The way of the writer: reflections on the art and craft of storytelling

I. Who is the writer? : In the beginning ... ; The apprentice novels ; A day in the life ; The writing space ; The artist as shape-shifter ; The question of vision

II. The process of writing : A boot camp for creative writing ; Words ; In defense of our language ; Telling it long and telling it short ; Opening sentences: a hundred rays of light ; On craft and revision ; The challenge of voice ; How we sound ; Nature gives us no metaphors ; Scene and dialogue ; The importance of plot ; Storytelling and the alpha narrative ; On the novel and short story ; The essay ; The risks we take

III. What helps the writer? : On teachers and mentors ; The wounds that create our work ; The first readers ; Writers and editors ; On reading ; The virtues of journalism ; Practical literary advice

IV. The writer as teacher : The literary duet: creative writing and critical theory ; The creative-writing teacher as soul catcher ; Writing and teaching, or From Mr. Hyde to Dr. Jekyll

V. The writing life and the duties of the writer : The art of book reviewing ; In translation ; On screenwriting ; Editing and small presses

VI. Philosophy and the writer : Writing well is thinking well ; The writer and philosophy ; Fiction and the liberation of perception ; New fiction novelists ; Science fiction and the philosophical novel ; Sartre and the nothingness of being ; The truth-telling power of fiction

Afterword: Notes from a former student / Marc C. Conner.