The writer's path A guidebook for your creative journey : exercises, essays, and examples

Todd Walton

Book - 2000

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Subjects
Published
Berkeley, CA : Ten Speed Press 2000.
Language
English
Main Author
Todd Walton (-)
Other Authors
Mindy Toomay, 1951- (-)
Physical Description
xv, 237 p.
Bibliography
Includes index.
ISBN
9781580081603
  • Preface
  • Using This Book
  • Free-writing
  • Chapter 1. Jump Starts
  • Making Lists
  • Sentence Beginnings
  • Word Accumulation
  • Five-Line Exercise
  • Fear of Change
  • Using the Dictionary
  • Doodles and Sketches
  • Examples of Jump Start Exercises
  • Your Writing Practice
  • Chapter 2. Interactive Writing
  • Partner Writing
  • Finding a Writing Partner
  • The Mystery of Melinda Todd
  • Circle Writing
  • Sketching
  • Basic Interview Process
  • Examples of Interactive Writing Exercises
  • Chapter 3. Letter Forms
  • Letters
  • Postcards
  • The Imaginary Vacation
  • Famous Person Exercise
  • Sending Letters to Famous People
  • Examples of Letter Forms Exercises
  • Chapter 4. Style
  • Copying Out Poems and Prose
  • Word Choices
  • Person and Tense Shifting
  • Line Lengths in Poems
  • Sentence Lengths
  • Splitting and Reversing Lines
  • Poetry from Prose
  • Prose from Poetry
  • Channeling Emily
  • Found Poems
  • Examples of Style Exercises
  • Chapter 5. Character
  • Biography Data Sheets
  • Character Explorations
  • Our Bliss
  • Writing Pleasure
  • Our Fears
  • Dialogue Exercises
  • Interview to Create Character
  • Narrative Boundaries
  • Examples of Character Exercises
  • Honoring the Roughness of Your Rough Drafts
  • Chapter 6. Story
  • Telling Stories
  • Earliest Memories
  • Dream On
  • Arbitrary Story Structures
  • Abstract Story Structures
  • Inventing Your Own Structures
  • Natural Story Structures
  • Place and Practice
  • Diagramming the Structures of Favorite Books and Stories
  • Stories from Visuals
  • Beginnings
  • Endings
  • Interview to Create a Story
  • Arbitrary or Abstract Novel Structures
  • The Poetic Outline
  • Examples of Story Exercises
  • Chapter 7. The Writing Group
  • Suggestions and Cautions
  • The First Meeting
  • Directed Sketching
  • Word Games
  • Chapter 8. Ideas for the Classroom
  • Adapting Exercises from This Book
  • Blackboard Exercises
  • Performance
  • Making Books
  • Creation of Clans
  • Interviews
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Authors
  • Index
Review by Library Journal Review

Walton and Toomay have published numerous stories, essays, poems, books, and screenplays while teaching creative writing classes at various West Coast venues. They combine efforts here to share insights into the writing process and offer exercises designed to stimulate creativity and develop skill. Although the chapters include the basics of style, character, and story, this is definitely not a handbook or style manual. Each of the eight chapters focuses on an aspect of the writing process, providing a series of exercises that work on that particular technique and are designed for independent work, writing teams, or groups. The authors also provide examples of completed exercises that illustrate the focus of each chapter as well as ideas for classroom and group settings. Sidebars scattered throughout offer additional perspectives. Recommended for public libraries.--Denise S. Sticha, Seton Hill Coll., Greensburg, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.