Writing from Personal Experience: How to Turn Your Life into Salable Prose

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There was that moment in life -- a poignant truth, a last look, a lesson learned -- that turned your life around. The words, the emotions, the expressions, even the settings are forever frozen in your mind. Writing From Personal Experience will help you unlock those moments and share them with others.

Nancy Davidoff Kelton takes you step by step through getting it down and getting it out. Learn how to write your life, and then how to prepare, ...

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More About This Book

Overview

There was that moment in life -- a poignant truth, a last look, a lesson learned -- that turned your life around. The words, the emotions, the expressions, even the settings are forever frozen in your mind. Writing From Personal Experience will help you unlock those moments and share them with others.

Nancy Davidoff Kelton takes you step by step through getting it down and getting it out. Learn how to write your life, and then how to prepare, submit and sell your story.

A teacher and a writer, Kelton enriches these pages with her own personal experiences. The book is filled with anecdotes from Kelton's life and career. You'll soon be gently prodding your memories and emotions with the book's exercises, such as writing an open letter that shares your deepest thoughts, a character sketch of someone who touched your life, or a memory from childhood. You have the moments, you have the emotions and, with Writing From Personal Experience, you'll tell the story.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780898797893
  • Publisher: F+W Media, Inc.
  • Publication date: 3/15/1997
  • Pages: 208
  • Product dimensions: 6.23 (w) x 9.29 (h) x 0.92 (d)

Table of Contents

Introduction 1
Chapter 1 My Mystery 4
Chapter 2 Sunday Near the Park With Me 11
Chapter 3 Every Day Between You and You 15
Chapter 4 Just Do It, Man! Just Do It! 20
Chapter 5 Writers in Training 24
Chapter 6 Whole Days Can Be Trouble 28
Chapter 7 Say No/Say Later 32
Chapter 8 Writing Is Acting on Paper 35
Chapter 9 It's Not About the Nina or the Pinta 30
Chapter 10 Surprise! Surprise! 43
Chapter 11 The "What to Bring" List 40
Chapter 12 Word Pictures 51
Chapter 13 Statements as Leads 63
Chapter 14 How What? 69
Chapter 15 Three Components of a Personal Experience Piece 78
Chapter 16 How to Put the Components to Work 87
Chapter 17 Writing About "Nots" 108
Chapter 18 Everyone Can Near the Music 113
Chapter 19 Being Somewhere Else: Getting Ideas 110
Chapter 20 One True Thing 122
Chapter 21 Write What You Know 125
Chapter 22 Keeping a Journal 128
Chapter 23 My Mother and Willy Loman 131
Chapter 24 George and Abe 135
Chapter 25 If You Ask People How They Are, They Might Tell You 138
Chapter 26 The Subtext 141
Chapter 27 The Difference Between "Aha" and "Oy Vay" 145
Chapter 28 Likable Voices 148
Chapter 29 Oona the Tuna and Onward 151
Chapter 30 Lousy First Drafts 155
Chapter 31 Night Came: Six Tips for Tightening 158
Chapter 32 Not Enough Cocktail Lounge: Nine More Jips for Revising 162
Chapter 33 Why You Hit Snags and What You Can Do 167
Chapter 34 Is It Funny? 172
Chapter 35 Rejections 176
Chapter 36 Don't Jurn Your Friends and Loved Ones Into Critics 181
Chapter 37 Writing Classes: Me as a Student 185
Chapter 38 Getting the Most From Writing Classes 101
Chapter 39 Will You Hold for the Editor in Chief? 105
Epilogue 108
Appendix
Part 1 Cover Letter
Part 2 "Waiting for Daddy"
Part 3 Editor's Analysis 200
Index 208
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