Best of
Writing

2004

The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination


Ursula K. Le Guin - 2004
    Le Guin as she explores a broad array of subjects, ranging from Tolstoy, Twain, and Tolkien to women's shoes, beauty, and family life. With her customary wit, intelligence, and literary craftsmanship, she offers a diverse and highly engaging set of readings. The Wave in the Mind includes some of Le Guin's finest literary criticism, rare autobiographical writings, performance art pieces, and, most centrally, her reflections on the arts of writing and reading.

Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus


Christine A. LindbergJean Strouse - 2004
    (Was it just bread, or was it chapatti, rye, dal, or pita?) Brand-new word spectrums show where your word falls in a line between two polar opposites (passable is three-quarters of the way from beautiful to ugly).Other features include quick guides to easily confused words; helpful, real-world usage guidance to tricky sticking points of grammar and word choice; and careful, expert distinctions among awkward synonyms. All Oxford American dictionaries use an easy-to-use respelling system to show how entries are pronounced. It uses simple, familiar markings to represent common American English sounds. The Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus will unlock the power of language and is certain to be the thesaurus that stays on the desk--and stays open.

Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook: Hands-On Help for Making Your Novel Stand Out and Succeed


Donald Maass - 2004
    You'll learn to develop and strengthen aspects of your prose with sections on:Building plot layersCreating inner conflictStrengthening voice and point of viewDiscovering and heightening larger-than-life character qualitiesStrengthening themeAnd much more!Maass also carefully dissects examples from real-life breakout novels so you'll lean how to read and analyze fiction like a writer. With authoritative instruction and hands-on workbook exercises, "Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook" is one of the most accessible novel-writing guides available.Set your work-in progress apart from the competition and write your own breakout novel today!

Plot & Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot That Grips Readers from Start to Finish


James Scott Bell - 2004
    Award-winning author James Scott Bell offers clear, concise information that will help you create a believable and memorable plot, including: Techniques for crafting strong beginnings, middles, and endsEasy-to-understand plotting diagrams and chartsBrainstorming techniques for original plot ideasThought-provoking exercises at the end of each chapterStory structure models and methods for all genresTips and tools for correcting common plot problemsFilled with plot examples from popular novels, comprehensive checklists, and practical hands-on guidance, "Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure" gives you the skills you need to approach plot and structure like an experienced pro.

Make Your Creative Dreams Real: A Plan for Procrastinators, Perfectionists, Busy People, and People Who Would Really Rather Sleep All Day


S.A.R.K. - 2004
    It's a "paper lantern" to illuminate your path. Your dreams glow in the dark even if you don't ever tend to them. They will wait for you. I know this from my experiences as a recovering procrastinator and perfectionist. My dreams waited for me -- now you can begin to make your creative dreams REAL!

Page After Page: Discover the Confidence & Passion You Need to Start Writing & Keep Writing (No Matter What!)


Heather Sellers - 2004
    Self-doubt. Mind games. They end the moment you pick up this book. With an inspiring mix of humor, wisdom, and creativity, Page After Page shows you how to find the courage and commitment to start writing and keep writing.Author Heather Sellers draws on twenty years of teaching and personal writing experience to provide lively anecdotes and exercises to help you develop a mindset and lifestyle conducive to daily creation. As each chapter takes you deeper into the eccentric, exclusive world known only to writers, you'll learn how to build a productive creative life that keeps you writing page after page, day after day.

The Christian Writer's Manual of Style: Updated and Expanded Edition


Robert Hudson - 2004
    Rather than simply repeating style information commonly available in standard references, this newly updated and expanded edition includes points of grammar, punctuation, usage, book production and design, and written style that are often overlooked in other manuals. It focuses on information relating to the unique needs and demands of religious publications, such as discussions on how to correctly quote the Bible, how to capitalize and use common religious terms, and how to abbreviate the books of the Bible and other religious words.Also included are rarely found items such as:• an author’s guide to obtaining permissions• guidelines for using American, British, and Mid-Atlantic styles• discussions of inclusive language, profanity, and ethnic sensitivities• discussions of Internet and computer-related language style• a list of problem words• style issues regarding words from major world religions• a discussion of handling brand names in text• a list of common interjections• issues of type design, paper, copy-fitThis edition has been completely updated since the 1988 edition and contains more than twice as much information as the previous edition. This is the most detailed and comprehensive guide of its kind.

Writing About Your Life: A Journey into the Past


William Zinsser - 2004
    His method is to take you on a memoir of his own: 13 chapters in which he recalls dramatic, amusing, and often surprising moments in his long and varied life as a writer, editor, teacher, and traveler. Along the way, Zinsser pauses to explain the technical decisions he made as he wrote about his life. They are the same decisions you'll have to make as you write about your own life: matters of selection, condensation, focus, attitude, voice, and tone.

Gotham Writers' Workshop Fiction Gallery


Gotham Writers' Workshop - 2004
    Grouped in sections that follow the cycle of life, these stories explore the varied aspects of human existence and, cumulatively, form the satisfying dramatic arc of a novel. The authors range from the acknowledged masters of short fiction - Anton Chekhov, Dorothy Parker, John Cheever, Raymond Carver, T.C. Boyle, Jhumpa Lahiri - to the very best of today's emerging writers. As a bonus, the anthology includes interviews with T.C. Boyle and Jhumpa Lahiri, in which they illuminate the process of creating a short story. Aspiring writers who enjoyed Gotham Writers' Workshop previous book, Writing Fiction, will also find this anthology an invaluable source of inspiration and instruction. Praise for Writing Fiction: "The writing is fresh and full of concrete advice."-Publishers' Weekly " It's an incredible book, not just for the aspiring writer but for the ardent reader as well." - Michael Ray, Senior Editor, Zoetrope: All-Story "This book has a vividness that somehow captures the excitement and fellowship in good writers' workshops. I've clearly found a new book to use in my own writing classes. A fine guide."-Chuck Kinder, Writing Program Director, University of Pittsburgh "The strength of this book is its accessibility: It explains all the basics of writing fiction in a simple, easy-to-understand manner that doesn't intimidate."-The Writer Magazine Gotham Writers' Workshop is America's leading private creative writing school, offering classes in New York City and on the web at www.WritingClasses.com. The school's interactive online classes, selected "Best of the Web" by Forbes, have attracted thousands of aspiring writers from across the United States and more than sixty countries. Also available:

Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach


Paul Joseph Gulino - 2004
    Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach expounds on an often-overlooked tool that can be key in solving this problem. A screenplay can be understood as being built of sequences of about fifteen pages each, and by focusing on solving the dramatic aspects of each of these sequences in detail, a writer can more easily conquer the challenges posed by the script as a whole.The sequence approach has its foundation in early Hollywood cinema (until the 1950s, most screenplays were formatted with sequences explicitly identified), and has been rediscovered and used effectively at such film schools as the University of Southern California, Columbia University and Chapman University. This book exposes a wide audience to the approach for the first time, introducing the concept then providing a sequence analysis of eleven significant feature films made between 1940 and 2000:The Shop Around The Corner / Double Indemnity / Nights of Cabiria / North By Northwest / Lawrence of Arabia / The Graduate / One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest / Toy Story / Air Force One / Being John Malkovich / The Fellowship of the Ring

The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage


Mark Lester - 2004
    'The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage' does so in an entertaining way.

Writing the Sacred Journey: Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir


Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew - 2004
    It helps readers get motivated, generate materials, move swiftly through drafts, and gain confidence and ease in their writing. Writing the Sacred Journey helps readers to uncover and honor the sacred within their own life stories. Elizabeth Andrew, an experienced writing instructor and spiritual director, gently guides readers through the spiritual writing process from concept to finished manuscript. She identifies some of the initial hurdles writers face in describing the interior, spiritual life and offers practical tips about how to overcome them. Writing the Sacred Journey also explores themes that commonly appear in spiritual memoir, as well as the all-important issue of writing as craft. Readers will learn new and practical skills for every stage of the writing process. Sprinkled throughout the book, these thoughtful activities teach readers new writing techniques and avenues into the creative process.

The Sense of Structure: Writing from the Reader's Perspective


George D. Gopen - 2004
     Reflecting on the author's decades of experience as an international writing consultant, writer, and instructor, The Sense of Structure teaches writing from the perspective of readers. This text demonstrates that readers have relatively fixed expectations of where certain words or grammatical constructions will appear in a unit of discourse. By bringing these intuitive reading processes to conscious thought, this text provides students with tools for understanding how readers interact with the structure of writing, from punctuation marks to sentences to paragraphs, and how meaning and purpose are communicated through structure.

The Grammar Bible: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Grammar But Didn't Know Whom to Ask


Michael Strumpf - 2004
    For over a quarter of a century, as creator and proprietor of the National Grammar Hot Line, he helped thousands of callers from every corner of the globe tackle the thorniest issues of English grammar. Now, in The Grammar Bible, he has created an eminently useful guide to better speaking and writing. Unlike other grammar manuals, The Grammar Bible is driven by the actual questions Professor Strumpf encountered during his years of teaching and fielding phone calls from anxious writers, conscientious students, and perplexed editors, including such perennial quandaries aso Where do I put this comma?o What case should this pronoun be in?o How do I form the possessive of Dickens? Professor Strumpf explains these and other language issues with wit and wisdom, showing how to speak more clearly and write more impressively by avoiding common errors and following the principles of good grammar. Whether you need a comprehensive review of the subjunctive mood or simply want to know which form of a verb to use, The Grammar Bible is a practical guide that will enlighten, educate, and entertain.

Oxford Guide to Plain English


Martin Cutts - 2004
    This text is a guide that explains how to write and communicate information clearly.

Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation


John Seely - 2004
    Giving examples of real usage, this book provides the basic information about grammar and punctuation that people need on a day-to-day basis. Arranged A-Z, it contains entries for standard grammatical terms as well as dealing with related questions of usage. In addition to explaining basic terms such as 'split infinitive', 'participle', and 'adverb', entries also discuss whether to use 'may' or 'might', 'that' or 'which', and 'it's' or 'its'. The Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation gives the reader quick and easy access to the answers to these, and many other, questions of grammar. It offers clear and coherent explanations, and illustrations across a broad range of topics, and is the first port of call for any reader seeking clear, authoritative help with grammar and punctuation. Both easy to use and comprehensive, the Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation is an essential tool for writing at home, in the office, at school, and at college.

Screenwriting Is Storytelling: Creating an A-List Screenplay That Sells!


Kate Wright - 2004
    A compelling story, complete with intriguing characters and situations created with these screenwriting tricks of the trade can become a box office blockbuster film. Screenwriters will learn: - Developing themes within the plot - Using structure to define the story - Creating memorable characters - Establishing moral dilemmas and conflicts - Achieving classic elements of storytelling in a three-act dramatic structure - Mastering different genres

Toward the Open Field: Poets on the Art of Poetry, 1800-1950


Melissa Kwasny - 2004
    Hitherto uncollected and all in English, the work in this anthology follows the changing notions of what a poem is, what a poet is, and why we read a poem, tracing the development of stylistic and ideological strategies that have spawned our current, conflicting understandings of verse.The book begins with Wordsworth's 1802 "Preface" to the Lyrical Ballads and proceeds through 150 years of English language tradition, including the European poetries which greatly influenced it. These prose works allow the reader to share one of the great extended conversations by poets about poetry during a dynamic period of literary experimentation.Includes work by Charles Baudelaire, Andr� Breton, Aim� C�saire, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Langston Hughes, John Keats, Federico Garcia Lorca, Mina Loy, St�phane Mallarm�, Marianne Moore, Charles Olson, Ezra Pound, Arthur Rimbaud, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Gertrude Stein, Wallace Stevens, Paul Val�ry, Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, William Wordsworth and Louis Zukofsky.

Rex Barks: Diagramming Sentences Made Easy


Phyllis Davenport - 2004
    Lessons and exercises include parts of speech, diagramming forms, kinds of verbs, dependent clauses, verbals, compound and complex sentences, and more. Includes answer key. Recommended by Seton Home Study Grade 6 Author: Phyllis Davenport Publisher: Paper Tiger Format: 152 pages, hardcover ISBN: 978-1889439358

How to Teach Writing


Jeremy Harmer - 2004
    Each title includes a photocopiable 'Task File' of training and reflection activities to reinforce the theories and practical ideas presented.

Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases


George Davidson - 2004
    Its sales now exceed 32 million copies. This concise edition contains the essential entries from the original 1852 volume, and has been revised and updated to include all the latest buzzwords and phrases.

Using Picture Books To Teach Writing With The Traits


Ruth Culham - 2004
    But using them to help students apply the traits of writing-ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation-is. This essential resource contains over 200 teacher-friendly annotations on new and classic books, organized by trait. It also contains plenty of step-by-step, trait-focused lessons based on specific books, which can be followed directly or easily adapted. For use with Grades 3 and Up.

American Writers at Home


J.D. McClatchy - 2004
    A collection of photographic and literary portraits of the homes of some of America's top writers includes coverage of such figures as Ernest Hemingway, Frederick Douglass, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, and Robert Frost; in a volume complemented by discussions of how their living environments reflected their creative processes and inner lives.

Crafting Authentic Voice


Tom Romano - 2004
    A great writer has an inimitable one. Regardless of subject or place in time or space, good and great writers share one trait-they are true to their personalities, spirits, and characters. How do they do this? How can WE do this as teachers and writers? And how can we show our students what crafting an authentic voice entails?One of our premier writers on the writing process and writing workshop, Tom Romano, tells us. In a compelling and manageable text, he makes the case for giving special time and attention to voice as a means to get students involved and improve their writing, particularly expository writing. Using his own strong voice and trademark narrative style, he teaches by example-his own and his students'-how writers can be true to themselves and vivid on the page to pull readers in and keep them reading.More than that, Romano is an irresistible motivator to write well. His infectious enthusiasm, intellect, and heart shine through every chapter-from his tempting antipasto of stories and poems beginning each section of his book to the delicious courses that follow. He divides his text into small readable parts that consider the delight and dilemma of voice, the qualities of voice, and the relationship of voice and identity. Many examples indicate ways to trust the gush. And there are practical ideas here, too-strategies and techniques for immediate use in your teaching and writing.Read and take heed of Romano. Craft an authentic voice in your own writing. Teach students how they can do the same. Then revel in the candor and insight, the absorbing and entertaining stories, the clear thinking--the good, maybe even great, writing.

Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer


Peter Turchi - 2004
    Using the map as a metaphor, fiction writer Peter Turchi considers writing as a combination of exploration and presentation, all the while serving as an erudite and charming guide. He compares the way a writer leads a reader though the imaginary world of a story, novel, or poem to the way a mapmaker charts the physical world. "To ask for a map," says Turchi, "is to say, ‘Tell me a story.’ "With intelligence and wit, the author looks at how mapmakers and writers deal with blank space and the blank page; the conventions they use or consciously disregard; the role of geometry in maps and the parallel role of form in writing; how both maps and writing serve to re-create an individual’s view of the world; and the artist’s delicate balance of intuition with intention.A unique combination of history, critical cartography, personal essay, and practical guide to writing, Maps of the Imagination is a book for writers, for readers, and for anyone interested in creativity. Colorful illustrations and Turchi’s insightful observations make his book both beautiful and a joy to read.

Look at My Book: How Kids Can Write & Illustrate Terrific Books


Loreen Leedy - 2004
    With the help of some spunky and humorous characters, Loreen Leedy tells kids everything they need to do to become authors, illustrators, editors, and designers of their own fantastic books.

The Sound of Paper


Julia Cameron - 2004
     In The Sound of Paper, Julia Cameron delves deep into the heart of the personal struggles that all artists face. What can we do when we face our keyboard or canvas with nothing but a cold emptiness? How can we begin to carve out our creation when our vision and drive are clouded by life's uncertainties? In other words, how can we begin the difficult work of being an artist? Drawing upon her many years of personal experience as both an artist and a teacher, Julia Cameron guides readers to a place where they can find the strength and courage to create. Demonstrating how this involves a process of constant renewal, of starting from the beginning, she writes, "When we are building a life from scratch, we must dig a little. We must be like that hen scratching the soil: 'What goodness is hidden here, just below the surface?' we must ask." With exercises designed to develop the power to infuse one's art with a deeply informed knowledge of the soul, this book is an essential artist's companion from one of the foremost authorities on the creative process. Julia Cameron's most illuminating book to date, The Sound of Paper provides readers with a spiritual path for creating the best work of their lives.

The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't


Carolyn Howard-Johnson - 2004
    Full of nitty gritty how-to's for getting nearly free publicity, Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns. Carolyn Howard-Johnson is award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction and former publicist for a New York PR firm and a marketing instructor for UCLA's Writers' Program. THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER tells authors how to do what their publishers can't or won't and why authors can do their own promotion better than a PR professional.

The Shy Writer: An Introvert's Guide to Writing Success


C. Hope Clark - 2004
    If you are shy and don't want to "get over it," this is the book for you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson


Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. - 2004
    Emerson went on to become one of America's best-known and best-loved 19th century figures. Along with Thoreau, Hawthorne, Fuller, the Peabody sisters, the Alcott family, Jonas, Very, the Ripleys, and the Channings, Emerson helped shape a circle of poets, reformers, artists, and thinkers who helped to define a new identity for American art. In this biography, written by American physician, poet, and humorist Oliver Wendell Holmes, Emerson's life is traced from his family genealogy through his childhood, his years in school, his ordination and early writings, to his years as a preeminent thinker, lecturer, poet, and writer. The book, originally published in 1885, even offers a look at the "future of his reputation" from the late 19th century point of view.

Screenwriting is Storytelling: Creating an A-List Screenplay that Sells!


