The Writer's Portable Mentor
The Writer's Portable Mentor
A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life, Second Edition
Designed to mentor writers at all levels, from beginning to quite advanced, The Writer’s Portable Mentor offers a wealth of insight and crafting models from the author’s twenty-plus years of teaching and creative thought. The book provides tools for structuring a book, story, or essay. It trains writers in observation and in developing a poet’s ear for sound in prose. It scrutinizes the sentence strategies of the masters and offers advice on how to publish. This second edition is updated to account for changes in the publishing industry and provides hundreds of new craft models to inspire, guide, and develop every writer’s work.
This book is great for aspiring writers, and it is a good introduction to developing style and content that grabs and captures attention from a reading audience.
Wonderful.
All of Priscilla’s advice is clear and sound.
A comprehensive manual covering integral topics.
A treasure trove of information and inspiration. Every writer should own a copy of this book.
Priscilla Long is a writer of poetry, creative nonfiction, science, fiction, and history. She is the author of several books, including Fire and Stone: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? and Crossing Over: Poems (UNM Press). She lives in Seattle, Washington.
Preface to the Second Edition
Introduction. A Writer’s Practice
How to Use This Book
Part One. Your Move
Chapter One. Daily Writing
Chapter Two. Working with Language
Gathering Words
Diction Primer
Where to Find Good Words
The Lexicon Practice
Words as Notes
Sound Effects
Repetition
Verb Work
Chapter Three. Writing to See: Training in Observation
Observing the Here and Now
Seeing Colors
Observing Persons
Observing Gesture
Observing Voice
Chapter Four. Object and Setting
Part Two. Getting There: Finding a Structure
Chapter Five. Writing into a Structure
Finding the Right Structure
Inventing a Structure
Structuring a Book
Word Counts
Chapter Six. Theme Structure
"Ben Webster" by Ira Sadoff
"Home" by John Olson
Chapter Seven. Collage Structure
"Babylon" by Eula Biss
"Laughter" by Patrick Madden
Chapter Eight. The A/B or Two-Strand Structure
"The Servant of Two Masters" by Amit Majmudar
"Buzzards" by Lee Zacharias
Chapter Nine. Dramatic Story Structure
"A Dream of Sleep" by Steve Almond
Chapter Ten. How to Open
Part Three. The Art of the Sentence and the Art of the Paragraph
Chapter Eleven. Sentence Craft
Chapter Twelve. Fragments
Chapter Thirteen. The Simple Sentence
Chapter Fourteen. The Compound Sentence
Chapter Fifteen. The Complex (and Compound-Complex) Sentence
Compound-Complex Sentences
Chapter Sixteen. The List Sentence
Chapter Seventeen. The Phrase
The Prepositional Phrase
Chapter Eighteen. Passive Voice
Chapter Nineteen. The Art of the Paragraph
Type 1. The Direct Paragraph
Type 2. The Climactic Paragraph
Type 3. The Turnabout Paragraph
Type 4. The Other One
Chapter Twenty. Transitions
Transition by Repetition
Transition by Synonym or Pronoun
From This Time to the Next Time
From This Place to the Next Place
From Facts to Meaning
Moving with the Mind
From Real to Magic or Mythic Real
And, But, or So at the Beginning
Chapter Twenty-One. Punctuation: Tricks and Ticks of the Masters
Commas and Semicolons in a List
Phrasal Adjectives
Dash and Colon
Interrupters
Part Four. Honing, Deepening, Stretching
Chapter Twenty-Two. Metaphor and Simile
Avoiding Literary Shipwrecks
Definitions and Principles
Forms of Metaphor
Chapter Twenty-Three. Extending Connections, Deepening Insight
Ask Questions
Connect with a Wider World
Reading
Intention
Chapter Twenty-Four. On Revision
Work vs. Talent
Part Five. Getting the Work into the World
Chapter Twenty-Five. Literary vs. Commercial Writing
Chapter Twenty-Six. First Time Out: Writing Buddies and Critique Groups
Writing Buddies
Critique Groups
Presenting and Performing
Chapter Twenty-Seven. Sending Your Work Out
Simultaneous Submissions?
Read the Market
What about Self-Publishing?
"It’s Who You Know"
Chapter Twenty-Eight. The Practice of Productivity
The List of Works
Working and Playing with the Work
Chapter Twenty-Nine. Success
Acknowledgments for the First Edition
Bibliography
Credits
Index
