In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?” He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity.A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.

     The traditional writing workshop was established with white male writers in mind; what we call craft is informed by their cultural values. In this bold and original examination of elements of writing—including plot, character, conflict, structure, and believability—and aspects of workshop—including the silenced writer and the imagined reader—Matthew Salesses asks questions to invigorate these familiar concepts. He upends Western notions of how a story must progress. How can we rethink craft, and the teaching of it, to better reach writers with diverse backgrounds? How can we invite diverse storytelling traditions into literary spaces?Drawing from examples including One Thousand and One Nights, Curious George, Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea, and the Asian American classic No-No Boy, Salesses asks us to reimagine craft and the workshop. In the pages of exercises included here, teachers will find suggestions for building syllabi, grading, and introducing new methods to the classroom; students will find revision and editing guidance, as well as a new lens for reading their work. Salesses shows that we need to interrogate the lack of diversity at the core of published fiction: how we teach and write it. After all, as he reminds us, "When we write fiction, we write the world."

    Award-winning educator Felicia Rose Chavez exposes the invisible politics of power and privilege that have silenced writers of color for far too long. It’s more urgent than ever that we consciously work against traditions of dominance in the classroom, but what specific actions can we take to achieve authentically inclusive communities? Together, we will address how to:· Deconstruct our biases to achieve a cultural shift in perspective.· Design a democratic teaching model to create safe spaces for creative concentration.· Recruit, nourish, and fortify students of color to best empower them to exercise voice.· Embolden our students to self-advocate as responsible citizens in a globalized community.Finally, a teaching model that protects and centers students of color, because every writer deserves access to a public voice. For anyone looking to liberate their thinking from “the way it’s always been done,” The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop is a clear, compelling guidebook on a necessary step forward.

    But how do you reach those readers in the second category, no matter what kind of writer you are?The answer to that question is…Universal FantasyUniversal Fantasy is why my sales tripled when I “accidentally” wrote three books that landed in the Amazon Top 100.Universal Fantasy is why some authors get gobs of gushing reviews and some authors who write “way better” get crickets.Universal Fantasy is the answer to many of the questions you might have thought were unanswerable or simply up to luck, like…• Will this sell?• Why is that selling?• Why didn’t this sell?• Will readers like what I am writing?• Why do I love the TV shows/books/entertainments I do?• Why did I buy that thing I bought when I didn’t intend to buy it?BE WARNED…once known, Universal Fantasy cannot be undiscovered. Leave this book be if you’re truly satisfied with your current writing life.But if you’re not afraid—if you’re ready to know the secret hidden inside all bestselling stories, open this gift and find out how to use UNIVERSAL FANTASY to write and market books that SELL to ANYONE.

    Marketing it can be even harder.Marketing a book in 2021 can seem like a full-time job, what with the crazy number of things authors seem to be expected to do: social media, blog tours, advertising, price promotions, mailing lists, giveaways, you name it. But here’s a little secret: you don’t need to do all those things to successfully set your book on the path to success. What you need is a solid plan to find the one or two tactics that will work, and start to drive sales… in a minimum amount of time. And that’s exactly what you’ll find in this book.Instead of drowning you in information or inundating you with hundreds of different tactics and strategies that eventually prove fruitless, this book will guide you through a step-by-step framework to find the ones that actually work for you and your book, so that you can start marketing more efficiently.In particular, you’ll learn: • How to change your mindset and sell more books with less effort.; • How to write books that guarantee a lasting, profitable career; • How to get Amazon’s Kindle Store to market your book for you; • How to get thousands of readers into your mailing list before you even release the book; • How to propel your book to the top of the charts at launch; and • How to automate your marketing so that you can spend less time marketing and more time writing,After helping over 150,000 authors crack the marketing code through a popular weekly newsletter, Reedsy’s Co-founder Ricardo Fayet is sharing everything he’s learned over the past few years in this beginner-friendly, jargon-free guide to book marketing.

    The trick is staying a writer."New York Times bestselling author and British Academy Award nominee J. Michael Straczynski knew he wanted to be a writer ever since he was a child. What he didn't know was how to actually become, or stay, a writer. Now, he's giving fellow writers the comprehensive guide he wishes he had all along, personalized tips and techniques that can't be found in any other book on writing.Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer culls from Straczynski's more than thirty years of experience writing for film, television, books, and comics. Designed for writers in any stage of their career, this quirky, insightful and often humorous book provides an inside look at these industries with advice and wisdom covering such topics such as:What fledgling writers need to know to improve and sell their work—and avoid wasting valuable timeTips for experienced writers who want to get to the next levelStaying disciplined when writing is your day jobWhy writers should never wait for inspiration Story-planning strategies that don’t kill your spontaneityExpert techniques for effective, memorable world-buildingHow to get an agent and survive the writer’s journey in more personal relationshipsRevising and editing with precisionWhen and how to reinvent yourself as an artist Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer includes Straczynski’s unique, tried-and-true methodologies that will help storytellers sharpen their work so that it’s polished and ready for publication. Part toolbox and part survival guide, this book will be an indispensable guide throughout your entire writing career, offering fresh and practical insights every step of the way.

    We’re all being swept along by a tidal wave of history, and it’s easy to feel helpless. But we’re not helpless: we have minds, and imaginations, and the ability to visualize other worlds and valiant struggles. And writing can be an act of resistance that reminds us that other futures and other ways of living are possible.Full of memoir, personal anecdote, and insight about how to flourish during the present emergency, Never Say You Can’t Survive is the perfect manual for creativity in unprecedented times.

    

    How to be a Writer is peppered with nuggets of practical advice for every person who is aspiring to write and be published, all told in Ruskin Bond's characteristic understated, tongue-in-cheek, humorous style.So, what is it that a person requires the most to become a writer? A love of books, of language, of life, an observant eye and a good memory along with enthusiasm, optimism and persistence.This book is an exclusive glimpse into the writing credo of Ruskin Bond, an author who has had an incredibly successful writing career spanning over seventy years.

    

    Allison’s frank, funny voice encourages writers to tackle even big editing tasks with a sense of humor and a feeling that someone who understands is on their side. After sections on story, elements of writing craft and structure, seeking and using feedback, and the publication process, Seven Drafts goes beyond the technical and into the mindset of a writer. How can envy be employed to fuel your own work? Where do you find a writing community? How will literary citizenship influence personal process?

    ​Screenwriter Jamie Nash takes up Snyder’s torch to lay out a step-by-step approach using Blake’s principles so that both new and experienced writers can learn how to: -Use all the nuances, tricks, and techniques of pilot-writing (The Opening Pitch, The Guided Tour, The Whiff of Change) with examples from today’s hottest series -Discover the Super-Secret Keep It On The Downlow TV Pitch Template that combines all the critical points of your amazing TV series into one easy-to-read-over-lunch high-level document -Define the 9 TV Franchise Types -Crack your story using the Save the Cat! beat sheet -Devise high-level series concepts with multi-season potential -Map out and organize TV pilots and multi-season shows -Break down the best and most diverse TV series using examples from Atlanta, Barry, Ozark, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, What We Do in the Shadows, Black-ish, The Mandalorian, Law and Order: SVU and more -Create layered characters who are driven by complex internal struggles It’s time for Save the Cat! Writes for TV to help you create your binge-worthy TV series!

