Table Of ContentWriting in action
Writing in Action provides a step-by-step, practical guide to the process of writing.
Although the emphasis is on creative writing, fiction, poetry and drama, it also covers
autobiographical writing and the writing of reports and essays. Because this is a book
about process, rather than product, Writing in Action also looks at the practice of
adaptation and editing.
Writing in Action:
• shows new writers how to get started
• encourages experimentation and creativity
• stimulates critical awareness through the inclusion of illustrative texts
• encourages writing as a skill, as well as an art form
This book is crammed with practical suggestions and self-evaluation exercises, as well
as invaluable tips on style, sentence structure, punctuation and vocabulary. It is an
ideal course text for students and an invaluable guide to self-study.
Paul Mills has taught and developed courses in Creative Writing at Manchester and
Leeds Universities and at the University College of Ripon and York where he now
teaches in the English Department. His third book of poems, Half Moon Bay, was
published by Carcanet in 1993. His recent play, Never, was performed at West York-
shire Playhouse in 1995.
Writing in action
Paul Mills
London and New York
First published 1996
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001.
© 1996 Paul Mills
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
‘In the Waiting Room’ from THE COMPLETE POEMS 1927–1979 by Elizabeth Bishop.
Copyright © 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus
& Giroux, Inc. The lines from ‘Rape’ are reprinted from THE FACT OF A DOORFRAME:
Poems Selected and New, 1950–1984, by Adrienne Rich, by permission of the author and W. W.
Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright © 1984 by Adrienne Rich. Copyright © 1975, 1978 by W.
W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright © 1981 by Adrienne Rich.
ISBN 0-415-11988-X (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-11989-8 (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-15826-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-17868-8 (Glassbook Format)
For my mother
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 Structure and style 7
Sentence awareness 7
Punctuation 17
Aspects of style: 26
paragraphs; redrafting; clichés; referents; readers
and writers
Introductory writing exercises: 34
observation; sensation; culture images; photographs and
paintings; free writing
Notes on writing: 37
writing for a reader; keep writing; language as art; frameworks;
editing; time out
2 Autobiographical writing 41
Finding a focus 42
Choosing a form: 43
the whole truth?; selecting details: writing from the centre;
themes and ideas; shock tactics; narrative; background
information; poetic autobiography; general comments
Writing in three stages 64
3 Writing poems 67
Reading and listening 67
Poetic form: 72
regular form; free verse structures; settings and encounters; free
verse: extended treatment; how free is free verse?; free verse:
compact treatment
Metaphors, narrative and personae 86
Ideas for writing 90
viii Contents
4 Writing short stories 100
What is a story? 101
Fiction and anecdote 102
Story conventions 104
Camera perspective 105
Character-rhythm 109
Questions and summary 113
General comments: 116
finding the characters; motif; writing about emotions; finding a
setting; fantasy; delay and suspense; atmosphere and
foregrounding; dialogue; action sequences
Story-writing exercises 127
A story in three sentences 131
Writing without a plan 133
Appendix: More short stories 135
5 Theatre 151
Personal theatre 152
Writing exercises: one 159
Issues theatre 162
Summary and questions 168
Experimental theatre 170
Building a play: 174
plot and desire; developing a structure;
finding the centre; the world turned upside down
Writing exercises: two 179
General comments: 180
presence and visibility; stage space and set; experiment in
issues theatre; researching an issue; researching for dialogue
Finding an ending 184
6 Writing to persuade 186
Writing an essay 186
Opinion articles 193
Survey articles 202
Survey-writing exercises 207
Writing across the genres 209
Appendix: ‘A Gallery Opens – After 18,000 Years’ 211
Notes 213
Bibliography 216
General index 220
Author index 222
Index of main works 224
Acknowledgements
For several years I have taught a course in creative writing for first and second year
students at the University College of Ripon and York St John, and the contents of this
book have developed as a result. I owe a debt to many of the students of the course
from years back, and to friends and colleagues who have offered advice on particular
chapters and issues. Keith Watson, Chris Butler and Chris Jackson were especially
helpful in reading through and commenting on the chapter on language. Leila Roberts
and Beth Cowton offered valuable comments on the writing exercises. I am especially
grateful to David MacAndrew and Joe Vicary for reading through the completed type-
script and making the needed suggestions for final corrections, to Michael Glencross,
Anita Parr, Hazel Purvis, Sarah Lawson-Welsh and Sheila Carr for their practical help
and encouragement, and to Anne Price for arranging a period of study leave for me.
There have been several occasions when discussions with friends stimulated my ideas,
and in particular I wish to thank Elizabeth Sandie whose interest and support have
influenced this book at every stage. Also I would like to express my gratitude to Julia
Hall of Routledge for commissioning the book and for being such a communicative
editor. My acknowledgement of help in developing my ideas extends further back, but
in particular I thank Norman MacCaig and Peter Keating who taught me how to write.
The author and publishers would like to thank the following who have kindly given
permission for the use of copyright material: Faber and Faber Ltd, for excerpts from
‘Ocean 1212-W’ in Sylvia Plath’s Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams; Bloodaxe
Books Ltd, for excerpts from Miroslav Holub’s ‘The Fly’, reprinted by permission
of Bloodaxe Books Ltd from Poems Before & After by Miroslav Holub (Bloodaxe
Books, 1990); Random House, for excerpts from Norman MacCaig’s ‘February – Not
Everywhere’ and ‘Other Self, Same Self’; Stand magazine, for reproduction of Anne
Spillard’s ‘No Legal Existence’, which first appeared in Stand magazine, vol. 21, no.
3, 1980, as one of two stories combined under the title Night and Day. The publisher
has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would be glad to hear from any
who have not been traced.
Description:Writing in Action provides a step-by-step, practical guide to the process of writing. Although the emphasis is on creative writing, fiction, poetry and drama, it also covers autobiographical writing, the writing of reports and essays. Because this is a book about process, rather than product, Writin
