Includes bibliographical references.

I. Who is the writer? -- In the beginning... -- The apprentice novels -- A day in the life -- The writing space -- The artist as shape-shifter -- The quesion of vision -- II. The process of writing -- A boot camp for creative writing -- Words -- In defense of our language -- Telling it long and telling it short -- Opening sentences: a hundred rays of light -- On craft and revision -- The challenge of voice -- How we sound -- Nature gives us no metaphors -- Scene and dialogue -- The importance of plot -- Storytelling and the alpha narrative -- On the novel and short story -- The essay -- The risks we take -- III. What helps the writer? -- On teachers and mentors -- The wounds that create our work -- The first readers -- Writers and editors -- On reading -- The virtues of journalism -- Practical literary advice -- IV. The writer as teacher -- The literary duet: creative writing and critical theory -- The creative-writing teacher as soul catcher -- Writing and teaching, or From Mr. Hyde to Dr. Jekyll -- V. The writing life and the duties of the writer -- The art of book reviewing -- In translation -- On screenwriting -- Editing and small presses -- VI. Philosophy and the writer -- Writing well is thinking well -- The writer and philosophy -- Fiction and the liberation of perception -- New fiction novelists -- Science fiction and the philosophical novel -- Sartre and the nothingness of being -- The truth-telling power of fiction -- Afterword: Notes from a former student / by Marc C. Conner.