TE D KOOSER & St EV E C O X Writing Brave & Free Encouraging Words for People Who Want to Start Writing 1 2 3 WRITING BRAVE AND FREE 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 [First Page] 12 13 [-1], (1) 14 15 Lines: 0 to 43 16 17 ——— 18 * 429.44899pt PgVar ——— 19 Normal Page 20 * PgEnds: PageBreak 21 22 23 [-1], (1) 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Kim — University of Nebraska Press / Page i / / Writing Brave and Free / Ted Kooser and Steve Cox 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 [-2], (2) 14 15 Lines: 43 to 54 16 17 ——— 18 * 468.0pt PgVar ——— 19 Normal Page 20 * PgEnds: PageBreak 21 22 23 [-2], (2) 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Kim — University of Nebraska Press / Page ii / / Writing Brave and Free / Ted Kooser and Steve Cox 1 2 3 TED KOOSER & STEVE COX 4 5 6 7 8 9 Writing 10 11 12 13 [-3], (3) 14 15 Brave Lines: 54 to 107 16 17 ——— 18 11.666pt PgVar ——— 19 Normal Page 20 and Free * PgEnds: PageBreak 21 22 23 [-3], (3) 24 Encouraging Words for 25 26 People Who Want to 27 28 29 Start Writing 30 31 32 33 34 35 UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS LINCOLN & LONDON 36 37 Kim — University of Nebraska Press / Page iii / / Writing Brave and Free / Ted Kooser and Steve Cox 1 “Vision by Sweetwater” 2 from Selected Poems, 3rd ed., revised and enlarged 3 by John Crowe Ransom, 4 © 1924, 1927 by 5 Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and 6 renewed 1952, 1955 by John Crowe Ransom. 7 Used by permission 8 of Alfred A. Knopf, 9 a division of Random House, Inc. 10 “The Vacuum” from The Collected 11 Poems of Howard Nemerov (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977). 12 © 2006 by the Board of Regents [-4], (4) 13 of the University of Nebraska 14 All rights reserved 15 Manufactured in the Lines: 107 to 202 16 United States of America 17 ⅜ϱ ——— 18 Library of Congress Cataloging- * 116.852pt PgVar ——— 19 in-Publication Data Kooser, Ted. Normal Page 20 Writing brave and free : encouraging * PgEnds: PageBreak 21 words for people who want to start 22 writing / Ted Kooser and Steve Cox. p. cm. 23 Includes bibliographical references. [-4], (4) 24 isbn-13: 978-0-8032-2780-4 (cl. : alk. paper) 25 isbn-10: 0-8032-2780-9 (cl. : alk. paper) 26 isbn-13: 978-0-8032-7832-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-8032-7832-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 27 1. Authorship. I. Cox, Steve, 1939– II. Title. 28 pn147.k69 2006 808'.02–dc22 2005020673 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Kim — University of Nebraska Press / Page iv / / Writing Brave and Free / Ted Kooser and Steve Cox 1 2 Write till you drop. Spend it all now. 3 Annie Dillard 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 [-5], (5) 14 15 Lines: 202 to 243 16 17 ——— 18 * 429.019pt PgVar ——— 19 Normal Page 20 * PgEnds: PageBreak 21 22 23 [-5], (5) 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Kim — University of Nebraska Press / Page v / / Writing Brave and Free / Ted Kooser and Steve Cox 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 [-6], (6) 14 15 Lines: 243 to 251 16 17 ——— 18 * 468.0pt PgVar ——— 19 Normal Page 20 * PgEnds: PageBreak 21 22 23 [-6], (6) 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Kim — University of Nebraska Press / Page vi / / Writing Brave and Free / Ted Kooser and Steve Cox 1 2 3 CONTENTS 4 5 6 7 8 9 1. Writing Brave and Free 1 10 2. What’s Standing in Your Way? 5 11 section 1:Yes,You Can 7 12 3. What Do You Know? 9 13 [-7], (7) 4. Enchanting Details 11 14 15 section 2:Rules? We Don’ Need No Stinkin’ Rules! 