Starting the adventure in fiction writing with some strategies for beginnings; examining several ways to ease into a story, including the "5 W's" of journalism, outlines, and opening in medias res; there are no hard and fast rules.

The meaning of "show, don't tell"; how to choose just the right detail to evoke a scene, develop a character and advance the story; considering when it is alright to "tell" after arming oneself with several strategies for "showing".

Characters are illusions that often hinge on how much access a writer gives people to their thoughts; examining how writers choose which moments in a character's life to dramatize; how knowledge of a character's thoughts affects the story.

A look at several approaches for building a character; some writers draw from life, whereas others draw from the imagination; some build characters "inside out" while others build them from the "outside in"; Professor Hynes shows a range of options.

How to get a character into a story; running through five different ways authors introduce characters; seeing two methods for building a story, which are the exploratory method and the iceberg theory of character creation.

Characters come in all forms and sizes; learning the hallmarks of different character types, such as round, flat, major and minor; what purpose each type of character serves; discovering the relationship between a character and their desires.