The Kite and the String by Mattison, Alice -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Introduction: Excuse Me, Don’t We Know Each Other? PART I: The Kite and the String

CHAPTER 1: Writing with Freedom and Common Sense

The Sound of Storytelling Controlled Daydreaming

PART II: People Taking Action

CHAPTER 2: Imagine CHAPTER 3: What to Do with a Good Idea

Thoughts Jotted Down What Almost Happened, What Could Have Happened Facts Denied Story as a Figure of Speech From Theme to Story

CHAPTER 4: Let Happenings Happen

Make Trouble Don’t Be Melodramatic—but Be Dramatic Don’t (Necessarily) Be Afraid of Coincidence

CHAPTER 5: Become Someone Else

Am I Allowed to Pretend I’m You? “Well, What Will She DO?”

PART III: Stories and Books: Start to Finish

CHAPTER 6: Recognize Stories, Envision Books

What’s a Story? Grace Paley’s “A Conversation with My Father” Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” Edward P. Jones’s “The Sunday Following Mother’s Day” A Novel That Never Was Written Imagining a Novel The Quarry for MIDDLEMARCH

CHAPTER 7: What Killed the Queen? and Other Uncertainties That Keep a Reader Reading

It’s Long Enough to Be a Novel, but Is It a Novel? The Death of the Queen The Wide, Straight Road The Scenic Route An Elevated Highway Switchbacks Scavenger Hunts with the Children

PART IV: Choosing to Speak

CHAPTER 8: Silence and Storytelling

Stories Not Told Direct and Indirect Narration The Informative Sentence Mysteries Characters Who Think on the Page Chronological Confusion Murky Motivation Unhelpful Departures from Realism The Elliptical Style Silence for Safety The Silenced Character Telling the Story

PART V: Living to Tell the Tale

CHAPTER 9: Revising Our Thought Bubbles

The Fantasy What Shall We Do? Figure Out What You Actually Want What Shall We Not Do? Is Your Work Good Enough to Publish? Revising Without Despair Finding Readers Learn to Write by Reading Where Should You Try to Publish? How Should You Submit Work? What If It Doesn’t Work? Self-Publishing The Part-Time Writer Being Happy The Writing Itself

Acknowledgments Appendix: Books Mentioned Index About the Author