Kate Wright - 2004
    A compelling story, complete with intriguing characters and situations created with these screenwriting tricks of the trade can become a box office blockbuster film.Screenwriters will learn:- Developing themes within the plot- Using structure to define the story- Creating memorable characters- Establishing moral dilemmas and conflicts - Achieving classic elements of storytelling in a three-act dramatic structure- Mastering different genres

Gary Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names: For a Gygaxian Fantasy World: The Essential Tool for Name Creation


Malcolm Bowers - 2004
    A veritable host of nationalities and cultures are covered from Indian, Korean, and Mongol to Aztec and Mayan. From Medieval English to Spanish, from the fantastic to the mundane, from Italian, Jewish, Polynesian, and more, this extraordinary collection covers it all. Furthermore, a whole chapter is dedicated to place names and another to epithets. For the d20 enthusiast, a new core class, the Onomancer, comes to life with new rules on the magic of names and the naming conventions used by your world's powerful magi.

Word Magic for Writers: Your Source for Powerful Language That Enchants, Convinces and Wins Readers


Cindy Rogers - 2004
    Book by Rogers, Cindy

Commentary for Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills


John M. Swales - 2004
    However, the collegial tone established in previous Commentaries between Swales & Feak and instructors has been retained. This volume contains commentaries on each of the eight units plus the two appendixes. The format for each unit includesa summary of the main points of the unit along with a list of topics covered. a synopsis of activities, divided into Language Focus sections and description of tasks. some general notes designed to capture the character of the unit, to indicate alternative activities, or to anticipate problems that may arise. detailed commentary and discussion of individual tasks, including model or sample answers where possible.

Expectations: Teaching Writing from the Reader's Perspective


George D. Gopen - 2004
    As a result, students learn how to write with conscious knowledge of reader's expectations. KEY TOPICS: Readers have relatively fixed expectations of where in the structure of any unit of discourse (clause, sentence, paragraph, or document) to expect the arrival of specific kinds of substance. Taking most of their textual clues for interpretation not from the meanings of individual works, but rather from where those words appear in the structure of a sentence or paragraph, when trying to understand a sentence, readers need to find the answers to five important questions:What is going on here? Whose story is it? What is the most important piece of information in this sentence? How does this sentence link backwards to the one that precedes it? How does this sentence lean forwards to the one that follows it? In order to answer these questions, readers look in certain places or structural locations in the sentence. With an approach that de-mystifies the language and writing process, the writer has new powers to, (1) control what readers are likely to make of the text; and (2) re-enter their own thought processes to judge both cohesion and coherence. MARKET: Ideal for people who want a rhetoric that approaches the task of teaching writing from the perspective of readers.

True Nature


Barbara Bash - 2004
    In this four-color book—designed to look like a one-of-a-kind hand-bound journal—she creates the look and feel of a spontaneously composed diary chronicling her experiences and reflections during a series of solitary retreats. Her handwritten notes and exquisite drawings capture wondrous moments in the natural environment: a dragonfly's brief pause, a surprised deer in tall grass, woodchucks watching her from a distance, a raindrop making its way down a windowpane. Nature lovers, gardeners, and anyone who enjoys walking in the woods will recognize a kindred spirit and find hours of pleasure in these pages.

First Thought Best Thought


William S. Burroughs - 2004
    For more than 30 years, groundbreaking teachers at Naropa University such as Ginsberg and his colleagues Anne Waldman, William S. Burroughs, and Diane di Prima have inspired emerging poets and prose writers to express themselves with unfettered honesty and immediacy. Now, with First Thought, Best Thought, the first landmark release from Naropa University's treasured audio archives, you are invited to meet and learn with these literary mentors face-to-face as they share the secrets of their craft. Selected and edited by poet and Naropa alumnus Randy Roark from thousands of hours of performance and teaching sessions, First Thought, Best Thought brings you four rare gems of inspiration and practical wisdom, including:William S. Burroughs teaching his breakthrough methods for generating fresh writing--including the cut-up method, chance operations, and dreamwork Diane di Prima on how to survive as an artist--preserving your sensibility, creating a supportive artistic community, getting published, self-publishing, and much moreAllen Ginsberg exploring every stage of poetic activity--from inspiration, to composition, to revision, to performing your poetry in publicAnne Waldman on the elements of the poet's craft--from the raw material of the words themselves to the many aspects of the poem in performance

Ultimate Spider-Man Script Book


Brian Michael Bendis - 2004
    Original Ultimate Spider-Man scripts and commentary by Brian Michael Bendis offer a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process.

The Cambridge Guide to English Usage


Pam Peters - 2004
    It also addresses larger issues of inclusive language, and effective writing and argument, and provides guidance on grammatical terminology. Based on large international corpora, it differentiates clearly between U.S., U.K., Canadian and Australian usage and offers up-to-date, objective advice presented in readable, accessible terms. Pam Peters is a Professor of Linguistics at Macquarie University where she also serves as Director of Macquarie University's Dictionary Research Center. She is the author of several books on English usage, including Cambridge Australian English Style Guide (Cambridge, 1995).

Our Mother Tongue: An Introductory Guide to English Grammar


Nancy Wilson - 2004
    In this English grammar guide, Nancy Wilson surveys the major concepts in English grammar for beginners at the late elementary and junior high level (even adults seeking a brush-up). Wilson avoids common, contrived sentences that serve merely to illustrate her point; instead, she uses many selections from Scripture and from great English writers which help to instruct the student through their content, style, and structure. In addition to a helpful format that highlights key definitions, punctuation issues, and important concepts, short historical sidebars tell the fascinating story of the development of English. She continues the traditional and challenging exercise of sentence diagramming, which trains students to quickly analyze the structure of any given sentence. The grammatical explanations, the logic of diagrams, and the rhetoric of her examples combine to make a fine textbook.

The Writer's Book of Wisdom: 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft


Steven Taylor Goldsberry - 2004
    In The Writer's Book of Wisdom, the author teaches 101 concise - and proven - techniques on everything from tone to characterization that are guaranteed to get readers writing immediately. Each piece of quick instruction is geared toward both fiction and nonfiction writers of any level. Furthermore. The authors voice is lively and authoritative as he provides unintimidating guidance; The stunning visual design makes this book both fun to use and perfect as a gift; Part writing coach and part inspirational muse, The Writer's Book of Wisdom will soon hone writers' skills and liberate their creativity.

