WRITING LIFE STORIES --- HOW TO MAKE MEMORIES INTO MEMOIRS, IDEAS INTO ESSAYS, AND LIFE INTO LITERATURE by Bill Roorbach, Story Press, 1998
    INTRODUCTION (p1-6)

      QUOTE by Henry David Thoreau = In most books the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking.

      I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the nearrowness of my experience.

        1) Getting started (p7-17)

        2) Memory (p18-34)

        3) Scenemaking (p35-52)

        4) Big ideas (p53-70)

        5) Characters and character (p71-93)

        6) Stage presence (p94-106)

        7) Finding the facts (p107-121)

        8) Metaphor and meaning (p122-137)

          [1] Value of memoir (p122-124)

            Exercise One --- I and I vibration ---Yeah positive (p124-125)

          [2] Metaphor --- the source of all meaning (p125-126)

            Exercise Two --- A mind like a steel trap (p126)

          [3] Understanding metaphor (p127)

          [4] Symbols (p127-128)

          [5] Etymology, metaphor, and the writer (p128-129)

          [6] Metaphor in daily life (p129-131)

            Exercise Three --- Metaphor watch (p131)

          [7] Making use of metaphor (p131-132)

            Exercise Four --- The old Chinese restaurant menu exercise (p132)

          [8] Adumbration --- suggesting beforehand (p133-135)

        9) Saying it right (p138-159)

        10) Building a building (p160-171)

        11) Reaching readers (p172-186)

      APPENDIX ONE --- "Into the woods" (p187-197)

      APPENDIX TWO --- Suggested readings in creative nonfiction (p198-214)

      INDEX (p215-218)

    Go to: Creativity Category List
    Go to: Keyword Leadership Matrix
    Go to: Interactive Index of Idea