Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction

How to Use This BookIntroduction: Where to Begin?Part I: The Foundations of Creative Nonfiction Chapter One: The Basics of Good Writing in Any FormScene Versus ExpositionSpecificity and DetailDeveloping CharacterDialoguePoint of View Image and MetaphorThe Rhythm of Your SentencesTry ItSuggestions for Further ReadingChapter Two: The Particular Challenges of Creative NonfictionThe "I" and The Eye: Framing ExperienceThe Autobiographical ActThe Pact with the Reader: Creating TrustThe Permutations of "Truth"Cueing the ReaderSome Pitfalls to Avoid: "Revenge Prose" and "The Therapist's Couch."Try ItSuggestions for Further ReadingPart II: Unearthing Your MaterialChapter Three: The Body of MemoryThe Earliest MemoryMetaphorical Memory"Muscle Memory"The Five Senses of MemoryTry ItSuggestions for Further ReadingChapter Four: Writing the FamilySituating Yourself in Relationship to FamilyThe Use of FormThe Writer as BiographerThe Obstacle CoursePermission to SpeakBearing WitnessTry ItSuggestions for Further ReadingChapter Five: "Taking Place": Writing the Physical WorldStart LookingWriting About HomeSetting Scenes: Place As CharacterWriting About NatureWriting About the EnvironmentWitnesses to our WorldTravel WritingTry ItChapter Six: Gathering the Threads of HistoryOur Historical, Universal SelvesThe Ontological LayerYou Are A "Privileged Observer"The Moose At The WindowThe "When" In Addition to "What"Try ItSuggestions for Further ReadingChapter Seven: Writing the ArtsThe Visual ArtsThe Moving Image ArtsMusicLiterature: The "Reading Narrative"Try ItSuggestions for Further ReadingChapter Eight: Writing the Larger WorldTurning Outward: Finding Your Material Outside of the SelfScienceThe Layperson's ApproachThe Expert's ApproachSports WritingThe Myriad Things Around UsThe Essay of Ideas Try ItSuggestions for Further ReadingsPart III: The Forms of Creative NonfictionChapter Nine: The Personal EssayThe Personal Essay TraditionThe Ways Essays WorkMemoirLiterary or New JournalismThe Sketch or PortraitThe Persuasive EssayHumorCapacity of the Personal Essay Try ItSuggestions for Further ReadingChapter Ten: The Lyric EssayWhat is the Lyric Essay?The Role of IntuitionFinding the "Container": Forms of the Lyric EssayFlash Nonfiction CollageThe Braided EssayThe "Hermit Crab" EssayTry ItSuggestions for Further ReadingChapter Eleven: The Elements of Personal ReportageCultivating The Need To KnowUsing Fact As MetaphorResearching a Key Fact Or DetailWorking With ImmersionDeveloping Interview SkillsDeveloping Print Research SkillsWinnowing DownTry ItSuggestions for Further ReadingChapter Twelve: The Writing Process and RevisionThe Drafting ProcessGlobal Revision vs. Line EditingAwareness of Audience Three Quick Fixes for Stronger ProseAn Example of the Writing ProcessTry ItSuggestions for Further ReadingsLast WordsPart IVThe AnthologyPreface to the AnthologyAtwood, Margaret, "Nine Beginnings"Baker, Will, "My Children Explain the Big Issues"Baldwin, James, "Notes of a Native Son"Bausch, Richard, "So Long Ago"Beard, JoAnn, "The Fourth State of Matter"Berry, Wendell, "Enterance to the Woods"Cooper, Bernard, "The Fine Art of Sighing"Didion, Joan, "Goodbye To All That"Dillard, Annie, "Total Eclipse"Duncan, David James, "The Mickey Mantle Koan"Fisher, M.F.K., "The Measure of My Powers" and "A Thing Shared"Goldbarth, Albert, "After Yitzl"Gordon, Mary, "Notes on Pierre Bonnard and My Mother's Ninetieth Birthday"Hemley, Robin, "Reading History To My Mother"Iyer, Pico, "Where Worlds Collide"Kapil, Bhanu, "Three Voices"Kingston, Maxine Hong, "No Name Woman"LaMott, Anne, "Why I Don't Meditate"Morabito, Fabio, "Screw" and "Sandpaper"Mukerjee, Bharati, "A Four-Hundred Year Old Woman"Price, Jennifer, "A Brief Natural History of the Pink Flamingo"Rekdal, Paisley, "The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee"Sanders, Scott Russell, "Buckeye"Sedaris, David, "The Drama Bug"Selzer, Richard, "The Knife"Simic, Charles, "The Necessity of Poetry" (or excerpted as "Three Fragments" from In Short)Staples, Brent, "The Coroner's Photographs"Sutin, Lawrence, from A Postcard MemoirWalker, Alice, "Becoming What We're Called"White, E.B., "Afternoon of An American Boy"Williams, Terry Tempest, "The Clan of One-Breasted Women"Woolf, Virginia, "The Death of The Moth"