On Writing for Children and Other People


Julius Lester - 2004
    It has been a vocation in the original sense of the word, that is a religious calling, one I was helpless to deny. For me writing has never been about self-expression. Writing has been about tending the spirit and making real the soul." So says Julius Lester in the introduction to this extraordinary book that combines memoir and social criticism. In strikingly honest, thought-provoking prose, he discusses the aspects of his life that have influenced his writing, including his relationships, political views, and religious beliefs; offers revealing anecdotes of the editorial process; and expresses the absolute importance of story. He also shares photographs he has taken through the years- photos that offer their own moving commentary on his text. This bold, insightful book could only have been written by Julius Lester, a revered author known for his strong voice and clear eye. He won a Newbery Honor for his groundbreaking To Be a Slave, has been a National Book Award finalist and the recipient of the Coretta Scott King Honor and Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, among many other honors, and is a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Writing Spiritual Books: A Bestselling Writer’s Guide to Successful Publication


Hal Zina Bennett - 2004
    At the same time, spiritual and personal growth books grace bestseller lists across the nation. Perhaps not so surprisingly, there is a cross-fertilization between people who are interested in personal and spiritual growth and those who are interested in writing.In Writing Spiritual Books, Hal Zina Bennett will take the writer by the hand: first, he will help illuminate and focus on the spiritual experience; then Bennett shares tips and secrets on the craft of writing, organization, and style of spiritual books; and finally, he will address the practical aspects of finding an agent and publisher, complete with a resource section.Including both anecdotal and prescriptive material gleaned from the Hal Zina Bennett’s work on over 200 successful projects–-for both publishers and individual authors--their will be writing exercises, exploratory questions, and other practical guidance, Readers will be taken through the entire process of writing books for the spiritual and personal growth markets.

The Journey from the Center to the Page: Yoga Philosophies and Practices as Muse for Authentic Writing


Jeff Davis - 2004
    Photos.

All About Me Teenage Edition: The Story of Your Life


Philipp Keel - 2004
    These special years are often challenging, but also full of wonderful surprises. With questions about wishes and fears, memories and beliefs, secrets and dreams, this edition of All About Me will reveal everything everyone ever wanted to know about you but never thought—or dared—to ask. Fill it in, leave it blank, or ask and answer questions out loud—this is the perfect book for you, and your friends.

Research Genres: Explorations and Applications


John M. Swales - 2004
    The hardback edition discusses today's research world, its various configurations of genres, and the role of English within the genres. Theoretical and methodological issues are explored, with a special emphasis on various metaphors of genre. The book is full of carefully worded detail and each chapter ends with suggestions for pedagogical practice. The volume closes with evaluations of contrastive rhetoric, applied corpus linguistics, and critical approaches to EAP. Research Genres provides a rich and scholarly account of this key area.

Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers


Sarah Stone - 2004
    This book addresses the major elements of fiction. Numerous examples, questions, and exercises throughout the book help readers reflect upon and explore writing possibilities. The mini-anthology includes a variety of interesting, illustrative, and diverse stories-North American and international, contemporary and classic, realistic and experimental.

Food at the Time of the Bible


Miriam Feinberg Vamosh - 2004
    Peter's Fish? What was in the bowl that Jesus dipped into at the Last Supper? Within the pages of this book you will find a uniquely in-depth and easy-to-read survey of every aspect of food in the Bible, accompanied by fascinating illustrations and photographs. You will learn not only what people ate and drank in Bible days, but how they raised their food, stored it, traded in it, and prepared it. You will take a fresh look at food through the eyes of Scripture, seeing new and deeper symbolic meanings behind many a menu.Best of all, you will find an exciting collection of biblically-inspired, easy-to-prepare recipes for a cornucopia of delicious dishes to share with friends and family. As you enjoy learning about what our biblical ancestors ate, you will find yet another way of coming closer to Bible days and Bible ways. Through this book you will discover that Scripture, the most important inspiration in our spiritual lives, can be an inspiration in the kitchen as well!

Write in Style: Using Your Word Processor and Other Techniques to Improve Your Writing


Bobbie Christmas - 2004
    A one-of-a-kind guide incorporating contemporary technology as it teaches readers how to fine-tune style elements and improve their writing in the computer age.

Elizabeth Smart: A Fugue Essay on Women and Creativity


Kim Echlin - 2004
    In this suggestive new look at the life of a fascinating writer, Kim Echlin shows that another - powerful - source of Smart's creativity was rooted in her fearless exploration of the female body and psyche - as daughter, lover of men and women, and single mother of four children fathered by a British poet. Women's creativity and relationships are the timeless preoccupation of Elizabeth Smart's writing. Echlin shows how Elizabeth Smart's determined embrace of her own unconventional experience in her art belongs to a literary tradition of writers who create female characters with a will toward individuality. To the last pages of Elizabeth Smart's lifelong diaries, she never stopped challenging herself to stop doubting, to live and speak her truth, even though it put her on the margins throughout her life. Echlin brings new material to bear on this reflection, including a hundred interviews with family, friends and work colleagues, as well as never before seen letters in which Smart reflects on birth and female creativity. She highlights Smart's unwavering commitment to writing in a voice and aesthetic form that reflects authentic female creativity.

Saint-Exupery: Art, Writings, and Musings


Nathalie des Vallieres - 2004
    It is less well known that from childhood he decorated his letters, notebooks, journals, and diaries (and later his manuscripts) with small drawings, caricatures, cartoons, and visual puzzles, very few of which have ever been published. Now this remarkable anthology invites the reader to rediscover the life and work of one of the twentieth century’s most important writers. Facsimiles of his personal writings and of his corrections to original manuscripts are reproduced along with examples of the drawings, cartoons, and sketches with which he decorated almost every scrap of his personal writings.

Silver City and Other Screenplays


John Sayles - 2004
    Silver City and Other Screenplays is a collection of Sayles's greatest work, something that will delight his legion of fans and also aspiring screenwriters and film students who will regard the book as a master class in the art of screenwriting. Silver City and Other Screenplays includes Sayles's most celebrated work -- including Matewan, Return of the Secaucus Seven, Lone Star, and Passion Fish (for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay), and his latest film Silver City, a spirited lampoon and a timely, toxic warning about the present state of American democracy.