    What follows is a penetrating exploration of fluctuating literary power and authorial privilege, about whiteness and what we really mean by the term empathy, that examines writers from William Styron to Peter Ho Davies to Jeanine Cummins. Lucid, reflective, and astute, Appropriate presents a generous new framework for one of the most controversial subjects in contemporary literature.

    It is for anyone interested in self-discovery, journaling, creativity, and deep spiritual insight.What if you could let go of limiting beliefs, build a joyful daily writing practice, and discover your authentic voice and your authentic life? Freedom is closer than you think. Freedom to write and rewrite your life. Freedom to write yourself happy, clear, and free. Seven minutes at a time.With one hundred simple seven-minute writing meditations, this book will help you rediscover the joy of writing, build new daily habits, and embrace the freedom that comes with knowing you can write and live without fear. Use the powerful meditations in this book to learn exactly how to:• Overcome writer's block and develop your authentic voice• Quiet your inner critic and build a joyful daily writing practice• Abandon limiting beliefs and self-judgment• Unlock your creative potential and change the course of your life• And so much more!If you're ready to make powerful discoveries about yourself and improve your writing habits forever, get your copy today and see just how far freedom, clarity, and inspiration can take you!

    

    It’s such a brilliant idea and you can see the whole thing shimmering in your mind, just out of reach. Maybe you do some work on character development and plotting, but you’re a racehorse at the gate, ready to run, ready to write.This book is an argument to stop and define the foundational elements of your story before you keep writing – which means understanding your motivation as a writer, considering your reader’s expectations, and making sure your story has a solid structure that will hold up inside and out from beginning to end. This clarity is what gives a novel its power and a writer their confidence.Jennie Nash is the creator of the Book Coach Certification program at Author Accelerator and has taught hundreds of book coaches and thousands of novelists how to use the Blueprint for a Booksystem—and the Inside Outline at the heart of it — to help them produce their best work in the most efficient way.“This process makes me want to write, and it makes what I’m writing better. I read it before every draft. It’s that good.” —KJ Dell'Antonia, New York Times bestselling author of The Chicken Sisters“Jennie Nash turned me into a plotter and changed the way I think about approaching any new project. I’m an Inside Outside outline fan for life!” —Alison Hammer, author of You and Me and Us and Little Pieces of Me“If you are about to start writing or revising your novel – hold up! You need this book before putting fingers to keyboard. It’s a step-by-step design-your-novel manual that encapsulates the most important aspect of great story-telling: how to reach deep into your writerly heart and into the heart of the story you want to bring to life.” — Janet Fox, author of The Artifact Hunters“I will sing the praises of the Inside Outline forever. It’s f*ing genius.” —Carla Naumburg, author of How to Stop Losing Your Sh*t With Your Kids“The Inside Outline is making writing easier. I can focus more on the writing rather than discovering what the scene is about when I’m creating it. Why isn’t every writer using it? Instead, people are plonking down good money to be told ten key steps in writing dialogue or setting a scene. I’m so grateful I’m no longer one of them.” — Kate Kimball, first-time novelist

    It comes through long effort, through moving ahead and falling back, through working in the dark. It comes to us in moments of passionate intuition and over long days and nights of painful silence. It arrives in the usual and yet miraculous confluence of ordinary events. It comes and goes. It leaves us in doubt. It is sustained by doubt. It is the work of a lifetime.What About the Baby? Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction gathers Alice McDermott's essays and lectures regarding her own "work of a lifetime" as a bestselling novelist and professor of writing. From technical advice ("check that your verbs aren't burdened by unnecessary hads and woulds") to setting the bar ("I expect the fiction I read to carry with it the conviction that it is written with no other incentive than it must be written"), from the demands of readers ("they'd been given a story with a baby in it and they damn well wanted that baby accounted for"), to the foibles of public life ("I've never subscribed to the notion that a movie adaptation is the final imprimatur for a work of fiction--despite how often I've been told by encouraging friends and strangers: Maybe they'll make a movie of your novel . . . as if I'd been aiming for a screenplay all along but somehow missed the mark and wrote a novel by mistake"), McDermott muses delightfully about the art and the craft of literary creation.She also serves throughout as the wise and witty conductor of a literary chorus, quoting generously from the work of various greats (Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Nabokov, Morrison, Woolf, and more), beautifully joining her own voice with theirs. These stories of lessons learned, books read, the terrors and the joys of what she calls "this mad pursuit," form a rich and truly useful collection for readers and writers alike: a deeply charming meditation on the gift that is literature.

    The long-awaited third volume of Robert McKee’s trilogy on the art of fiction.  Following up his perennially bestselling writers' guide Story and his inspiring exploration of the art of verbal action in Dialogue, the most sought-after expert in the storytelling brings his insights to the creation of compelling characters and the design of their casts. CHARACTER explores the design of a character universe: The dimensionality, complexity and arcing of a protagonist, the invention of orbiting major characters, all encircled by a cast of service and supporting roles.

    Now, this handbook helps authors navigate the ever-shifting publishing landscape—from pacing, plotting, the business side of publishing, to the current demand for diversity and inclusivity across all genres, and more. Featuring essays by a new generation of bestselling experts on various elements of the craft and shorter pieces of crowd-sourced wisdom from the MWA membership as a whole, the topics covered can be categorized as follows: —Before Writing (rules; genres; setting; character; research; etc.) —While Writing (outlining; the plot; dialogue; mood; etc.) —After Writing (agents; editors; self-pub; etc.) —Other than Novels (short stories; true crime; etc.) —Other Considerations (diverse characters; legal questions; criticism) Also included is a collection of essays from MWA published authors—including Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, and Charlaine Harris—selected by bestselling authors Lee Child and Laurie King and arranged thematically answering, “What piece of writing advice do you wish you’d had at the beginning of your career?” “Everything you wanted to know about how to plan, draft, write, revise, publish, and market a mystery” (Kirkus Reviews), this inclusive manual provides practical, current, easily digestible advice for new and established authors alike.

    She writes about her influences, her struggles, and her formation as both a reader and a writer; she describes the perils of “bad language” and suggests ways in which it has long excluded women’s truth; she proposes a choral fusion of feminine talent as she brilliantly discourses on the work of Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Ingeborg Bachmann, and many others.Here is a subtle yet candid book by “one of the great novelists of our time” about adventures in literature, both in and out of the margins.“Everyone should read everything with Elena Ferrante’s name on it.”—The Boston Globe

    

    

    Delivered as a series of letters from father to daughter, he patiently and gracefully paints a vision of what it means to enter into one's creative work as an act of generative obedience--an act that blesses the writer, the work itself, and the world that receives it. Palpant reveals the creative process not only as an act of love and attentive artisanship, but as the work of shaping a life and a heart that points toward the coming of a Kingdom and the renewal of Creation itself.

