Provides a series of warm-ups and practical exercises for aspiring writers that address such issues as fear of failure, dyslexia, writer's block, rewriting, and related matters.
Aspiring doctors have medical school. Karate students have belts of different colors. Pianists have scales and arpeggios. But what system do writers have for getting and staying "in shape," to help them focus, practice, and make progress?
A Writer's Workbook is Caroline Sharp's ingenious collection of exercises to inspire, encourage, warm up, and jump-start anyone who writes. A wise and funny friend who will cheerlead you through even your darkest can't-write days and "every idea I've ever had is awful" nights, she provides encouraging suggestions, hilarious observations, and an amazingly vivid catalogue of writers' neuroses (with advice on overcoming them, of course).
From "Roget's Resume" and "Emulating Ernest" to "End Well," "The Rewrite Rut," and "Dear John," the exercises in this generous, wry workbook will keep your ideas fresh, your mind open, and your pen moving.
Acknowledgments xi Foreword xv Elizabeth Gilbert Introduction xix How to Use This Workbook: A Few Suggestions xxi Obstacle Pages, or...Reasons Why You Just Cant Write---Today xxv WARM-UPS 1(12) Warm-up, Stretch, and Extend 3(2) One-liners: A Quick Warm-up Exercise 5(3) Stop n Shop 8(3) Rogets Resume 11(2) THE EXERCISES 13(122) What If You Dont Like Being Alone? or Writing in the Company of Strangers 15(2) Step One: Your Journal Pages 17(4) Reviews: What Do You Think? 21(3) Character, Character, on the Wall 24(4) Picture This 28(5) Finish the Thought 33(4) Conversation Observation 37(5) Fear of Failure/Fear of Success, or ``Fish of the Day 40(2) Emulating Ernest 42(3) Your ``Idea Book: A Lifetime Commitment 45(4) To Outline or Not to Outline? 49(3) Where Have You Gone? 52(4) Dont Know Much Geography...But I Should! 56(3) A Small Snack 59(3) If Breakfast Be the Meal of Love 62(6) Dyslexia and Other Physical Obstacles, or The Pen Is Mightier Than the Problem 66(2) Your Daily Grind 68(3) A Day in the Life 71(4) The Time of Their Lives 75(3) The Wrong Date and Time 78(3) Objects of Desire 81(3) Reuse, Rethink, Recycle 84(5) Writers Block, or Surviving a Big Chill 87(2) Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain 89(4) Triple Dare/Triple Scare, or How Low Will You Go? 93(4) The Wrong Brother 97(4) Plot, Plot, Fizz, Fizz 101(3) X Marks the Spot 104(5) The Rewrite Rut, or ``My Names Russell and Im a Perfectionist 107(2) The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of 109(4) End Well 113(4) Lost and Found 117(3) Bad Appetites 120(7) The Committee, or Bad Guys: 65/Good Guys: 1 124(3) ``Dear John... 127(4) 7-Up 131(2) One Last Thought 133(2) Appendix Basic Etiquette for Reading and Responding to Your Peers Work, or Miss Manners Comes to Your Writing Group 135(4) Bibliography 139(6) About the Author 145
