Vivid and Continuous: Essays and Exercises for Writing Fiction

Index

index Abbott and Costello, 102, 103, 110 Acker, Kathy, 43–44 adjectives, 69–73 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain), 41, 78 adverbs, 69–73 After the Workshop (McNally), 11, 134–135 Agee, James, 110 Agony and the Ecstasy (Stone), 43 Alexie, Sherman, 109 Algonquin Round Table, 108 Allison, Dorothy, 22 “Along the Frontage Road” (Chabon), 19 American Movie, 110 America’s Report Card (McNally), 42, 133–134 Andy Griffith Show, 113 Angels (Johnson), 41 Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), 28 Anywhere but Here (Simpson), 21, 25 “Araby” (Joyce), 27, 48 Arbuckle, Fatty, 107 Art of Fiction (Gardner), xiii, xiv, xv, 33, 94–95 As I Lay Dying (Faulkner), 10, 17 Aspects of the Novel (Forster), 54 Atlas Shrugged (Rand), 43 Atwood, Margaret, 24, 29, 78, 94, 138 audience, 8–13 Austen, Jane, 41 authorial, 32, 100; language, 77–78 Await Your Reply (Chaon), 24 backstory, 85–87 Baker, Nicholson, 87 Balzac, Honoré de, 113 “Barbarians” (Highsmith), 18 Barreca, Regina, 108 Barrett, Lynne, 27 Barth, John, 11, 18, 19 Barthelme, Frederick, 114 Bastard out of Carolina (Allison), 22 Battle for the Planet of the Apes, 99 Bausch, Richard, 26 Beatty, Paul, 108 beginnings, 31–39; opening in specific time and place, 84–85 Bell Jar (Plath), 24, 40, 121 Bell, Madison Smartt, 22 Benchley, Robert, 108 Benny, Jack, 102 Bergen, Edgar, 99, 102 Best of Johnny Carson, 108 Bible, 41 Black Boy (Wright), 10 “Black Cat” (Poe), 80–81 Blair, Walter, 107 Bogart, Humphrey, 4 Book of Ralph (McNally), 112, 115–116, 132–133 160 index Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It (Meloy), 42 Boyle, Kay, 25 Boyle, T. C., 6, 109 Bradbury, Ray, 41, 138 Brazil (Kercheval), 21 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, 53 Bridge of Sighs (Russo), 40 Brontë, Charlotte, 41 Bukowski, Charles, 5 Burns, Robert, 41 Burroway, Janet, 20 Buster and Billie, 99 Carlin, George, 103, 107 Carver, Raymond, 11, 91, 97 Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), 40, 54–61, 78 Cathedral (Carver), 11 Cat’s Cradle (Vonnegut), 145 Chabon, Michael, 19 Chaon, Dan, 21, 24 Chaplin, Charlie, 102, 107 characterization: development sacrificed , 23; flat characters, 54; minor characters, 53–62; one-dimensional characters, 16; and physical description , 95–96; stick figures, 18. See also main character; narrator Cheap Trick, 99 Cheech and Chong, 103, 110 Chekhov, Anton, 142 Chinese Connection, 99 Cien Años de Soledad (García Márquez), 44 Cisneros, Sandra, 20 Clancy, Tom, 47 clichés, 17, 18, 78–79 Cold Mountain (Frazier), 72 “Comedy’s Greatest Era” (Agee), 110 conflict, 87 Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, 99 Conrad, Joseph, 27 Conroy, Frank, 12, 31, 82 contract with reader, 31–38 Cosby, Bill, 103 “Coyote v. Acme” (Frazier), 109 Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevski), 43 crime fiction, 67 Crumley, James, 44 Cunningham, Michael, 23, 29 Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Haddon), 41, 124–125 Cussler, Clive, 47 “Customs of the Country” (Bell), 22 Dance, Daryl Cumber, 108 “Dead” (Joyce), 94 “Death by Landscape” (Atwood), 29 default modes, 14; and adverbs, 71; and immediacy, 64; language for flashbacks, 75; subject matters, 14–27; techniques, 27–29 “Delicate Edible Birds” (Groff), 21 details: filtered through distinct consciousness, 88–90; gratuitous, 88–90; physical, 95–96; sensory, 68–69 dialogue tags, 66 Dickens, Charles, 28, 44, 113 distance: control of, 94–95; psychic, 33–36. See also point of view Disturbing the Peace (Yates), 24, 119–120 Doerr, Harriet, 87 index 161 Dog of the South (Portis), 107 Don Quixote (Acker), 43 Dostoyevski, Fyodor, 113 Double Indemnity, 29 Doyle, Arthur Conan, 41 Dunn, Katherine, 145 Dybek, Stuart, 19, 76, 114 East of Eden (Steinbeck), 10 “Edie: A Life” (Doerr), 87 Eggers, Dave, 42 El Yanqui (Unger), 42 Elements of Style (Strunk and White), 71 “Eleven” (Cisneros), 20 Elkin, Stanley, 22 Ellis, Bret Easton, 101 “Emergency” (Johnson), 74 endings. See plot Enter the Dragon, 99 episodic. See plot Escape from the Planet of the Apes, 99 Evison, Jonathan, 2, 3 Exley, Frederick, 25 experimental fiction, 18–19 exposition, 82–84 Fan’s Notes (Exley), 25 Faulkner, William, 4, 10, 17, 18, 32, 38, 41, 95, 112 Fawcett-Majors, Farrah, 99 Ferber, Edna, 108 Fiction Writer’s Workshop (Novakovich ), 113 Fielding, Henry, 41 Fields, W. C., 99 first person. See point of view “Fish in the Desert” (Monteiro), 28 Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 27, 41, 43 “Five Points” (Munro), 27 flashbacks, 85–87; and easy psychological explanations, 86; past perfect tense for, 76...