The Art of the Book Proposal: From Focused Idea to Finished Proposal


Eric Maisel - 2004
    Filled with exercises designed to help a writer conceive and create a desirable proposal, and checklists to keep track of the project's progress, The Art of the Book Proposal provides the framework on which to build a great idea, as well as intelligent, empathetic instruction on how to produce a proposal that will capture the interest of an agent or editor.While most how-to writing books focus only on the nuts and bolts of putting a proposal together, Maisel, considered by many to be America's foremost expert on the psychological side of the creative process, also helps the writer overcome mental barriers to producing the best work possible. Using a holistic approach to the sometimes unglamorous work of designing a proposal, his guide enables a writer to transform an idea into a book.

Dictionary of Pronunciation ; Say it Right!


Norman Lewis - 2004
    

Bob Bly's Guide to Freelance Writing Success


Robert W. Bly - 2004
    While many freelance writers struggle to earn a living wage, Bly has proven year after year that it's not only possible to earn far more, it's possible to to transform words into a $100,000-a-year freelancing business.

Slightly Foxed 1: Kindred Spirits


Gail Pirkis - 2004
    

Felt Sense: Writing with the Body [With CD]


Sondra Perl - 2004
    Derived from the work of philosopher and psychologist Eugene Gendlin, felt sense allows writers to attend to what is on the edge of their thinking. Its implications are revelatory for anyone who writes-or teaches writing.In three lucid chapters, Sondra Perl connects felt sense to three core concepts: Chapter One is historical; it locates felt sense within the field of composition studies. Chapter Two is experiential; keyed to the CD, it includes a transcript of the "Guidelines for Composing"-a body/mind meditation which provides a "protected space" for writing. Chapter Three is theoretical; it reveals how language and meaning are connected to inchoate, bodily intuitions and presents a theory of embodied knowing. Perl guides writers and teachers in an understanding of felt sense. Using her "Guidelines for Composing," writers of all ages and backgrounds, novices and professionals, can learn to compose in genuinely fresh and thoughtful ways.The accompanying CD, which is also available separately, contains "Guidelines for Composing." Encouraging the development of felt sense, these Guidelines can be used by teachers in classroom settings or by writers working on their own.

Slightly Foxed 3: Sharks, Otters and Fast Cars


Gail Pirkis - 2004
    

Teaching the Qualities of Writing [With CDROMWith Lesson CardsWith Teacher's Guide]


Joann Portalupi - 2004
    These hands-on lessons explore the qualities of writing - ideas, design, language, presentation - and show how, when each is infused with voice, the writer's personality energizes the writing.TQW includes: Teachers Guide program overview planning charts assessment forms Lesson Cards 112 ready-to-use lessons exemplar text graphic organizers CD-ROM author videos student writing discussions print resourcesLearn more about "Teaching the Qualities of Writing" by visiting .

Inspired Creative Writing (52 Brilliant Ideas)


Alex Gordon Smith - 2004
     For aspiring authors planning an epic novel, plotting a screenplay, or wishing to bare their poetic soul, Inspired Creative Writing offers tactics and exercises to get imagination flowing from the first line to the final word, including: - Idea #1: Limbering up - Idea #16: Say what? - Idea #24: Through the eyes of the beholder - Idea #42: Show and tell

How to Write a Children's Picture Book: Learning from The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Corduroy, Where the Wild Things Are, The Carrot Seed, Good Night, Gorilla, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, and Other Favorite Stories


Eve Heidi Bine-Stock - 2004
    Both concept books and picture storybooks employ very distinctive structures that, once mastered, can be applied to any picture book you wish to write. When so many of the best picture books employ the same structures, it is important to analyze these structures, understand why they work, and learn how to incorporate them into your own writing. This volume helps you do all that. You will see that no matter how carefully you labor over the tone, word choice, plot, character, setting, theme and style of your picture book, you must have a thorough grasp of its structure if you wish your book to succeed. Indeed, you will find that an expert command of structure is the key to writing a successful children's picture book.

Paper Talk: A History of Libraries, Print Culture, and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada Before 1960


Brendan Frederick R. Edwards - 2004
    Paper Talk explores the relationship between the introduction of western print culture to Aboriginal peoples by missionaries, the development of libraries in the Indian schools in the nineteenth century, and the establishment of community-accessible collections in the twentieth century. While missionaries and the Department of Indian Affairs envisioned books and libraries as assimilative and "civilizing" tools, Edwards shows that some Aboriginal peoples articulated western ideas of print culture, literacy, books, and libraries as tools to assist their own cultural, social, and political aspirations. This text also serves to illustrate that the contemporary struggle of Aboriginal peoples in Canada to establish libraries in communities has a historical basis and that many of the obstacles faced today are remarkably similar to those encountered by earlier generations.

Where's Thena? I Need a Poem About...: Insightful and Witty Poems


Thena Smith - 2004
    Other subjects include Nature, Pets and Teddy Bears, Babies and Boys and Girls. Also included are some hard to find subjects for Special Needs Children and Memorial poems and Poems of loss. Thena has been encouraged for years by ladies on the message boards to put her poems in book form.

The Solid Form of Language: An Essay on Writing and Meaning


Robert Bringhurst - 2004
    To define a single word means to try to catch those ripples. No one’s hands are fast enough." With this concise and broadly informative essay, renowned poet, typographer and linguist Robert Bringhurst presents a brief history of writing and a new way of classifying and understanding the relationship between script and meaning. Beginning with the original relationship between a language and its written script, Bringhurst takes us on a history of reading and writing that begins with the interpretation of animal tracks and fast-forwards up to the typographical abundance of more recent times. The first four sections of the essay describe the earliest creation of scripts, their movement across the globe and the typographic developments within and across languages. In the fifth and final section of the essay, Bringhurst introduces his system of classifying scripts. Placing four established categories of written language – semographic, syllabic, alphabetic and prosodic – on a wheel adjacent to one another, he uses the location, size and shape of points on the wheel to show the degree to which individual world languages incorporate these aspects of recorded meaning. Bringhurst’s system is based on an appreciation that indeed no one’s hands are fast enough and that no single script adheres to or can be understood within the confines of a single method of transcription. Readers will find this combination of anthropology, typography, literature, mathematics, music and linguistics surprisingly accessible and thought provoking. The text is accompanied by diagrams and typographic examples that make for an experiential study of the relationship between writing and meaning. This book is a Smyth-sewn paperback with a letterpress printed jacket. The book was designed by Robert Bringhurst and Andrew Steeves, and printed on Zephyr Laid paper. The cover was hand-printed letterpress on St. Armand handmade paper.

