• Preface and Acknowledgments
• An Introduction: Emblems of Talent
• Seven Essays - Teaching / Writing • Thickening the Plot • Characters
• On Pure Story Telling • Of Doubts and Dreams • After Almost No Time at All the String on Which He had Been Pulling and Pulling Came Apart into Two Separate
Pieces So Quickly He Hardly Realized It Had Snapped, or: Reflections on
“The Beach Fire” • Some Notes for the Intermediate and Advanced Creative Writing Student • Four Letters - Letter to P-
• Letter to Q-
• Letter to R- • Letter to S-
• Five Interviews - A Para•doxa Interview: Experimental Writing/Texts & Questions
• An American Literary History Interview: The Situation of American Writing Today • A Poetry Project Newsletter Interview: A Silent Interview • A Black Clock Interview • A Para•doxa Interview: Inside and Outside the Canon
• APPENDIX: Nits, Nips, Tucks, and Tips - Name, Date, Place
• Read Widely • Grammar and Parts of Speech • Sentences • Punctuating Dialogue
• A Final Note on Dialogue • Apostrophes
• Dramatic Structure • Excitement, Drama, Suspense, Surprise, Violence
• Point of View
• First Person • Trust Your Image • Write What You Know