    This book is packed with tips and tricks for polishing characters for writers at any level. If you want to power up your characters, eliminate dull and lifeless archetypes, and perfect your characterization, this is the book for you. By the end of this book, you'll know how to strengthen your characters to give your story, prose and plot the extra something special it needs to capture a readers and fans for life.If you like dark humor, learning through examples and want to create better side characters, then you’ll love Sacha Black’s guide to crafting supporting roles with intention, purpose, and power. Read 8 Steps to Side Characters today and start creating kick-ass stories.

    While that may sound harsh, there are specific things she looks for that show her immediately how seriously a writer takes their goals of getting published. Even though the first steps of writing and figuring out how to publish a book can feel daunting, this book will not only give you everything you need for an incredible proposal, but demystify the publishing process, tell you how to market yourself authentically (and enjoyably), and cheer you on with practical next steps as you decide which publishing route is best for you. And, Joy wants to make this whole process FUN.This is an upbeat 30-day guide with easy to follow examples, stories, and funny illustrations (that you're more than welcome to color in because your brain will need a break), as well as insider knowledge about how to catch an agent's eye, how to land your dream endorsement and how to wildly increase your chances of getting a book deal.Non-fiction, memoir, or novel—this book will help authors (especially first-timers) who have questions and feel alone in the writing process. Let Joy be your (slightly aggressive) friend who will encourage you, tell you what to do, and leave you feeling oh-so-confident because of all the progress you've made by day 30. If you let this book guide you, I PROMISE you will close the last page, involuntarily shout, "WOW, I did that!" You’ll also get to know way more about Joy’s personal life than you probably wanted. Take a look at some of the topics to see if you want to get aggressive and join the fun: Writing Schedule and AccountabilityAuthor Vision, Tone, Genre, and AudienceTable of Contents, Chapter Summaries, and Chapter SamplesNetwork, Marketing, Endorsements, and Book LaunchAuthor Bio, Platform, Writing, and SpeakingStructure, Design, and Auxiliary ProductsElevator Pitch and One Sentence SummaryEdits, Typesetting, and Proposal LayoutHeadshots, Videos, and WebsiteTimelines for Hitting GoalsSelf Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing

    But if you're looking for ideas, inspiration, and strategies for planning out your own long terms success as an author selling globally on multiple platforms, then you're in luck.WIDE FOR THE WIN prepares you not only with a fundamental understanding of the mindset required for long-term writing and publishing success, but also insights and proven processes that allow you to take full control of your intellectual property's earning potential and reach more of the right readers for your work than ever before.

    Authors, get the book that publishing expert Derek Murphy of Creativindie calls a "detailed guide" that "simplifies the process" of working with early readers.Empower yourself to build teams of alpha, beta, and ARC readers who follow through and help you write better novels!Ever throw an apple away because you found a worm inside? Worms slither into novel manuscripts too … weaknesses and errors that make readers want to throw away a book (or trash it in reviews)! But effective early readers catch those worms.This comprehensive guide will teach you to get results from your alpha and beta readers with these tools:*Practical, step-by-step methods for building and optimizing early reader teams*Simple strategies to improve reader follow-through*Access to over a dozen editable templates for communicating with alpha and beta readersJumpstart your book launch with early reviews! This book is packed with tips for building an ARC (Advance Review Copy) team, including:*Where to find ARC readers*How to encourage ARC readers to actually leave reviewsA fun way to incentivize ARC readers to find your lingering typosWhether you’re already published or about to write your first book, Early Readers Catch the Worms will help you crack the code on early reader systems so you can write a novel that readers want to buy.Get the feedback you need … before you publish.

    

    He begins by addressing the invisibility of revision—even though it’s an essential part of the writing process, readers typically only see a final draft, leaving the practice shrouded in mystery. To combat this, Davies pulls examples from his novels The Welsh Girl and The Fortunes, as well as from the work of other writers, including Flannery O’Connor, Carmen Machado, and Raymond Carver, shedding light on this slippery subject.Davies also looks beyond literature to work that has been adapted or rewritten, such as books made into films, stories rewritten by another author, and the practice of retconning in comics and film. In an affecting frame story, Davies recounts the story of a violent encounter in his youth, which he then retells over the years, culminating in a final telling at the funeral of his father. In this way, the book arrives at an exhilarating mode of thinking about revision—that it is the writer who must change, as well as the writing. The result is a book that is as useful as it is moving, one that asks writers to reflect upon themselves and their writing.

    

    This Guide is recommended for cozy mystery writers at every level, fiction writing classes and screenwriters.Nina Harrington is the author of 48 fiction and non-fiction books, with 1.7 million copies sold worldwide in 28 countries and 23 languages.

    You have to write one to get published, but most scholars receive no training on how to do so—and you may have never even seen a proposal before you’re expected to produce your own. The Book Proposal Book cuts through the mystery and guides prospective authors step by step through the process of crafting a compelling proposal and pitching it to university presses and other academic publishers.Laura Portwood-Stacer, an experienced developmental editor and publishing consultant for academic authors, shows how to select the right presses to target, identify audiences and competing titles, and write a project description that will grab the attention of editors—breaking the entire process into discrete, manageable tasks. The book features over fifty time-tested tips to make your proposal stand out; sample prospectuses, a letter of inquiry, and a response to reader reports from real authors; optional worksheets and checklists; answers to dozens of the most common questions about the scholarly publishing process; and much, much more.Whether you’re hoping to publish your first book or you’re a seasoned author with an unfinished proposal languishing on your hard drive, The Book Proposal Book provides honest, empathetic, and invaluable advice on how to overcome common sticking points and get your book published. It also shows why, far from being merely a hurdle to clear, a well-conceived proposal can help lead to an outstanding book.

    

    

    . . Studying with Miss Bishop offers the opportunity to encounter writing as an act of civility.― Wall Street Journal Fascinating snapshots of remarkable encounters which, when brought together, chart a delightfully unusual path to literary success.― Booklist Reading this memoir is like being at one of those memorable dinner parties, attended by the best and brightest, sparkling with wit and excellent conversations. You don't want it to be over, the conversations to end! But with books, you need not worry. You can go back to the party, savor it, reread it again, and again.--Julia Alvarez, author of In the Time of the Butterflies and AfterlifeIn Studying with Miss Bishop, Dana Gioia discusses six people who helped him become a writer and better understand what it meant to dedicate one's life to writing. Four were famous authors--Elizabeth Bishop, John Cheever, James Dickey, and Robert Fitzgerald. Two were unknown--Gioia's Merchant Marine uncle and Ronald Perry, a forgotten poet. Each of the six essays provides a vivid portrait; taken together they tell the story of Gioia's own journey from working-class LA to international literary success.