Gateways to Academic Writing: Effective Sentences, Paragraphs, and Essays


Alan Meyers - 2004
    The book's four units give students the tools they need to improve their academic writing. Unit I introduces the writing process, from exploring ideas, organizing, and drafting to revising, editing, and proofreading. Unit II examines the ten modes of writing, including narration, all forms of exposition, persuasion, and summary and response. Unit III presents key terminology, sentence structures, and verb tenses and forms. Unit IV gives students extensive editing practice, including Editing for Mastery exercises.

W. G. Sebald - A Critical Companion


J.J. Long - 2004
    G. Sebald (1944-2001) is one of the most important writers of our time, combining a wide readership with universal critical acclaim. Sebald's refracted and sometimes alienated views of both his native Germany and his adopted English homeland have had astonishing resonance in the German- and English-speaking worlds. In this first collection to appear in English, newly commissioned essays by leading international scholars offer interdisciplinary perspectives on Sebald's work, providing a thorough assessment of his achievement.Sebald's texts deal with issues that lie at the very heart of contemporary culture: memory, exile, identity, representation, history, the Holocaust. His texts are hybrid in nature, mixing fiction, biography, historiography, travel writing, and memoir, and incorporating numerous photographic images. In response to this, W. G. Sebald: A Critical Companion focuses on the key areas of travel, intertextuality, nature, and memory.Introductory chapters situate Sebald's work within the European literary tradition and within contemporary critical discourse. Individual chapters then draw on approaches from cultural and literary studies, including ecocriticism, trauma theory, and text-image studies, in order to explore aspects of Sebald's dazzling oeuvre. A comprehensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources rounds off the volume, which will satisfy a growing need for a high-quality and up-to-date guide to Sebald's work for an English-speaking readership. The interdisciplinary nature of the Companion means that it will appeal not only to students and critics working on Sebald, but to anyone interested in contemporary culture.

The Best of Hal Lebovitz: Great Sportswriting from Six Decades in Cleveland


Hal Lebovitz - 2004
    Hal covered just about every major sports event over 60 years, reporting on each with honest, straightforward words and firm opinions--and most likely a scoop on the competition. He wrote about the greats--Jim Brown, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Woody Hayes . . . and the great moments--the Indians' 1948 playoff game, the Browns' 1964 championship season, Rocky Colavito's four consecutive home runs. His writing was featured 17 times in the annual Best Sports Stories and selected for numerous other anthologies. He won countless writing awards and been inducted into 12 halls of fame--including the National Baseball Hall of Fame.Always, Hal has written for the fans. And for as long as anyone can remember, fans have been reading Hal for his particular take on events. His constant, steady presence in the local sports pages for so many decades has made Hal Lebovitz a legitimate icon in Cleveland sports--a guy who, with his typewriter, has been as remarkable and consistent and rare as a .400 hitter.

Deliberate Conflict: Argument, Political Theory, and Composition Classes


Patricia Roberts-Miller - 2004
    The book’s pivotal question is: In what kind of public discourse do we want our students to engage? To answer this, the text provides a taxonomy, discussion, and evaluation of political theories underpinning democratic discourse, highlighting the relationship between various models of the public sphere and rhetorical theory.Roberts-Miller seeks to diffuse student antagonism toward argumentation by increasing instructors’ awareness of different models of democracy in argument pedagogy. She provides a range of theories, discussing the major features and rhetorical applicability of the liberal, the interest-based, the communitarian, and the deliberative models of the public domain.Deliberate Conflict cogently advocates reintegrating instruction in argumentation into the composition curriculum. By linking effective argumentation in the public sphere with the ability to affect social change, Roberts-Miller pushes compositionists beyond a simplistic Aristotelian conception of how argumentation works and offers a means by which to prepare students for active participation in public discourse.

Create Your Writer's Life: A Guide To Writing With Joy And Ease


Cynthia Morris - 2004
    Finally, a resource that allows you to do it your way, and that works.

2005 Children's Writers & Illustrator's Market


Alice Pope - 2004
    No other reference on the shelf today provides as many listings specifically for children's writers, illustrators, and their work.

Speaking Out: Storytelling and Creative Drama for Children


Jack D. Zipes - 2004
    In Speaking Out, this master storyteller goes further, speaking out against rote learning and testing and for the positive force within storytelling and creative drama during the K-12 years.For the past four years, Jack Zipes has worked with the Neighborhood Bridges Program of the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis, taking his storytelling techniques into inner-city schools. Speaking Out is in part a record of the transformations storytelling can work on the minds and lives of young people. But it is also a vivid and exhilarating demonstration of a different kind of education - one built from deep inside each child.Speaking Out is a book for storytellers, educators, parents, and anyone who cares about helping kids find within themselves the keys to imagination.

Names and History: People, Places and Things


George Redmonds - 2004
    They are part of our personal histories, defining who we are and where we live. Names are everywhere, identifying people, places, animals, ships, materials, plants, public houses and fields. To understand them we need to look beyond etymologies, examining names instead in their historic and chronological contexts. The investigations in Names and History all involve fascinating detective stories into the connections between names and related subjects - archaeology and the landscape; genealogy, genetics and family networks; dialects and social customs; industrial and farming practices. In them George Redmonds, a leading historian of names, widens the whole range of name studies and draws readers into the enquiry. Names will never seem the same again.

