"Combing anecdotes and hard-won lessons from decades of teaching and writing--and invoking everyone from Hemingway to your third-grade teacher--retired professor Thomas C. Foster guides you through the basics of writing. With How to Write Like a Writer you'll learn how to organize your thoughts, construct first drafts, and (not incidentally) keep you in your chair so that inspiration can come to visit" -- Publisher's description.

Includes index.

Introduction: Can't we just text or something? -- Why write? The "I" at the center of "write" -- I-Thou relationships -- Writing as exploration of self -- Writing as exploration of subject -- Writing as a locus of play -- Interlude: The writer's seven (or however many) deadly sins -- What to write and how. Tell yourself what you want to say -- Voice actor -- Beginning before you begin -- Beginnings -- The part between the ends -- Endings -- Don't edit a flying leap -- The problem with process -- Detailing your prose (1) -- Soaring practice. Exercises from literature -- Writing exercises that illuminate academic or professional tasks -- Sentences and their friends -- Interlude: Rules to live, or at least write, by -- Oh, yeah? Prove it! -- Even the Nile has a source -- Revision: It ain't pretty, but... -- Detailing your prose (2) -- Conclusion: The exquisite pain of never being quite finished.