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sTuCkey-frenCh  \nThe universiTy of ChiCAGo Press Chicago and London  \nfiction  \nContents  \nPreface xi  \n1 whATever works: The Writing Process 1  \n2 seeinG is believinG: Showing and Telling 22  \n3 buildinG ChArACTer: Characterization, PartI 44  \n4 The flesh MAde word: Characterization, Part II 75  \n5 lonG AGo And fAr AwAy: Fictional Setting 101  \n6 The Tower And The n eT: Plot and Structure 124  \n7 CAll Me ishMAel: Point of View 153  \n8 is And is noT: Comparison 180  \n9 PlAy iT AGAin, sAM: Revision and Theme 201 Acknowledgments 225  \nIndex 227  \n1 :Whatever Works  \nThe wriTinG ProCess  \nGet Started  \nKeeping a Journal  \nFreewriting and Freedrafting Keep Going  \nPrompts  \nThe Computer  \nThe Critic: A Caution Choosing a Subject Reading as a Writer  \nA Word about Theme  \nYou want to write. Why is it so hard?  \nThere are a few lucky souls for whom the whole process of writing is easy, for whom the smell of fresh paper is better than air, whose minds chuckle over their own agility, who forget to eat, and who consider the world at large an intrusion on their good time at the keyboard. But you and I are not among them. We are in love with words except when we have to face them. We are caught in a guilty paradox in which wegrumble over our lack of time, and when we have the time, we sharpen pencils, check email, or clip the hedges.  \nOf course, there’s also joy. We write for the satisfaction of having wrestled a sentence to the page, for the rush of discovering an image, for the excitement of seeing a character come alive. Even the most successful writers will sincerely say that these pleasures—not money, fame, or glamour—are the real rewards of writing. Fiction writer Alice Munro concedes:  \nIt may not look like pleasure, because the difficulties can make memorose and distracted, but that’s what it is—the pleasure of telling  \nw h A T e v e r w o r k s  \nthe story I mean to tell as wholly as I can tell it, of finding out in fact what the story is, by working around the different ways of telling it.  \nNevertheless, writers may forget what such pleasure feels like when confronting a blank page, like the heroine of Anita Brookner’s novel Look at Me:  \nSometimes it seems like a physical effort simply to sit down at my desk and pull out the notebook. . . . Sometimes the effort of putting pen to paper is so great that I literally feel a pain in my head.  \nIt helps to know that most writers share the paradox of least wanting todo what we most want to do. It also helps to know some of the reasons for our reluctance. Fear of what could emerge on the page, and what it may reveal about our inner lives, can keep us from getting started.“What’s called writer’s block,” claims novelist Tom Wolfe,“is almost always ordinary fear.” Indeed, whenever I ask a group of writers what they find most difficult, a significant number answer that they feel they aren’t good enough, that the empty page intimidates them, that they are in some way afraid. Many complain of their own laziness, but laziness, like money, doesn’t really exist except to represent something else—in this case fear, severe self-judgment, or what Natalie Goldberg calls “the cycle of guilt, avoidance, and pressure.”  \nThere’s another impediment to beginning, expressed by a writer character in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet. Durrell’s Pursewarden broods over the illusory significance of what he is about to write, unwilling to begin in case he spoils it. Many of us do this: The idea, whatever it is, seems so luminous, whole, and fragile, that to begin to write about that idea is to commit it to rubble. Knowing in advance that words will never exactly capture what we mean or intend, we must gingerly and gradually work ourselves into a state of accepting what words can do instead. No matter how many times we find out that what words can do is quite all right, we still shy again from th","cbCaioqVu6lJ7kxH","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaioqVu6lJ7kxH","pdf",114103,24,"English","# Whatever Works: The Writing Process\n## Get Started\n## Keeping a Journal\n## Freewriting and Freedrafting\n## Prompts\n## The Computer\n## The Critic: A Caution\n## Choosing a Subject\n## Reading as a Writer\n## A Word about Theme","[{\"question\":\"Why do many writers find it hard to begin a blank page?\",\"answer\":\"The guide attributes reluctance to ordinary fear, including fear of what may emerge on the page and severe self-judgment, often described as a cycle of guilt, avoidance, and pressure.\"},{\"question\":\"What practical methods does the guide suggest for getting started?\",\"answer\":\"It recommends steps such as keeping a journal, freewriting and freedrafting, and using prompts to generate material and reduce hesitation.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the guide frame the role of pleasure in writing?\",\"answer\":\"It emphasizes that the real rewards are intrinsic—wrestling a sentence to the page, discovering an image, and watching a character come alive—rather than money or fame.\"}]","A Guide To Narrative Craft - Tenth Edition - The Writing Process - Get Started | PDF",1792132606]