    Seidlinger centers a magnifying glass on the creative journey, with an honest and unabashed search into how and why someone would want to be accepted as a writer in a world that might not care.The book’s breezy narrative contrasts with the despair that is often triggered by the wasteland of social media and the Internet. This is a story that reminds the reader that they aren’t alone in a culture that pressures us to measure our work on a purely capitalistic level, driven by likes, hearts, and money. Like a darker and more skewed literary version of the metaphysical classic, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Seidlinger’s Runaways: A Writer’s Dilemma shows us how our art, often made in solitary, can be the more important and inspiring part of living."This smart story ought to prompt readers to second-guess the impulse to write—or to tweet."—Publishers Weekly“A portrait of the writer as a procrastinator, professional self-doubter, caffeine connoisseur, and social media addict, Runaways wallows in the manifold frustrations of this extravagantly frustrating process—yet it ultimately left this fellow sufferer feeling optimistic and ready to confront the blank page once more.”—Mason Currey, author of Daily Rituals: How Artists Work"Part tale and part literary Twitter discourse, Seidlinger delivers a humorous and incisive look into the life and neuroses of the modern writer. Runaways wormed under my skin in the best of ways, invoking bad habits, sage advice, and all of the stories writers tell themselves when faced with a blank page. Required reading for any writer looking to feel less alone in the trenches." — Sequoia Nagamatsu, author of How High We Go in the Dark and Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone"Whether it’s craft or memoir, I constantly buy books on writing. This one will be on my desk as a touchstone to be read every day for my mental health. It’s essential. It’s a writer's heart’s song, capturing the true agony and ecstasy of being an artist today. Runaways is the book for every writer and everyone who wants to understand a writer."—Jimin Han, author of A Small Revolution“Seidlinger holds a mirror to the contemporary writer, a narcissist and addict with often little to say. Deft, gracefully slender, and deeply upsetting: Runaways: A Writer's Dilemma is a plea to every artist to throw their phone into a river.”—Christopher Zeischegg, author of The Magician"Michael J. Seidlinger has written a weird and beautiful and slightly deranged meditation on the horror show that is the writer’s life in the age of social media. Think Samuel Beckett’s Stories & Texts for Nothing only here it’s tweets, retweets, quote tweets, DM’s, and the special hell of ‘going viral.’ I can’t tell you how many times I burst out laughing in horror and recognition at the darkly funny and depraved state of our protagonist ‘a writer.’ Finally, a book that takes the craft of not writing as seriously as the craft of writing. Seidlinger is a literary iconoclast who fills the page with riotous and heartbreaking truths about how we live now: cerebral, punk rock, stylish, and sensitive.”—Gabe Hudson, author of Gork, the Teenage Dragon

    In the ensuing centuries countless retellings, innumerable adaptations, tens of thousands of fiery sermons from Catholic bishops and Baptist preachers, all those New Yorker cartoons, and masterpieces of European art have afforded Dante’s fictional apparition of hell unending attention and credibility. Dinty W. Moore did not buy in. Moore started questioning religion at a young age, quizzing the nuns in his Catholic school, and has been questioning it ever since. Yet after years of Catholic school, religious guilt, and persistent cultural conditioning, Moore still can’t shake the feelings of inadequacy, and asks: What would the world be like if eternal damnation was not hanging constantly over our sheepish heads? Why do we persist in believing a myth that merely makes us miserable? In To Hell with It, Moore reflects on and pokes fun at the over-seriousness of religion in various texts, combining narratives of his everyday life, reflections on his childhood, and religion’s influence on contemporary culture and society.

    And the writers we revere—from Homer, Shakespeare, Austen, and others—each made a unique technical breakthrough that can be viewed as both a narrative and neuroscientific advancement. Literature’s great invention was to address problems we could not solve: not how to start a fire or build a boat, but how to live and love; how to maintain courage in the face of death; how to account for the fact that we exist at all. Wonderworks reviews the blueprints for twenty-five of the most significant developments in the history of literature. These inventions can be scientifically shown to alleviate grief, trauma, loneliness, anxiety, numbness, depression, pessimism, and ennui, while sparking creativity, courage, love, empathy, hope, joy, and positive change. They can be found throughout literature—from ancient Chinese lyrics to Shakespeare’s plays, poetry to nursery rhymes and fairy tales, and crime novels to slave narratives. A “refreshing and remarkable” (Jay Parini, author of Borges and Me: An Encounter) exploration of the new literary field of story science, Wonderworks teaches you everything you wish you learned in your English class, and “contains many instances of critical insight....What’s most interesting about this compendium is its understanding of imaginative representation as a technology” (The New York Times).

    Here, the 82-year-old author looks back at his career in the 1950s and 1960s as an employee of a semi-legitimate literary agency and a writer of lurid paperback fiction.

    

    

    That's not an overstatement—it's a fact; if you stop doing your creative work, your quality of life is diminished. But what do you do when life gets in the way? In this down-to-earth handbook, experienced artist coach Beth Pickens offers practical advice for developing a lasting and meaningful artistic practice in the face of life's inevitable obstacles and distractions. This thoughtful volume suggests creative ways to address the challenges all artists must overcome—from making decisions about time, money, and education, to grappling with isolation, fear, and anxiety. No matter where you are in your art-making journey, this book will motivate and inspire you. Because not only do you need your art—the world needs it, too.• EXPERT ADVICE: Beth Pickens is an experienced and passionate arts advocate with extensive insight into working through creative obstacles. She has spent the last decade advising artists on everything from financial strategy to coping with grief.• PRACTICAL AND POSITIVE: This book is both a love letter to art and artists and a hands-on guide to approaching the thorniest problems those artists might face. Pickens offers a warm reminder that you are not alone, that what you do matters, and that someone out there wants you to succeed.• TIMELESS TOPIC: Like a trusted advisor, this book is an invaluable resource jam-packed with strategies for building a successful creative practice. From mixing business and friendship to marketing yourself on social media, this book can help. And it will—again and again.Perfect for:• Visual artists and makers• Writers, musicians, filmmakers, and other creatives• Art and design school graduates and grad-gift givers

    James to Shirley Jackson, the Uncanny has long provided fertile ground for writers – and recent years have seen a notable resurgence in both literature and film. But how does the Uncanny work? What can a writer do to ensure their fiction haunts the reader’s imagination?Writing the Uncanny sees some of the best contemporary authors explain what drew them to horror, ghost stories, folklore and beyond, and reveal how to craft unsettling fiction which resonates. Authors such as Jeremy Dyson, Alison Moore, Jenn Ashworth and Catriona Ward share their insights on psychogeography, fairy tales, cultural tradition and the supernatural, and offer practical advice on their different approaches to the genre.Writing the Uncanny is an essential guide for both the casual reader and the aspiring writer of strange tales.

