,  ~ Idiomatic Usage,

Some Diction Problems     

Overwriting,  ~  Overmodification, ~   Saying It Twice,~  Excessive Variation ~,   Latinate Diction,  ~  Archaic Diction ~,   Sonic Boom ~,  Passives and Operators,

Figures of Speech  

Style  

Evoking Styles  ~ Incompatible Styles  ~ A Style Checklist 

 

Part II The Concerns of the Poet

          Typical submission for a poem

 

5      The Elements of Poetry                                                                  

The Nature of Poetry   ~ The Line   ~ The Line and Meter   ~ Lines and Rhymes  

The Line and Free Verse   ~ Lines in Combination   ~ Imagery    ~ Sound Patterns   ~

Off-Rhyme  

 

6      Practicing Poetry                                                                           

Imitation  ~ Fixed forms   ~ Memory Poem   ~ Formula Poems ~   Ritual Poems   ~ List Poems   ~ Dramatic Poems/Character Poems   ~ Event Poems  ~ Personification Poems  ~ Epistolary Poems   ~ Time Warp Poems  ~ Advice Poems  ~ Picture Poems   ~ Music Poems   ~ Poems on Poems  ~ Found Poems  154

 

7      Poetry Problems                                                                             

Out of Tune  ~ Archaic Diction   ~ The Anonymous Voice   ~ Appalling Abstraction   ~ Unintentional Humor   ~ Jarring Diction   ~ For the Sake of Rhyme   ~ The Clash of Poetic Elements   ~ Writing Past the Poem   ~ Treasure Burying   ~ Saying Too Much   ~ The False Start   ~ Punch-Line Endings   ~ Ineffective Line Break   ~ Out of Order   ~ Derivative Drivel  

 

Part III  The Concerns of the Storyteller

            Typical submission page for prose

8      The Elements of Fiction                                                                 

The Nature of Fiction  

Plot and What It Does  

Setting  

Point of Attack  

Character and Characterization  

Action,  ~  Appearance,  ~ Thought  ~  Dialogue,  ~  Indirect Discourse,

 ~ Other Means,  ~ Functionaries and Stock Characters ~   Naming Character    ~  The

Relationship of Character, Plot, and Setting,

A Note on the Novel  

 

9    Narration and Its Techniques                                                        

Exposition  

Flashbacks  

Scene and Summary  

Verisimilitude  

Problems  

Needless Complication,  ~  Misuse of Dialogue,  ~ Sudden Comfort,  ~  Sudden Omniscience,  ~ Ping-Pong,  ~  Wrong Technique,  ~ Pogo Stick,  ~  Descriptive Clutter,  ~ Other Problems,

 

10    Creative Nonfiction                                                                        

The Nature of Creative Nonfiction  

How the Writer Convinces the Reader  

Exposure of Self,  ~  Testable Elements Hold Up  to the Test,  ~  Anecdotes Must Feel Universal,

Virtues in Nonfiction  

Problems in Creative Nonfiction  

Finding Materials  

    Reading,  ~ Exploring Yourself,  ~   Exploring Others,

“The Fact Behind the Facts” by Phillip Gerard,

 

11    Stories and Nonfiction                                                                   

“You Won’t Remember This “ by Kate Blackwell

 “A Very Short Story” by Ernest Hemingway  

“The Boarding House” by James Joyce  

 “Sunday in the Park” by Bel Kaufman  

“The First Day,” Edward Jones

“Just Married,” Tony Earley

“Chinese Medicine” by Hilary Tham  

“Grandmother’s Nose” by Robert Coover

 

Part IV  The Concerns of the Playwright

          Typical submission page for a play

 

12    The Elements of Drama                                                                

The Nature of Drama  

Storytelling with People and Things  

Characters   ~ Presenting Character   ~ Characters in Place and Time   ~ Setting  

 

13    Dialogue and Its Problems                                                       311

Dialogue: The Essence of Drama  

Principles and Common Errors  

Your Exposition Is Showing,  ~ Contractions and Formality,  ~  Interruptions and Other Ways of Creating Verisimilitude,  ~  Fake Dialogue or the Dialogue Dummy,   ~  Designators, or Stealing the Actors’ and Director’s Jobs,  ~  Long Speeches,  ~  

Grunting and Pausing,  ~  Accents, Dialect,and Verbal Tics,  ~  Swearing,  ~  Locker

Room Raillery,

The Day They Shot John Lennon by James McLure

 

14    Plays and Screen Plays                                                                 

Introduction 

Procedure by Joyce Carol Oates

     Discussion

Off Hand by Michel Wallerstein 

   Discussion

A Word on Plays for Film and Television  

Summary  

 

Part V  The Writer’s Business

 

15    From Drafting to Revision to Submission                                      

Feedback

Revision  

When to Revise,   ~  How to Revise–Checklists for poetry, prose, and plays,  ~

Mechanics  

Checking for Correctness,   ~ Facts   ~ Some Possible Problems   ~

Some Words About Proofreading  

Finding a Home for Your Work  

   Manuscript Form   ~ Publication Markets  ~ Play and Film Markets  ~

  Before You Write that Check  ~ Cover Letters  ~ A Manuscript Checklist   ~

  What About Copyright?  

 

Glossary of Key Terms                                                                  

 

Acknowledgments                                                                         

 

Index                                                                                             

 

 

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