Introduction: How to Read this Book and Why Part One: Works in Progress, Writing Lessons Chapter One · Stay With It: The Art of Being (Revisited) or Learning to Write by Dance · Reflection · Prompt Chapter Two · Elliot: Found and Loss: An Essay on Seeing, Failure, Imagining, Death, and Mentorship · Reflection · Prompt Chapter Three · It is Okay to Quit or How to Stop Writing and Become a Writer, An Essay in Four Parts · Reflection · Prompt Chapter Four · What is Creative Writing? A Personal Essay in Two Parts: Writing as Visual Art and My Life in Baseball: An Aesthetic of Creative Writing · Reflection · Prompt Chapter Five · Memory Boxes: A Collage Essay on The Writing Process · Reflection · Prompt Part 2: Tools and Choices Chapter One: Work in Progress, Choices, and Decisions Sections: · In process: What am I doing? How am I relating? · What are you ready to create? Writing is Developmental · Section Three: Writing or Bookmaking? When am I in process, when am I constructing work? Chapter Two : Sustainable Practices Sections: · Writing is Real and That Makes it Hard (Maybe): Reflecting on what you have to say--in a work? In your body of work? · Inquiry + Meaning Making = You Decide · A Writer's Work, A Writer's Life: An Interrelationship · Listening (or Not) To What Others Say: Coaching Yourself and Being Coached Chapter Three: Tools You Can Rely on: An Introduction Sections: · Six Unexpected Tools: Relationship, Play, Translation, Being at Home, Mending, Seeing · Failure is a Tool. Please use it. Part 3: Saying Yes to A Sustainable Process Sections: · Looking for Lessons: A Path to Your Process · Making a Toolbox · Writing is an Ally · Defining Your Work. Who and What Informs Your Writing? · Your Sustainable Practices: Adding to Your Resources Bibliography Index.