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Contents Introduction 1 Openings 5 Ways of Starting the Story Exercise: And So We Begin 18 Sentences 21 Doing the Dusty Work Exercise: How Sentences Work 37 Dialogue 39 The Reader as Eavesdropper Exercise: Think of Your Ears as Magnets 60 Putting It in Context 63 Foreground Needs Background Exercise: But Why Did the Queen Die? 81 Implicit Narrative 83 Achieving Subtlety while Avoiding Confusion Exercise: Presence and Absence 101 Characters 103 Flawed Heroes and Sympathetic Villains Exercise: Making Heroes Flawed 121 High Events 123 The Treatment of Dramatic Moments Exercise: The Richness of the Resonance 142 Sentiment versus Sentimentality 145 The First, Always; the Second, Never Exercise: No Cheating Allowed 164 Closings 167 Ways of Ending the Story Exercise: Finally 181 Conclusion 183 Works Cited or Discussed 187 x / Contents ...

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