Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- The Authors -- The Contributors -- Chapter 1 Details (Golden), Character (Immortal), and Setting (Rural India) -- Step 1: The Power of Observation (12 minutes) -- Step 2: Apply the Lesson of the Peruvian Caiman to Any and All Writing (5 minutes) -- Step 3: Knowing the Difference in Details (25 minutes) -- Step 4: Interviewing Your Peers While Observing Them Shrewdly (15 minutes) -- Step 5: Immortalizing Your Subject (30 minutes) -- Chapter 2 Literary Facebooks -- Chapter 3 Suburban Epics -- The Exercise -- 1. Make a Map -- 2. Pick the Most Interesting Anecdote -- 3. Turn the Anecdote into a Story -- 4. As You Go, Don't Be Afraid to Make Stuff Up -- 5. Wind Down -- Alternately -- Chapter 4 Busted -- Session 1 -- Session 2 -- Session 3 -- Chapter 5 How to Write Science Fiction -- Step 1: Imagine a World -- Step 2: Create Your Character(s) -- Step 3: Bring Your World and Your Characters Together -- Chapter 6 Writing From Experience -- Chapter 7 Too Much Money! an Ethical Writing Experience in 10 Easy Steps -- Introduction (5 minutes) -- Step 1: Think (1 minute) -- Step 2: Quick Write (5 minutes) -- Step 3: Secret Vote (1-2 minutes) -- Step 4: Quick Discussion (3-5 minutes) -- Step 5: Team Task (15-20 minutes, including forming teams) -- Step 6: Team Reports (5-30+ minutes, depending on number of teams) -- Step 7: Whole-Group Discussion (5-15 minutes) -- Step 8: Second Secret Vote (2-5 minutes) -- Step 9: Journal Write (10-20 minutes, depending on student ages and enthusiasm levels) -- Step 10: (Optional) Informal Essay Assignment -- Chapter 8 The Talk Show Circuit -- Talk Show Exercise -- Chapter 9 The First Draft is My Enemy: Revisions -- Chapter 10 See you Again Yesterday: Playing with Time -- Exercise 1: Scramble a Story -- Exercise 2: Write a Story Backwards.

Exercise 3: Write 100 Unrelated Sentences -- Exercise 4: Begin and End with Two Random Sentences -- Bonus Exercise: Character Development -- Chapter 11 Look Smart Fast: College Application Essay Boot Camp -- Thinking Inside the Box -- The Keyhole Essay -- The List That Is More Than a List -- Chapter 12 Writing About Painful Things -- Chapter 13 Mutant Shakespeare -- 1. Text-Splicing -- 2. Literary Telepathy -- 3. My Boyfriend's Eyes Are Like Twin iPods -- 4. Time Travel: Secret of a Sonnet -- Chapter 14 How to Write a One-Person Show About a Historical Figure -- Select Your Subject -- Research -- Write Your Show -- Acting -- The End -- Chapter 15 Writing for Gamers -- Exercise 1: Imagine the Opposite -- Exercise 2: What's Behind the Door? -- Exercise 3: The Emergent Story -- Chapter 16 Humor Writing: An Exercise in Alchemy -- Lesson Plan -- Fake Memo -- Humorous Version of School Newsletter -- The Acceptance Speech -- Chapter 17 On Pining: Write a Verse to Make Them Stay -- Chapter 18 Adding Insult to Poetry -- Chapter 19 Bad Writing -- Lesson Plan -- Chapter 20 Where Stories Come From -- Chapter 21 Word Karaoke -- Chapter 22 Tall Tales and Short Stories -- Chapter 23 Welcome to the Funhouse: Writing Funny Scenes -- Scenario #1: The Great Made Small, the Small Made Great -- Scenario #2: A Tale Told by an Idiot -- Scenario #3: The Wrong Person for the Job -- Scenario #7: Slang and Language -- Scenario #8: Confusion, Delusion, and Mistaken Identity -- Scenario #9: Things Happen Too Fast -- Scenario #10: Ridiculous Ambition -- Scenario #11: Exaggeration/Grotesque -- Scenario #12: Try a Little Tenderness -- Chapter 24 Voicemails From My Future Self -- Session 1 -- Session 2 -- Session 3 -- Session 4 -- Chapter 25 How Short is Short? -- Chapter 26 Comic Composition Challenge! -- How to Play -- First Round -- Second Round -- Final Round -- Rules of Play.

Tips -- How to Win -- Chapter 27 My Boring Life -- Session 1 -- Session 2 -- Session 3 -- Chapter 28 Colonel Mustard in the Library With a Candlestick: How to Write a Mystery -- Chapter 29 Creating Characters -- Exercise 1: Creating a Toolbox -- Exercise 2: The Elevator -- Exercise 3: Profiling -- Chapter 30 High School Confidential: How to Write a Young-Adult Novel -- Chapter 31 Get Your Haiku on -- Chapter 32 The Essay -- Chapter 33 The Story of Me: Writing About your Life and your Family -- Chapter 34 Meet your Protagonist! -- Chapter 35 All Witnesses Eventually die: Embarrassing Stories -- Chapter 36 Wicked Style and How to get it -- Session 1 -- Session 2 -- Chapter 37 President Takes Martian Bride: Writing Tabloid Fiction -- Chapter 38 Lying for Fun and Profit -- Chapter 39 This Class Sucks -- 1. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly -- 2. When Is Salt Not Salty? -- 3. A Four-Star Exercise -- 4. Moving Outside the Comfort Zone -- Chapter 40 Screenwriting -- Chapter 41 How to Write a Ghost Story -- An Exercise -- Another Exercise -- Now That Everyone Is Properly Spooked . . . -- Chapter 42 826 Unplugged: Songwriting -- Chapter 43 Sportswriting: The Life -- Session 1 -- Session 2 -- Session 3 -- Chapter 44 How to Write a fan Letter Without Getting a Restraining Order -- Chapter 45 Exquisite Story Lines -- Chapter 46 Soul Prowlers: The art of Writing Newspaper Profiles -- Session 1: How to Interview -- Session 2: The Elements of a Profile -- Session 3: Putting It All Together -- Chapter 47 Homestyle: Writing About the Place Where you Live -- Chapter 48 Agitate! Propagandize! -- Part I: A Brief Introduction (15 minutes) -- Part II: Warming Up (45 minutes) -- Part III: Oh, Boy (What Have We Done?) (60 minutes) -- Chapter 49 Tasty Medicine for Writer's Block: Mindful Writing Exercises -- Activities -- 1. Mindful Eating.

2. Hello Left Hand, Meet Right Hand . . . A Conversation Between Dominant and Nondominant -- 3. That Made You Think of WHAT? -- Chapter 50 High School Ink: Getting Published -- Make It Awesome -- Character Work -- Plotting Along -- Editing -- Encouragement -- Market Info -- Appendix -- Middle School Evaluation Rubric -- High School Evaluation Rubric -- Middle School Self-Assessment Checklist-Nonfiction -- Middle School Self-Assessment Checklist-Fiction -- High School Self-Assessment Checklist-Nonfiction -- High School Self-Assessment Checklist-Fiction -- Common Core Curriculum Standards -- EULA.