The college handbook of creative writing cover

The college handbook of creative writing

by Robert DeMaria

This book ... describes how universal writing problems have been dealt with by experienced writers, and it explains how the mistakes commonly made by novice writers can be avoided. The book is organized to be as practical as possible. It outlines the general principles of writing and then moves on to specific problems that writers encounter. Chapters 1-4 discuss the fundamental elements in a piece of creative writing-theme, setting, characters, and plot. Chapters 5-11 deal with the basic techniques for handling point of view, tone, description, dialogue, time, and imagery. Chapters 12 and 13 go over the mechanics of manuscript preparation and present a brief review of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Finally, Chapter 14 looks at writing as a career and offers suggestions on such things as marketing, inquiries, and agents. [Cont. in TofC].

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?