BIBLIO is the largest independent book marketplace in the world, with over 100 million books.

Skip to content

Kite and the String: How to Write with Spontaneity and Control--And Live to Tell the Tale

Kite and the String: How to Write with Spontaneity and Control--And Live to Tell the Tale

Kite and the String: How to Write with Spontaneity and Control--And Live to Tell
Stock photo: cover may vary

Kite and the String: How to Write with Spontaneity and Control--And Live to Tell the Tale Hardback - 2016

by Alice Mattison

Add to wish list
  • Used
  • Hardback
New

Description

Viking, August 2016. Hardcover. Used - Like New.
Ask the seller a question Add to wish list
A$14.65
A$8.79 Delivery within USA
Standard delivery: 3 to 12 days
More delivery options
Ships from Inquiring Minds Bookstore (New York, United States)
The BIBLIO Guarantee

Details

About Inquiring Minds Bookstore New York, United States

Biblio member since 2023

We are an independent bookstore and cafe located on the corner of Main and Partition Street in Saugerties.

Terms of Sale: 30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives mis-described or damaged.

Browse books from Inquiring Minds Bookstore

Reader reviews for Kite and the String: How to Write with Spontaneity and Control--And Live to Tell the Tale

Write a review for this book

There are no reviews for this book yet. Be the first to write a review!

Your review will be anonymous unless you login or create an account first.

Overall rating
Remember: You’re rating the book as a work, not the seller or the condition of the specific copy you purchased!

Important Terms and Guidelines

  • Please focus on the book’s content and context. Also, add any personal comments as to how you enjoyed the book. Substantiate your likes and dislikes. You may make comparisons to other books.
  • Reviews must be at least 140 characters in length.
  • Please do not reveal critical plot elements.
  • This is not a help line. Contact customer support if you need help.
Your review must not include:
  • Obscenities, discriminatory language, or other insulting language not suitable for public domain
  • Advertisements, “spam” content, or references to other products, offers or websites.
  • Email addresses, URLs, phone numbers, physical addresses or other contact information.
  • Overly critical comments about other reviews or reviewers
  • Time-sensitive material (i.e. promotional tours, seminars, lectures, etc.)
  • Availability, price, or alternative ordering/shipping information

From the publisher

A targeted and insightful guide to the stages of writing fiction and memoir without falling into common traps, while wisely navigating the writing life, from an award-winning author and longtime teacher

"A book-length master class." --The Atlantic

Writing well does not result from following rules and instructions, but from a blend of spontaneity, judgment, and a wise attitude toward the work--neither despairing nor defensive, but clear-eyed, courageous, and discerning. Writers must learn to tolerate the early stages, the dreamlike and irrational states of mind, and then to move from jottings and ideas to a messy first draft, and onward into the work of revision. Understanding these stages is key.

The Kite and the String urges writers to let playfulness and spontaneity breathe life into the work--letting the kite move with the winds of feeling--while still holding on to the string that will keep it from flying away. Alice Mattison attends also to the difficulties of protecting writing time, preserving solitude, finding trusted readers, and setting the right goals for publication. The only writing guide that takes up both the stages of creative work and developing effective attitudes while progressing through them, plus strategies for learning more about the craft, The Kite and the String responds to a pressing need for writing guidance at all levels.

About the author

Alice Mattison is a widely acclaimed author and longtime writing teacher. She has published six novels--including The Book Borrower, Nothing Is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn, and When We Argued All Night, a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice--as well as four collections of short stories and a collection of poems. Twelve of her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, and other work has been published in The New York Times, Ploughshares, and Ecotone and anthologized in The Pushcart Prize, PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and Best American Short Stories. A frequent panelist at AWP and other writing conferences, she has held residencies at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. She has taught at Brooklyn College, Yale University, and, for the last twenty-one years, in the Bennington Writing Seminars, the MFA program at Bennington College.

Please wait a moment while we load the requested page.

tracking-