So You Want to Write : How to Master the Craft of Writing Fiction and the Personal Narrative

For over ten years, Marge Piercy and Ira Wood have been teaching two popular master classes in the crafting of fiction and memoirs. They attract students nationwide who have failed to improve their work in courses concentrating on the 'process' of writing, encouraging their potential but failing to supply them with the tools. Never before available in any form, So You Want To Write:

Uses talks, exercises, anecdotes and examples proven in the classroom, to address:

• How to begin a piece by seducing your reader,
• How to create characters that embody the infinite contradictions of human behavior,
• How to master the elements of plotting fiction,
• How to create a strategy for telling the story of your life,
• How to avoid sounding like a 'victim,'
• How to learn to read critically, like a professional writer,
• How to realistically approach publishing.

Drawing on over seventy years of combined writing experience, other chapters include:

• The overlooked powers of dialogue,
• Creating descriptions that move readers emotionally,
• FAQ's about agents, rejections, submitting work effectively, how much writers really earn,
• Overcoming shame and the difficulties of writing about loved ones.

Written to be enjoyed as well as used, So You Want to Write is the book for those who want to go beyond 'journaling' and 'writing as therapy,' to break through and publish their work.

Marge Piercy is the author of 15 volumes of poetry and 15 novels, including the best sellers Gone To Soldiers and The Longings of Women. William Morrow will be publishing her upcoming memoir, Sleeping With Cats. Ira Wood is the author of three novels, a publisher, and a writing teacher whose classes address writers' feelings of hopelessness and overcoming the inner censor. Together, in 1998, they co-wrote the critically acclaimed novel Storm Tide.