Ch.1. What is this thing called creative writing? -- Pt.1. Fiction basics : Getting started ; Reconciling the method with the madness ; Some basic definitions ; Creative nonfiction: a working definition ; Writing that is surprising yet convincing ; Resisting paraphrase ; Creative nonfiction: capturing what has eluded capture ; On sentiment and sentimentality ; Our first job as writers: to notice ; Avoiding the "writerly" voice -- Pt.2. Exercises : 1. "I don't know why I remember . . ." ; 2. I am a camera -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "On keeping a notebook" / Joan Didion ; "Emergency" / Denis Johnson -- Ch.2. The splendid gift of not knowing : Pt.1. Writing as discovery : Getting started ; What do you know? ; Creative nonfiction: making the ordinary extraordinary ; Writing down what you don't know (about what you know) ; On rendering, not solving, the mysteries that surround us ; Moving from "triggering" to real subject ; Surprise yourself, interest others ; Obsession as a creative virtue -- Pt.2. Exercises : 1. Things I was taught/things I was not taught ; 2. I want to know why -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "Where are you going, where have you been?" / Joyce Carol Oates ; "Welcome to cancerland" / Barbara Ehrenreich -- Ch.3. Details, details : Pt.1. Concrete details as the basic building blocks of good creative writing : Getting started ; On thinking small ; Defining "images" within a literary context ; Imagery that works on two levels ; On seeing the general in the particular ; On crowding the reader out of his own space ; Don't lose any of your senses ; Use of concrete details in creative nonfiction ; Use and abuse of metaphor ; When should you use metaphor? ; Avoiding the "S" word: banishing conscious symbols from your writing ; Imagery as creative source -- Pt.2. Exercises : 1. Harper's Index on a personal level ; 2. Render a tree, capture the forest -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "The things they carried" / Tim O'Brien ; "Nebraska" / Ron Hansen -- Ch.4. The shapely story : Pt.1. Defining the short story -- Getting started -- Some basic definitions -- The conflict-crisis-resolution model ; Linear vs. modular stories ; To epiphany or not to epiphany? ; Is change necessary? (the debate continues) ; On not becoming slaves to theory -- Pt.2. Exercises : 1. False epiphanies I have had ; 2. Opportunities not taken -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "What makes a short story?" / Francine Prose ; "Helping" / Robert Stone -- Ch.5. Why you need to show and tell : Pt.1. The importance of narration : Getting started ; Some basic definitions ; Why "show not tell" is such common advice ; The show-and-tell balancing act ; Traditional uses of narration (telling) ; Why narration is such an important creative tool ; How showing and telling complement each other ; Good intentions, bad advice ; The showing-telling continuum ; Showing and telling in creative nonfiction -- Pt.2. Exercises : 1. Tell me a story ; 2. What everyone knows / what I know -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "Brownies" / ZZ Packer -- "Winner take nothing" / Bernard Cooper -- Ch.6. Who's telling this story, anyway? : Pt.1. Introduction to point of view : Getting started ; Some basic definitions ; First person ; Whose story is it? ; Second person ; Third person ; A word about attitude ; Distance and point of view ; Shifts in narrative distance ; Choosing a point of view for your creative work ; Point of view and creative nonfiction ; Common point of view problems -- Pt.2. Exercises : 1. Change point of view and dance ; 2. Using point of view as a way "in" to difficult material -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "The lady with the little dog" / Anton Chekhov ; "Moonrise" / Penny Wolfson -- Ch.7. How reliable is this narrator? : Pt.1. How point of view affects our understanding of a story : Getting started ; How we judge the integrity of the stories we hear and read ; First person point of view and reliability ; Third person point of view and reliability -- Pt.2. Exercises : 1. He said, she said ; 2. See what I see, hear what I hear -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "The swimmer" / John Cheever -- Ch.8. You talking to me? -- Pt.1. Crafting effective dialogue : Getting started ; What dialogue is good for ; What dialogue is not ; a word about attribution ; Five important tips on dialogue ; On subtext ; A word about dialect ; Using placeholders ; Dialogue in creative nonfiction -- Pt.2. Exercises : 1. Nonverbal communication ; 2. Them's fighting words -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "Hills like white elephants" / Ernest Hemingway ; "Inside the bunker" / John Sack --

Ch.9. The plot thickens : Pt.1. Figuring out what happens next : Getting started ; Story vs. plot: some basic definitions ; A word about causality ; Render how - don't try to answer why ; On metafiction ; Character-based plotting ; On conflict ; Analyzing plot points ; Avoiding Scènes à Faire: recognizing clichéd plot twists -- Pt.2. Exercises : 1. What's behind the door of room 101? ; 2: "By the time you read this . . ." -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "Sonny's blues" / James Baldwin -- Ch.10. Recognizable people : Pt.1. Creating surprising-yet-convincing characters : Getting started ; Flat vs. round characters ; Eschewing the general in favor of the particular ; Consistency as the hobgoblin of characters ; Ways of defining character ; Character and plot ; Wants and needs ; Characters in relationships ; Character in creative nonfiction -- Pt.2. Exercises : 1. Emptying pockets ; 2: Sins of commissions / Sins of omission ; 3. Seven or eight things I know about him/her -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "Surrounded by sleep" / Akhil Sharma ; "No name woman" / Maxine Hong Kingston -- Ch.11. Raising the curtain : Pt.1. Beginning your story, novel, or nonfiction piece : Getting started ; Your contract with the reader ; Characteristics of a good opening ; Unbalancing acts ; Starting in the middle ; Beginning with action ; On the nature of suspense ; Beginning your creative nonfiction piece -- Pt.2. Exercises : 1. Give it your best shot ; 2. Start in the middle ; 3. Make them squirm -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "People like that are the only people here: canonical babbling in Peed Onk" / Lorrie Moore -- Ch.12. What's this creative work really about? : Pt.1. The art of transferring true emotions onto sensory events : Getting started ; Many different answers to the same question ; Writing about what matters ; Transference: borrowing from Freud ; We are made of dust ; The road to universality ; But it's the truth! and other common pleas for clemency ; Creative nonfiction: on being true as well as factual ; Making things carry more emotional weight than they logically should ; Transference and creative nonfiction -- Pt.2. Exercises : 1. Getting an image to spill its secrets ; 2. What I lost -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "Ralph the duck" / Frederick Busch ; "The knife" / Richard Selzer -- Ch.13. Learning to fail better : Pt.1. On revision : Getting started ; Advice for writers from writers ; Perfection is our enemy ; The workshop method ; Undue influence: a cautionary tale ; The developmental stages of a creative work ; "Hot spots" and other noteworthy aspects of an early draft ; An exercise-based approach to deep revision ; A word about constraints -- Pt.2. Exercises : Analytical/mechanical exercises ; Creative exercises ; Research-based exercises ; Chance-based exercises ; Revision example: "The company of men" / Jan Ellison -- Pt.3. Reading as a writer : "Shitty first drafts" / Anne Lamott ; "The Carver chronicles" / D. T. Max ; "The bath" / Raymond Carver ; "A small, good thing" / Raymond Carver -- Ch.14. Getting beyond facts to truth : Pt.1. Some final thoughts on creative nonfiction : Getting started ; Just the facts, ma'am ; Recollections and re-creations ; Ethical considerations ; Subjectivity vs. objectivity ; A trip of self-discovery ; To be in or out of the story? -- Pt.2. Reading as a writer : "Learning to drive" / Katha Pollitt.