Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-290) and index.

Welcome; Section 1: The Mastery Path; Chapter 1: Mastering the Craft; Mastering a Writer's Skills; What You Need to Master Sentence Craft; Chapter 2: Claiming Your Power: Learning Through Practice; What Is Practice?; Chapter 3: The Basic Sentence Craft Practices; Basic Practice #1: Waking Up the Word Mind; Basic Practice #2: Keeping a Notebook; Basic Practice #3: Reading as a Writer; Basic Practice #4: Reflecting on Your Practice; Make Practice Part of Your Life.

Section 2: The Power of Diction: Choosing Words; Chapter 4: The Word Hoard;The Benefits of Unpacking Your Word Hoard; Build Your Word Hoard; Training Your Word Mind; Chapter 5: Making Meaning; What Do We Mean by "Meaning"?; Chapter 6: The Qualities of Words; The Qualities of Words 1: Formal/Informal; The Qualities of Words 2: General/Specific; The Qualities of Words 3: Abstract/Concrete; Chapter 7: The Language of the Imagination; Images: The Language of the Imagination; The Vocabulary of the Senses; Balancing Showing and Telling; Looking Ahead.

Section 3: The Power of Function: What Words Do; Chapter 8: Parts of Speech; Parts of Speech 1: Content Parts of Speech; Parts of Speech 2: Structural Words; Chapter 9: Making Phrases; What Is a Phrase?; Composing with Phrases; The Power of Phrases.

Section 4: The Power of Syntax: Ordering Words; Chapter 10: Making Spells: The Magic of Sentences; Kinds of Sentences; Sentence Kernels; Syntactic Slots; Chapter 11: Elaborating the Basic Sentence; Elaborating the Basic Sentence Patterns; Chapter 12: Extending the Basic Sentence; Extending the Basic Sentence 1: Adding Together Independent Clauses; Extending the Basic Sentence 2: Adding Dependent Clauses; New Sentence Structures.

Section 5: The Power of Composition: Putting it All Together; Chapter 13: Making Sentences Move; A Command of Syntactic Structures; Options for Composition; Chapter 14: Writing in Rhythm; The Music of Language.

Section 6: Using Your Power; Chapter 15: Power and Responsibility; The Dance of Writing; The Journey Towards Mastery. Practicing in the Work; The Benefits of The Mastery Path; From Play to Deliberate Practice; Moving On.

"Great writing requires more than an original idea, compelling characters, or a scintillating plot. An author needs all of these to be successful, but writing--and writing well--also demands an entirely different skill set. Spellbinding Sentences arms you with the tools you need to master the power of the English language. In this book, you'll learn the different qualities of words and the many ways those words can be combined to create sentences that hook readers."--Back cover.