    As a favor to his friend, and fueled by a steady diet of Pacifico beer and cholula peanuts, Luke goes on a quest to solve a murder that never happened… only to find one that did. In Manistique, Michigan, Luke teams up with the local sheriff, Sam, a tough, determined woman with a hell of a spin kick. Together they try to solve how a modern-day Johnny Appleseed spread $400,000 across Upper Michigan before ending up on the bottom of the Manistique River. From the winding roads of perpetually raining Michigan to the sun-baked land and purple skies of New Mexico, Luke Fischer searches for the reason behind the killings, while being pursued by those who would rather he was dead. He never signed up to be a knight errant, but damned if people don’t expect him to be one.

    He’s co-founder and longest-serving editor-in-chief of The Onion, the world’s most popular humor publication, and founder of The Onion Training Center at the Second City in Chicago. He’s also a #1 best-selling humor author and winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor.In How to Write Funnier, he tells you everything you need to know to start writing funny stories, how to write funny scenes, and how to write funny sketches.But that’s just the beginning. How do you get a job in comedy? How do you write for The Onion? How do you write for the New Yorker? How do you get published in McSweeney’s? How do you write for money? How do you become a career comedy writer?It's all in How to Write Funnier, the followup to How to Write FunnyWriters Scott has mentored, trained, or hired for their very first comedy-writing job have gone on to win several Emmy Awards, written movies nominated for an Academy Award, and become best-selling authors themselves.One student said this about How to Write Funny (Book 1)“This book is one of my very favorite books on comedy. It's helped me get published on satire sites like Reductress.com and helped me get admitted to comedy festivals. The fact that all comedy writers don't know about this book is (1) unfortunate but also (2) fantastic, because it will give the people who do read it a big advantage.”How to Write Funnier gives you the step-by-step writing process professinoals use for creating hilarious comedy articles, prose pieces, and stories that will jump off the page, grab readers by the sphincter and make them LOL, spit-take, make other passengers on the bus look at them like they’re crazy because they’re laughing so hard reading your story.The first book in this series, How To Write Funny, showed you how to write a joke. How to Write Funnier (Book 2) shows you how to stack up those jokes the right way to make funny articles, stories, listicles or prose pieces that will make people remember you.Inside:• The 13 Most Common Mistakes in Humor Writing• The 11 Different Ways to Structure a humor piece• How to get ideas for writing a great story• 8 steps for how to get feedback on your writing that will truly make it funnier Tap the “Pre-order with 1-click” button to get it now!

    We fail to take advantage of a huge opportunity that is before us. That opportunity is fiction writing. Consider this: Our deepest wish is for students to develop a love of books- particularly a love of fiction. To discover the power of stories to transport us into worlds we never knew existed. At the same time, we want them to build a love of writing. To really love it; not just endure it.So if these are our two primary goals, how did they become so disparate? Why is the writing we're asking our students to do so completely opposite from the fiction they enjoy reading? My worry, Tom Newkirk writes, is that we have been asked to buy a lie-or rather a series of them. That analytic writing is somehow a higher form of thinking than story, that creativity is for the talented few, and that fiction writing is unteachable... If we accept these lies, we lose our birthright as English teachers.Through 40 in-depth interviews with student writers as well as teachers of writing, Newkirk builds an argument for bringing fiction back into our writing curriculum as a way to strengthen all writing. He addresses the common obstacles and resistance to fiction and illustrates, through students and teachers' insights, why keeping fiction writing on the outside of school walls is a missed opportunity. If reading fiction is humanizing and valuable, Tom writes, the same, perhaps even stronger, case can be made for writing fiction.

    It's a deep dive into the heart of questions asked by songwriters of all levels, from how to begin journaling to when you know that a song is finished. With humor and empathy, acclaimed singer-songwriter Mike Errico unravels both the mystery of songwriting and the logistics of life as a songwriter. For years, this set of tools, prompts, and ideas has inspired students on campuses including Yale, Wesleyan, Berklee, Oberlin, and NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. Alongside his own lessons, Errico interviews the writers, producers, and A&R executives behind today's biggest hits and investigates the larger questions of creativity through lively conversations with a wide range of innovative thinkers: astrophysicist Janna Levin explains the importance of repetition, both in choruses and in the exploration of the universe; renowned painter John Currin praises the constraints of form, whether it's within a right-angled canvas or a three-minute pop song; bestselling author George Saunders unpacks the hidden benefit of writing, and revising, authentically; and much more. The result is that Music, Lyrics, and Life ends up revealing as much about the art of songwriting as it does about who we are, and where we may be going. This is a book for songwriters, future content creators, music lovers, and anyone who wants to understand how popular art forms are able to touch us so deeply. Mike Errico has honed these lessons over years of writing, performing, teaching, and mentoring, and no matter where you are on your songwriting journey, Music, Lyrics, and Life will help you build a creative world that's both intrinsic to who you are, and undeniable to whoever is listening.

    Recent work has been featured on Writer's Almanac, appeared in the Cincinnati Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Diode, and in the anthologies New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction (Norton 2018) and Best Microfiction 2019 and 2020. Among her awards are a 2009 poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a grant from the Constance Saltonstall Foundation in 2006. She lives and swims in Rochester, New York.

    It encourages writers and authors to rethink their ambitions (which may be fueled by the tyrannical demands of the ego) and trust in their heartfelt purpose and values in the journey to becoming, or continuing on, as authors.Many writers believe their self-sabotaging thoughts are trustworthy and true. They take rejection personally. They surmise that if they don’t achieve their goals they have failed, and lose sight of who they are and what matters most.This book is for writers looking for inspiration and for authors daunted by the publishing process, who might lack the requisite author platform to get published the way they dreamed, or whose careers may not be unfolding as expected. It aims to be the friend and trusted expert writers turn to when hijacked by their own thinking. Ultimately, it reminds authors that they are infinite creators.

    But in a world where we rely on screens and images for communication and self-expression, do we truly know how to tell our story?Do you know how to tell yours?In Story Like You Mean It, Dr. Dennis Rebelo helps you communicate with ease and connect with others by constructing a self-narrative with intention and purpose. At the intersection of academic theory and practical experience, Dr. Rebelo shares insights he has gained coaching clients on how to build and then share their life-work narratives. Students from the US Navy and CVS Health's Executive Learning Series for Diverse Suppliers, and even NFL alumni, have used Dr. Rebelo's Peak Storytelling model to navigate personal history, reflect on influential moments, and compellingly communicate their true value. What raw experiences made you who you are today? How do you express them meaningfully to showcase your worth? Dive into the intricacies of StoryPathing, become the master of your own narrative, and reap the benefits of sharing who you truly are.

    You’re smart, talented, and accomplished. On the inside, you think you’re not enough. You’ve got a harsh voice that talks you through your day, second-guessing actions and ruminating on past mistakes.Say hello to your narrator, a voice familiar to you … because it is you! And yet, it’s holding you back from feeling happy and fulfilled. It’s time to take back ownership of your most important story—the one you tell yourself.Award-winning producer and expert storyteller Valerie Gordon dives into the powerful stories we tell ourselves and how our narrator—our subconscious voice—affects our actions and our success. Like a coffee date with your best friend, this relatable guide provides laughs, compassion, and practical tools to identify your own narrator and recast the role with a positive, more productive voice.You’ll discover: - Ten common types of inner-story narrators, like The Critic or The People Pleaser. - The origin of your narrative thoughts in your past, so you can master them in your present. - How to pinpoint beneficial emotions behind negative narrator talk and change your response. - Red-flag words and how to spot them before your inner narrator gets too loud. - The secret to flipping that unhelpful internal script for a clearer, happier future.Crafting a better story starts with the one you tell yourself. Get Fire Your Narrator! now for the power to recast your narrator and rewrite your story!

