Telling stories : the craft of narrative and the writing life / Lee Martin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Martin, Lee, 1955- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Authorship.

Creative writing.

Narration (Rhetoric).

Storytelling.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (253 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lincoln, Nebraska : University of Nebraska Press, 2017.

Summary:

"A prolific and award-winning writer, Lee Martin has put pen to paper to offer his wisdom, honed during thirty years of teaching the oh-so-elusive art of writing. Telling Stories is intended for anyone interested in thinking more about the elements of storytelling in short stories, novels, and memoirs. Martin clearly delineates helpful and practical techniques for demystifying the writing process and providestools for perfecting the art of the scene, characterization, detail, point of view, language, and revision--in short, the art of writing. His discussion of the craft in his own life draws from experiences, memories, and stories to provide a more personal perspective on the elements of writing. Martin provides encouragement by sharing what he's learned from his journey through frustrations, challenges, and successes. Most important, Telling Stories emphasizes that you are not alone on this journey and that writers must remain focused on what they love: the process of moving words on the page. By focusing on that purpose, Martin contends, the journey will always take you where you're meant to go."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1, Structure: Once upon a Time

Writing the Opening of a Short Story

Juggling Balls: An Exercise for Opening a Short Story

Using Mystery to Open Your Story

Trouble? I've Seen Trouble

Making a Scene

The Inevitable Surprise

Framing the Story

Character and Incident

I Didn't Expect That

One Way to Structure a Memoir

Organizing the Memoir

The Layers of Memoir

I Was Wearing Them the Day

Yogi Berra and the Art of Flash Nonfiction

Mad Libs for Creative Nonfiction

Enough about Me, Tell Me What You Think about Me

Shrinking a Novel

Preparing the Final Scene by Avoiding Conflict

Here We Are at the End

Taking Care at the End

Part 2 Characterization: There Were Three Little Pigs

On a Mother's Birthday, a Writer Loves the World

Tightening the Screws

Contradictory Characters

Odd Couples

Characterization in the Personal Essay

Creating Richer Characters

The Art of the Snark

Part 3 Detail: A House of Straw, a House of Sticks, a House of Bricks

My Mother Gives Me a Writing Lesson

Get the Particulars Right

Know Your Place

That Kind of Place

Nostalgia and the Memoirist

A Detail and All It Can Do

The Places We Know

Daydreaming Your Memoir

The Heart's Field

Oh, Those Pesky Facts

Memoir and the Work of Resurrection

Using Photos in Memoir

Ordinary Details in Memoir

Connecting Particulars

Context

Part 4 Point of View: "Little Pig, Little Pig, Let Me Come In"

Your Point of View Choice Creates the Effect of the Story

The Inner Story of the Writer's Thinking

Finding a Different Lens

Memoir and the Future

Living Full

Into the Fire

Part 5 Language: "Not by the Hair of My Chinny Chin Chin"

Stylin'.

The Value of a Beautiful Sentence

The Art of the Twerk

Communal and Personal Voices

Voice in Creative Nonfiction

Personae and Tone in Fiction

Paying Attention to Form in Flash Nonfiction

The Kite

The Thing Said

Alligators and Marshmallows

Comedy in Fiction

Part 6 Revision: And the Third Little Pig Lived Happily Ever After

Taking Flight

Felt Sense

More Revision Activities

The Doorway between Memoir and Fiction

Proverbs for Revising a Novel

Part 7 The Writing Life: The Two Little Pigs Now Felt Sorry for Having Been So Lazy and Built Their Houses with Bricks

My Mother's Gifts to Me

My Aunt among the Rocks

Five Ways We Keep Ourselves from Writing

Five Things All Writers Can Control

Reading Like a Writer

Writing to Preserve

Travel and the Writer

Slowing Down

Our Quiet Places

What Fills Us

The Books and the Boys of Summer

A Writer Writes

Defeating Writer's Block

Ten Thoughts on the Writing Life

Keep Facing the Blank Page.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781496202932

1496202937

9781496202956

1496202953

OCLC:

990248299