15 Lines: 251 to 316 16 5. No Shoulds, No Should Nots 17 17 6. Input and Output 21 ——— 18 * 30.0609pt PgVar 25 ——— 19 section 3:Getting Started Normal Page 20 7. The Ten-Minute Exercise 27 32 * PgEnds: PageBreak 21 8. Overcoming Obstacles to Extended Writing 22 9. Developing the Habit of Writing 36 10. Don’t Forget to Read! 41 23 [-7], (7) 24 section 4:The Environment for Writing 43 25 11. The Writer’s Tools 45 26 12. Your Clean, Well-Lighted Writing Place 49 27 13. Relax! The World Is Resting on Your Shoulders 51 28 29 section 5:You and Your Readers 55 30 14. What Reader Do You Have in Mind? 57 31 15. Writing for Friends and Relations 60 32 16. Writing for Strangers 63 33 17. Taking Control 68 34 18. About Your Imaginary Reader 70 35 36 37 Kim — University of Nebraska Press / Page vii / / Writing Brave and Free / Ted Kooser and Steve Cox 1 section 6:Elements of a Piece of Writing 73 2 19. The Country of Memory 75 3 20. Writing about One Thing 79 4 21. Getting Organized 81 5 22. Sensory Detail 85 6 23. Suspense 88 7 24. The Size and Scope of Things 90 8 25. A Sentimental Journey 94 9 26. Transparency 96 10 27. The Unexpected Detail 98 11 28. It’s a Figure of Speech 100 12 29.BeforeUsontheTable 105 13 30. Be Positive, Emphatic, Clear, and Active 108 [-8], (8) 14 31. Transformative Experience 111 15 section 7:Revision and Getting Help 113 Lines: 316 to 362 16 32. Revise and Wait 115 17 ——— 33. Getting Advice, Taking Criticism 118 18 * 40.45789pt PgVar ——— 19 125 section 8:The Business of Writing Normal Page 20 34. How Publishing Works 127 * PgEnds: PageBreak 21 35. How to Get Published 132 22 36. Self-Publishing, Electronic Publishing, 23 and Vanity Publishing 145 [-8], (8) 24 37. A Few Observations about Copyright 152 25 38.FairUse 155 26 39. Obtaining Permission to Quote 158 27 40. Protecting Your Copyright 161 28 41. Conveying Rights: Contracts 162 29 42. Libel and Invasion of Privacy 166 30 31 section 9:Acknowledgments and Further Reading 169 32 43. Acknowledgments 171 33 44. How to Write 172 34 45. Copyright, Libel, and Invasion of Privacy 176 35 36 37 Kim — University of Nebraska Press / Page viii / / Writing Brave and Free / Ted Kooser and Steve Cox 1 2 3 WRITING BRAVE AND FREE 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 [-9], (9) 14 15 Lines: 362 to 393 16 17 ——— 18 * 427.44899pt PgVar ——— 19 Normal Page 20 * PgEnds: PageBreak 21 22 23 [-9], (9) 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Kim — University of Nebraska Press / Page ix / / Writing Brave and Free / Ted Kooser and Steve Cox 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 [-10], (10) 14 15 Lines: 393 to 397 16 17 ——— 18 0.0pt PgVar ——— 19 Normal Page 20 PgEnds: T X 21 E 22 23 [-10], (10) 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Kim — University of Nebraska Press / Page x / / Writing Brave and Free / Ted Kooser and Steve Cox 1 2 3 1 Writing Brave and Free 4 5 6 7 8 9 Carl Sandburg wrote poems all his life. When he was eighty-five years 10 old, he published a book entitled Honey and Salt (1963) and in it is a long, free, funny poem about love. 11 [First Page] 12 In that poem, “Little Word, Little White Bird,” Sandburg compares 13 love with all sorts of lively things. Is love a cat, he asks, “with claws [1], (1) 14 and wild mate screams in the black night?” Is love “a free glad spender, 15 ready to spend to the limit, and then go head over heels in debt?” Or Lines: 0 to 36 16 maybe, he says, love is an elephant,“and you step out of the way where 17 the elephant comes trampling, tromping, traveling with big feet . ——— 18 immense and slow and easy.” 1.0pt PgVar ——— 19 Page after page, Sandburg slings ideas, comparisons, and images every which way, like a man digging through a box of favorite tools Normal Page 20 and pulling out this and that, pleased to show us what he’s found. * PgEnds: Eject 21 Never does he seem to doubt himself. 22 To write that exultant poem about love at eighty-five, Sandburg 23 [1], must have learned a way to start fresh all over again, every morning. (1) 24 He must have developed great confidence in his ability to write, and to 25 write wild and free. Confidence is one of a writer’s most valuable tools, 26 and though it can sometimes be hard to find at the hardware store, we 27 know where you can find it. We intend to show you that tool. It’s right 28 there inside you, believe it or not, hanging on a nail under the stairs, 29 ready to be taken down and dusted off. 30 But first, a little about the writer’s other tools. 31 Like Sandburg, every writer has a tool kit. Every writer needs tools 32 you can touch and feel—a desk and a lamp, a computer or pen and 33 paper—and tools you can’t quite touch but can hold in your head— 34 the ways to use nouns, verbs, ideas, metaphors, rhythms, attitudes, 35 feelings, questions, memories of people and places, and the ways of 36 organizing thoughts.