    

    

    

    It’s the voice that had you turn the wheel or pick up the phone.And this inner knowing has the answers to your most pressing questions. Where do I go? What do I do? Why am I even here? Or even how do I get out of this mess?The answers are closer than you think and with the Automatic Writing Experience (AWE), a revolutionary process to enter a meditative state, put pen to paper, and watch the words flow, you’ll have access to this incredible wisdom anytime you want.And the greatest thing is, you don’t need any particular belief, spirituality, or even gift. This ability to tap in is available to everyone--especially you.In AWE, you’ll quickly and easily learn how to tune into this wisdom, get answers, find direction, and point your ship almost anywhere you desire.You’ll learn more about your life than you ever imagined!And using AWE, you’ll tap into the most powerful manifestation tool, putting the law of attraction into action, helping attract your dreams, and much more.

    

    You’ll learn...• The 40 comedy character archetypes that get laughs automatically—you don’t even have to write jokes!• How to generate endless funny character ideas• The 10 secrets to making your characters strikingly unique.• The 8 common mistakes that will make your audience lose interest in your character.• How to write funny dialogue that sparkles with originality.• Funny dialogue prompts and how to write banter that leaps off the page.• The number one tip for writing funny character descriptions that will pull readers in.• And many more tips, tricks, and techniques!

    Along the way, it'll guide you through every step of the publishing process—until you can finally hold your finished novel in your hands.You’ll learn to:•Set your own publishing goals and discover your unique vision of success.•Craft a publishing plan tailor-made to streamline your self-publishing experience.•Master the basics of formatting and cover design.•Navigate the submission process to ensure your novel gets in the hands of readers.•Bring it all together in a thrilling launch day!Each day of this publishing challenge comes with easy to follow prompts and intuitive goals, simplifying the self-publishing process. By the end, The Ten Day Author will have made you more than just a writer! So—It’s time to begin!

    

    And there you are. Stark naked. Vulnerable. Wondering what to do next to get your masterpiece published.This is the one book you need to read and follow if you’re writing a book for the first time. Why? Because you’ve never written a book before. This is new territory.To write a successful book, you need to find and work with an editor who shares your passion for your work and your message and who will help you make your book sing. And sing a smash hit. A blockbuster of a message, clearly and carefully constructed so readers love you and your work and leave you five-star Amazon reviews only because they don’t have more stars to give.This is a toolkit for tinkering under the hood of your working manuscript so you, the author, can take your work as far as you can before an edit and production such as cover design and not dump a half-baked chocolate cake on some poor schlub of an editor to “fix.”Don’t make first-time author mistakes. No matter what you think, you do need an edit. Not the English teacher next door. You can’t self-edit either. A professional editor knows how to navigate those thorny commas and can solve your organizational questions. An editor can guide you through the murky waters of modifiers and passive sentences, correct typos, and get your book manuscript polished and on its way to production.Even if you slept through English class, never turned in book reports, and don’t know a thing about publishing the book of your dreams, your name is on the cover and you don’t want to be embarrassed. Turn your vulnerability into confidence with these insider secrets to publishing success when working with an editor.No, this is not a grammar book (ick) or a guide to self-editing (can’t be done well). This is not a dry, boring book about usage or sentence structure.Although the author, a veteran nonfiction editor, specializes in memoir, true crime, business/leadership, and self-help, her advice holds true for fiction writers as well.Get your questions answered (and more):Why do I need an editor? How do I find an editor? What do editors do? And how much do they cost?What are the levels of edit? Developmental? Line edit? Copy edit? Proofreading? How do I know what level of editing my manuscript needs?Will an editor tell me if my manuscript sucks?Why do words make a difference? Which words do I overuse? Which words should I never use?How do I know when I’m done writing?How can I work with a cover designer and audiobook engineer?Can my local bookstore help me? Do I need beta readers?BONUS: Checklist for Authors to Fine-Tune a Manuscript before Editing BeginsBUY a copy today, because you need to know these insider secrets to happily work with an editor on your way to publishing success.

    So you’ve just finished writing something? Congratulations! Now revise it. Because revision is about getting from good to better, and it’s only finished when you decide to stop. But where to begin? In On Revision, William Germano shows authors how to take on the most critical stage of writing anything: rewriting it. For more than twenty years, thousands of writers have turned to Germano for his insider’s take on navigating the world of publishing. A professor, author, and veteran of the book industry, Germano knows what editors want and what writers need to know: Revising is not just correcting typos. Revising is about listening and seeing again. Revising is a rethinking of the principles from the ground up to understand why the writer is doing something, why they’re going somewhere, and why they’re taking the reader along with them.On Revision steps back to take in the big picture, showing authors how to hear their own writing voice and how to reread their work as if they didn’t write it. On Revision will show you how to know when your writing is actually done—and, until it is, what you need to do to get it there.

    In a friendly, informative and practical way they share all you need to know about inspiration and research, preparing to submit to a publisher, creating an author brand, legal, ethical and moral considerations, pitching, effective social media and much more.Practical advice and top tips from Liz Byrski, Alan Carter, Nandi Chinna, Tim Coronel, Amanda Curtin, Daniel de Lorne, Deb Fitzpatrick, James Foley, Alecia Hancock, Stephen Kinnane, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Natasha Lester, Brigid Lowry, Caitlin Maling, Meg McKinlay, Claire Miller, Brendan Ritchie, Rachel Robertson, Holden Sheppard, Sasha Wasley, David Whish-Wilson and Anne-Louise Willoughby.

    Demonstrating the elements of screenwriting inside the format engages readers (and writers) in an accessible way, reminding them that story is at the heart of the form. Award-winning screenwriting instructor Kat Montagu crafted the tale of two feisty young witches cursed by a ghost of a dead screenwriter. When he steals their car to make it to L.A., the chase is on and only the arcane knowledge of screenplay formatting can help them."This genius learn-as-you-laugh guide teaches you script formatting in a way that's pain-free, memorable, and logical. In my nearly 30-year career, I have had to learn formatting on the street, copying the examples I happened to come across, and this would've been a great help to me. In fact, even now, reading it makes certain things clear that I've never fully understood. I highly recommend this book!"- Jane Espenson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica)

    After all, writing goes far beyond simply creating a rough draft - it’s how the work evolves from a rough draft to a finished piece that separates the good from the great. And as anyone who’s tried their hand at revising a novel or memoir can tell you, it’s all too easy to become mired in the details rather than see the bigger picture, merely focusing on the trees and forgetting the forest, until it grows unwieldy and overwhelming.The tendency during the revision process to focus on the “little picture” versus the “big picture” can be overcome with the right tools and perspective. This is where Effective Editing: How to Take Your Writing to the Next Level comes in. Book coach and editor Molly McCowan takes you through the self-editing process in 13 detailed lessons, using a step-by-step method designed to reduce overwhelm and to structure the revision process in the most productive way possible. Working from the big to the little picture of your work, Molly shows you how to strengthen character development, find and fix plot holes, build stronger scenes, focus on smooth pacing and point-of-view issues, elevate your language, and much more.The focus of this course is for you to improve your narrative writing skills, including fiction and nonfiction, such as memoir, autobiography, biography, and personal essays. Molly’s tips and tools throughout the course can help any writer edit their own work with skill and confidence.