Writers on Comics Scriptwriting, Vol. 2


Andrew Kardon - 2004
    With contributions from those responsible for some of the biggest-selling comics titles on shelves, "Writers on Comics Scriptwriting Volume 2" is packed to the rafters with fascinating behind-the-scenes info and never-before-revealed anecdotes and stories. Features interviews with: Brian Azarello ("100 Bullets"), Brian Michael Bendis ("Ultimate Spider-Man"), Ed Brubaker ("Batman, Catwoman, Gotham Central"), Mike Carey ("Lucifer, Hellblazer"), Andy Diggle ("Losers," " Swamp Thing"), Geoff Johns ("Flash," " JSA"), Bruce Jones ("Hulk"), Mike Mignola ("Hellboy"), Mark Millar ("Ultimate X-Men," "Superman: Red Son"), Greg Rucka ("Gotham Central"), Kevin Smith ("Green Arrow" and the director of "Clerks" and "Jersey Girl"), Craig Thompson ("Blankets"), Jill Thompson ("Death: At Death's Door"), Brian K. Vaughan ("Y: The Last Man," "Pride of Baghdad"), Bill Willingham ("Fables").

Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of Narrative


Wendy B. Faris - 2004
    In the most comprehensive critical treatment of this literary mode to date, Wendy B. Faris discusses a rich array of examples from magical realist novels around the world, including the work not only of Latin American writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but also of authors like Salman Rushdie, Gunter Grass, Toni Morrison, and Ben Okri. Faris argues that by combining realistic representation with fantastic elements so that the marvelous seems to grow organically out of the ordinary, magical realism destabilizes the dominant form of realism based on empirical definitions of reality, gives it visionary power, and thus constitutes what might be called a "remystification" of narrative in the West. Noting the radical narrative heterogeneity of magical realism, the author compares its cultural role to that of traditional shamanic performance, which joins the worlds of daily life and that of the spirits. Because of that capacity to bridge different worlds, magical realism has served as an effective decolonizing agent, providing the ground for marginal voices, submerged traditions, and emergent literatures to develop and create masterpieces. At the same time, this process is not limited to postcolonial situations but constitutes a global trend that replenishes realism from within. In addition to describing what many consider to be the progressive cultural work of magical realism, Faris also confronts the recent accusation that magical realism and its study as a global phenomenon can be seen as a form of commodification and an imposition of cultural homogeneity. And finally, drawing on the narrative innovations and cultural scenarios that magical realism enacts, she extends those principles toward issues of gender and the possibility of a female element within magical realism.

Reading Student Writing: Confessions, Meditations, and Rants


Lad Tobin - 2004
    He also has a great deal of personal insight and story telling skill that make his books, articles, and presentations notable. In Reading Student Writing, he gets to the heart of teaching writing through a blend of humor, memoir, reflection, classroom examples, and student writing. While funny and irreverent, he tackles the serious and complex issues of how to read-really read-student writing and how to read ourselves as teachers.He organizes his book around three main topics:forms of student writing that we find particularly problematic the ways in which our values, assumptions, and unconscious associations shape our readings of student writing how our assessments of student writing are inseparable from our attitudes toward the discipline of composition as a whole. But this broad outline barely scratches the surface of what Tobin achieves in his execution. He fills his chapters with stories that read like the best creative nonfiction. And he doesn't hesitate to take on controversial topics, what he calls facing the elephant in the classroom, the issues we usually avoid-specifically reading and writing personal narratives, our love-hate relationship with emotion, our misplaced anxieties about confessional writing, and our struggles to be fair and unbiased readers. In the end, Tobin opens up the world of writing, both student writing and teacher scholarship. He invites us into a place that thrives on dialogue, diversity, and hybridity, that is more flexible, nuanced, and realistic. He sets an example for reading our classrooms, for writing-or rewriting-ourselves.

Wordplaygrounds: Reading, Writing, and Performing Poetry in the English Classroom


John S. O'Connor - 2004
    He offers a number of ways that teachers can use students' personal life experiences to help students become less afraid and more comfortable with poetry, see how poetry writing and performance connect their lives, and understand how poetry can enrich their lives. Designed for use in middle and high school classrooms, the text features some 30 professional poetry models and 80-plus poetry models from students in the author's classroom. No subject index. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Gary Gygax's Insidiae: The Brainstormers Guide to Adventure Writing


Dan Cross - 2004
    Gary Gygax's Insidiae: The Brainstormers Guide to Adventure Writing covers five vitally important aspects of game adventure design: back story, antagonists, motive, locale and plot. Each chapter builds upon the details of the last, teaching the hallmarks of good game mastering. Working through the guide will aid game masters in creating adventures for any role playing game; provide an array of ideas, character types, backgrounds, places of encounter and danger, and plot devices needed to propel characters deeper into the story.

Writing Copy for Dummies


Jonathan David Kranz - 2004
    You'll see how to gather crucial information before you write, build awareness, land sales, and keep customers coming back for more. Discover How To: * Write compelling headlines and body copy * Turn your research into brilliant ideas * Create motivational materials for worthy causes * Fix projects when they go wrong * Land a job as a copywriter

Publishing Secrets: A Comprehensive Guide to Getting Your Book Published in the LDS Market


LDS Storymakers - 2004
    Your questions can all be answered in this comprehensive volume.

Writing for Publication: Road to Academic Advancement


Kenneth T. Henson - 2004
    It includes proven principles, strategies, and tactics that can be applied to virtually any form of publishing -- from specialized or general magazines, to grant proposals, to nonfiction books of all types. One chapter highlights how to use journal and grant writing to get tenure-track positions and earn tenure. For any academic writer who would like to be more focused in his or her writing and more successful in getting published.

Creating Characters: A Writer's Reference to the Personality Traits That Bring Fictional People to Life


Howard Lauther - 2004
    If writers jump headlong into a story with only a fuzzy notion about the people who are in it, the result is a collection of characters who are cliched, stereotypical and not very interesting. Creating Characters is an easy to use reference work that looks at character development from many different angles. The book does not tell writers how to write. Instead, it generates a thought process by asking crucial questions about characters' internal and external traits, wants, needs, likes, dislikes, fears, beliefs, strengths, weaknesses, habits and backgrounds. Following these questions, the writer will find an ever deeper and wider array of options. Thus, Creating Characters helps writers delve as deeply into a character's psychology as they want. All characters, and the stories they people, can be made richer and more compelling.

Scribing the Soul


Kathleen Adams - 2004
    

Success and How to Avoid It


Mat Coward - 2004