Cover -- Book Title -- Copyright -- Acknowledgments -- About the Author -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Exercise Mix and Match -- The Exercises -- Point of View: -- 1. The Reluctant I -- 2. Imperative -- 3. Unreliable Third -- 4. The Unstable Self -- 5. Journalism -- 6. The Royal We -- 7. Family Consciousness -- 8. Third To First -- 9. Historical Omniscience -- 10. The Ironist -- 11. The Cheerful Spectator -- 12. An Execution -- 13. God -- Images: -- 14. No Ideas, But in Things -- 15. Two Images Separated at Birth -- 16. Two Paintings -- 17. Synesthesia -- 18. TV -- 19. Canned Film -- 20. Colors -- 21. Clothes -- 22. Alarm Clock Dream -- 23. The Closet -- Characters and Ways of Seeing: -- 24. Ways Of Seeing -- 25. Names -- 26. Exes -- 27. Loveless -- 28. Loving -- 29. Evil -- 30. Absent -- 31. Intelligence -- 32. Friendship -- 33. Goodness -- 34. Chaos Follows -- 35. Wilderness -- 36. Beyond Words -- 37. Face Recognition -- 38. Sentenced to Death -- 39. Letters From Inside the Story -- 40. Doubling Up -- 41. You Oxymoron -- Women and Men: -- 42. Invisible Woman -- 43. Control -- 44. The Argument -- 45. Food Fight -- 46. Intimacy -- 47. Smart Pets -- 48. Cooking -- 49. Binary Oppositions -- Children and Childhood: -- 50. Early Language -- 51. Associative Logic -- 52. What Maisie Knew -- 53. Cruelty -- 54. Child's Play -- 55. Shy -- 56. Looking Backwards -- 57. Wrong Hall -- 58. Bedtime Story -- Conversation: -- 59. Silent Partner -- 60. Body English -- 61. Character Building -- 62. The First Lie -- 63. Phone Tag -- 64. Finishing Each Other's Sentences -- 65. Indirect Discourse -- 66. Reconstituted Talk -- 67. Travesty -- 68. Interrogation -- Thought and Emotion: -- 69. Consciousness Slowed -- 70. Universal Freedom -- 71. Needs -- 72. Wants -- 73. Improvisation -- 74. True Feeling -- 75. Teacher -- 76. Witness Protection.

77. Deathbed Conversions -- 78. Style -- 79. Mistaken Identity -- 80. Sleight of Hand -- 81. The Bunny Planet -- 82. Ignoble Subjects -- Biography and Autobiography: -- 83. Public vs. Private -- 84. Fact and Fancy -- 85. Talismans -- 86. Interview -- 87. Research -- 88. Life of the Party -- 89. Biography -- 90. Funhouse Mirror -- 91. Leaving Out -- 92. Father and Son -- 93. Mother and Daughter -- Time: -- 94. Life Story -- 95. Summary -- 96. One Moment -- 97. Déjà Vu -- 98. The Gap -- 99. Rashomon -- 100. Landscape and Time -- 101. Ghosts -- 102. A Happy Marriage -- History: -- 103. The Day After -- 104. What If -- 105. Revisionist History -- 106. Found History -- 107. Shoeshine -- 108. Censorship -- Description: -- 109. Nudes -- 110. Sweet and Sour -- 111. Home -- 112. The City -- 113. In the Belly of the Beast -- 114. Aromatherapy -- 115. Maps -- 116. Public Space vs. Private Space -- 117. Walking -- 118. Verisimilitude -- 119. Jeremiad -- Sentences-butting Up Against Each Other: -- 120. Chapters -- 121. Underground History -- 122. E-less -- 123. The Music of Prose -- 124. Listful -- 125. Russian Doll in Reverse -- 126. Backwards -- 127. Pantoum -- 128. Villanelle -- 129. Concrete Abstractions -- 130. Monotony -- 131. Repetition -- 132. Economy -- 133. Phone Book -- Other People's Sentences: -- 134. Logical Structure -- 135. Poetry -- 136. Collage -- 137. Beginnings -- 138. Ends -- 139. Middles -- 140. Jointly Held Story -- 141. The Bridge -- 142. Between the Lines -- 143. French -- 144. Delillo -- 145. Top Ten Words of 2004 -- 146. 100 Most Common Words -- 147. Living Flesh -- 148. Embedded Stories -- Play and Games: -- 149. Rules of the Game -- 150. Vertigo -- 151. Different Strokes -- 152. Mimicry -- 153. Dice -- 154. Fantasy -- 155. War -- Sports: -- 156. The Team -- 157. Life or Death -- 158. Individual -- 159. The Seduction of Analogies.

Work: -- 160. The Language of Work -- 161. Teamwork -- 162. Gravediggers -- 163. Loafing -- 164. Fight Choreographer -- Humor: -- 165. Stand-up -- 166. The Wit and the Pendulum -- 167. The Joke -- 168. Incongruity -- 169. Serious Slapstick -- 170. Unintended Humor -- 171. Misdirection -- Travel: -- 172. Arrivals -- 173. Departures -- 174. Digressions -- 175. Notebooks -- 176. Barbarians -- 177. Life As Text -- 178. Imaginary Travel -- 179. Imaginary Cities -- 180. Inside Jokes -- 181. Perpetual Return -- 182. Landscapes -- 183. The Double -- 184. Goodnight, Colorado -- Internal Structure: -- 185. A Maze -- 186. An Iceberg -- 187. Two Parallel Lines -- 188. A Circle -- 189. The Infinity Symbol: -- Exercises for Stories in Progress: -- 190. Outrunning the Critic -- 191. Sensory Details -- 192. Rehearsal -- 193. Surprise -- 194. Postcards to France -- 195. Caught on Tape -- 196. E-mail -- 197. Embracing the Mystery -- 198. Character Develops With Revision -- 199. Beyond Your Preconceptions -- 200. Q and A -- 201. Fill in the Blank -- Limbing Up -- Appendices -- Appendix A: Advice for Writing Books -- Appendix B: literary Friendships, Critiquing Your Own and Other People's Stories -- Exercise Index.