    Co-edited by award-winning microfiction writer/editor Meg Pokrass, and Flannery O’Connor Prize-winning author Gary Fincke, the anthology features the award-winning author Amber Sparks serving as final judge.

    

    Like “trap your characters in an elevator with an emu” weird. Because everyone needs a little weirdness to refresh their writing lives!Grab this book to:-Get Deep & Random - Expanded prompts with ideas to make your characters epic, plus absurd situations to unlock your creativity with play-Get Sharing & Marketing - Author-centric questions to fuel your marketing brain and help with social media content creationIt’s time to refresh your brain, supercharge your story, and have fun with your marketing!

    At the same time, he remained devoted to a conservative Mormonism that he saw as a vehicle for progress even as it narrowed the range of acceptable belief. Kristine L. Haglund views England’s writing through the tensions produced by his often-opposed intellectual and spiritual commitments. Though labeled a liberal, England had a traditional Latter-day Saint background and always sought to address fundamental questions in Mormon terms. His intellectually adventurous essays sometimes put him at odds with Church authorities and fellow believers. But he also influenced a generation of thinkers and cofounded Dialogue, a Mormon academic and literary journal acclaimed for the broad range of its thought.A fascinating portrait of a Mormon intellectual and his times, Eugene England reveals a believing scholar who emerged from the lived experiences of his faith to engage with the changes roiling Mormonism in the twentieth century.

    It’s not even ‘who you know.’ It’s all about one thing: Does the publishing industry believe your book has the potential to be a bestseller?The Cynical Writer’s Guide to the Publishing Industry is a manual for playing on agents’ and editors’ preconceptions and expectations. It teaches you how to get the industry players excited about your book’s potential to become a bestseller. This isn't about selling out or compromising your vision. It’s about generating excitement for the book you’ve written—and excitement, more than anything, determines which books get acquired and which don’t.Here’s a smattering of what you’ll find:On finding the right pitch for your book - “Ideally, your pitch should be quality-agnostic. You want a pitch that’ll excite people regardless of whether the book is good or is bad.”On why editors don’t care about small profits - “…nobody’s paying close attention to the nuts-and-bolts of how an editor’s books perform. In fact, almost nobody in a house can tell you, off the top of their head, whether a given book has made or lost money for the company.”On finding a market niche - “Unless there’s been a commercially successful book released in the past ten years that’s similar to your book, you'll have a very hard time selling to a major publisher.”On what veteran authors know - “[Unpublished authors] have no idea. They think they just need to ‘write better books.’ It’s only once you’ve published a book that you really understand the panicky, claustrophobic, fighting-for-the-last-lifeboat-off-the-Titanic quality of the publishing industry. This is a war of all against all, and if you survive for fifteen years, then you’ve done better than 99 percent of the people who started out with you.”But more than anything, the Cynical Guide is about the times and places when you shouldn’t be cynical. This isn’t a book about writing a formulaic bestseller. It’s aboutmelding innovation and insight to survive in a marketplace that can be hostile to authors and their careers.Written by the author of two books out with major publishers, the Cynical Guide gives you the tools you’ll need to convince a big publisher that your manuscript is a can’t-miss opportunity.

    In Socratic Scribbling, he reveals secrets he learned from Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Quintillion, Shakespeare, and other Great Writers and Thinkers that helped him make his mark in advertising. Malachy believes good writing is less about following rules and more about making things happen with words. He shows us how to explain complicated things in simple ways, how to persuade people by getting them to convince themselves, how to tell stories that delight and instruct, and how to make speeches that engage and enchant. And it all starts when we follow Socrates as he asks the right questions.

    From your plot to your cast, theme, and even your reader’s experience, this character will form your novel’s foundation.Because of this, crafting a well-written hero is a critical step for writing a novel, as well as a challenging one. Your protagonist will need a backstory, identity, and character arc, alongside meaningful goals, desires, and conflicts to face. All of these elements and more will combine to form your hero’s unique journey—meaning you’ll need to understand all of them to truly bring your protagonist to life.Luckily, that’s where Write Your Hero can help!Learn the five key traits of every successful protagonist,Master the dual journeys that will define your hero’s story,Craft compelling challenges and inner conflicts for your protagonist to face,Build a vibrant world around your new hero,And bring it all together in a final profile of your protagonist.By the time we’re done, you’ll have everything you need to write a fan-favorite hero of your own!

    

    As a result, the need for "writing skills" literature is large. Most of it falls into a few big categories: technical writing skills and references (think: Strunck and White's The Elements of Style). However, The 12 Week Year for Writers system is a writing-specific implementation of The 12 Week Year productivity system, created over many years of Thrall's use of the 12WY himself.In this book we show writers how to use the 12 Week Year system to help them increase their productivity dramatically. The 12WY for Writers system, based on the principles of the 12 Week Year and honed over many years of helping students learn to write more effectively, is a strategic operating system for writers. The system helps writers answer the most fundamental and big picture questions: What is my vision for the future? What are my writing goals? What are the best strategies and tactics to achieve those goals? How can I manage my writing process to ensure that I stay focused, productive, and on track? This book will be THE system for helping writers of all kinds and genres do a much better job planning and executing their writing and will be the only book that harnesses a proven execution system to improve the writing process. This means that our system starts with a high level of credibility and benefits from the existing reputation and name recognition of The 12 Week Year, while tailoring the system and the message to a more targeted audience.

    

    

    

    This book provides a vital roadmap to the artistic, personal and spiritual growth to all those battling addiction.The authors of this unique approach to recovery should be dead. That they are not is a testament to the resiliency of the human spirit and the power of hope. Although they now share over three decades of sobriety, they spent even more years as alcoholics and addicts. Hell on earth is real for those suffering from substance abuse, but the authors know that there is a way out of this hell. For they have lived it, and in these pages they offer the hope, strength and wisdom of the once seemingly damned.

    Inspired by Hippocampus Magazine's annual conference, Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction features 20+ essays from some of the events' highest-rated speakers and writers behind a few of our journal's most-read craft columns.Getting to the Truth is full of real-world insight, practical examples, and even creative nonfiction writing exercises and other prompts. Whether you're new to writing creative nonfiction, want to experiment with new forms of storytelling, or wish to improve your craft, there's something within these pages that will ignite your creativity.Getting to the Truth, like our conference, is about more than the craft of creative writing. It also covers the writing life, paths to publication, and engaging with your audience. So, this creative nonfiction book is divided into three sections: Getting It Down Getting Through It Getting It RightPlus, a bonus section at the end with lots of resources and reading recommendations.A CLOSER LOOKThe 20+ creative nonfiction essays include deep dives into topics like: Imposter syndrome Generating story ideas Beginnings and endings in creative nonfiction Visual essays, lyric essays, and other blending of genres Writing about family members Memory (and what we don't remember) The quiet memoir… and so. much. More.Getting to the Truth is edited by Rae Pagliarulo and Donna Talarico and features the wisdom and insight of creative nonfiction writers such as: Eli Aharon Steph Auteri Sue Baldwin-Way Nicole Breit Melanie Brooks Kelly Caldwell Laurie Jean Angie Chatman Sam Chiarelli Athena Dixon Wendy Fontaine Joanne M. Lozar Glenn Penny Guisinger Laurie Jean Elane Johnson Beth Kephart Lara Lillibridge Kate Meadows Jenna McGuiggan Randon Billings Noble Alexis Paige Dave Pidgeon Matt SkillenRae Pagliarulo is associate editor of Hippocampus Magazine and Donna Talarico is founder and publisher of Hippocampus Magazine and Books.

    In This Is What America Looks Like, one hundred writers and poets from DC, Maryland and Virginia draw a portrait of the creative state of our union. (Washington Writers' Publishing House)

    Using hundreds of examples from Jane Austen to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Leo Tolstoy to Stephen King, novelist and longtime MFA professor Lisa Zeidner dives deep into the points of view we are most familiar with—first and third person—and moves beyond to second-person narration, frame tales, and even animal points of view. Engaging and accessible, Who Says? presents any practicing writer with a new system for choosing a point of view, experimenting with how it determines the narrative, and applying these ideas to revision.

    

    

     For many people who want to keep a journal, the fear of the blank page can be a very real stumbling block, but is definitely something that can be resolved. In this essential reference guide, journaling expert Helen Colebrook offers up all her knowledge, tips and tricks to ensure you get truly bitten by the journaling bug. Thoughtful prompts: these journaling prompts are a great exercise to get you started on self-reflection and help you make writing a daily habit. Creative prompts: these prompts will get your creative juices flowing. There are no end of ways to get creative in your journal and it can become a hugely relaxing and rewarding part of the process. Layout inspiration: these ideas show you a range of different tried and tested layouts that you can use in your own journal.

    

    It also offers clear and original instruction on craft elements at the forefront of today’s emerging forms in creative nonfiction: from the short-short, to the braided form, to the hermit crab essay. An acknowledged expert in these forms, Brenda Miller gives writers practical advice on how to sustain and invigorate their writing practice, while also encouraging readers to explore their own writing lives. “Brenda Miller writes so beautifully in these lyrical and ‘braided’ essays—personal meditations that take us deep into the miracle of writing itself. Her eye is always alert, her ear wonderfully tuned to the nuances of perception. The art of the essay is alive and well in her hands.”  —Jay Parini, author of Borges and Me

    

    Listen: don’t you hear them crying out for you? Come take a peek inside the Cabinet of Wrath to find out what really happens when toys go missing and the stark decision they must make if they ever want to go home again. Discover what doll heads really think about being separated from their bodies. Follow a skull-and-bones novelty ring as it assembles a full body for itself, bit by grisly bit, and learn how loving your doll too much can lead to grave consequences. Open the door to these nine fabulist tales of toys and vengeance for a playtime you’ll never forget.

    But he was most drawn to the curious, the unknown, and the unsung—the deaths that normally wouldn’t make much of a splash, if any mention at all, in the news columns of a daily paper.  Digging deeper, he uncovered the extraordinary among the ordinary, memorializing the lives of a sword designer, a radio villain, a pioneering female detective, a homeless woman who spoke fluent French, a beloved classroom tarantula, and many more. Their stories are alternately amusing, sad, surprising, and profound. Together they speak to a shared human experience and inspire us to see the people around us with new eyes, valuing the lives while they are still being lived.

    and with each visit you learn new things about yourself and about the story.' — Mykaela Saunders on Carpentaria by Alexis WrightAll writers begin as readers.This is an ode, a love letter, to the magic of reading. To the spark that's set off when the reader thinks ... I can do this too. Here, twenty-six writers take us through these moments of revelation through the dog-eared pages of their favourite Australian books. Among them, poet Ellen van Neerven finds kin on the page with Miles Franklin-winner Tara June Winch. A.S. Patrić finds a dark mirror for our times in David Malouf’s retelling of an episode from the Iliad. Ashley Hay pens letters of appreciation and friendship to Charlotte Wood.These and many more writers come together to draw knowledge from the distinctive personal and sensory stories of this country: its thefts and losses, and its imagined futures. Australian fiction shows us what it is possible to say and, perhaps, what still needs to be said.Reading Like an Australian Writer is a delightful, inspirational and heartfelt collection of essays that will enrich your reading of Australian stories and guide you in your own writing.

    

    Moore developed a simple process to show storytellers how to turn a story into a script. The book delivers lessons in basic screenplay structure plus, bonus features like quizzes, writer's block removal and brain boosting exercises, writing drills, pitch deck training and more. You'll also get S.D. Moore's cash award winning autobiographic dramatic script, Stronger When She's Broken. Screenwriting for Storytellers is a must have tool for writers of all types. Isn't it time you told Hollywood your story?

    Wooldridge Write a Poem, Save Your Life helps writers of all ages and experience levels navigate their way through all aspects of life. With writing prompts, tools, encouragement, and moving student examples, Meredith Heller gently guides us in the art of using poetry to figure out who we are and what matters to us and to heal the deeper issues many of us face, such as depression, addiction, health and body image issues, low self-esteem, trauma, gender and sexual identity issues, and home and family problems. Along the way, we learn that writing poems helps us believe in ourselves, make positive life choices, and find direction, purpose, and meaning.

    Don't condemn it to years of neglect at someone else's hands. Take back your rights and make them work for you for years to come.

    

    Good writing, he says, has the same basic attributes regardless of genre or medium. Wordcraft shares Hart’s techniques for achieving those attributes in one of the most broadly useful writing books ever written. Originally published in 2006 as A Writer’s Coach, the book has been updated to address the needs of writers well beyond print journalists. Hart breaks the writing process into a series of manageable steps, from idea to polishing. Filled with real-world examples, both good and bad, Wordcraft shows how to bring such characteristics as force, brevity, clarity, rhythm, and color to any kind of writing.Wordcraft now functions as a set with the second edition of Hart’s book Storycraft, on the art of storytelling, also available from Chicago.

    "Inspired by Merriam-Webster's popular Word of the Day digital feature, this book builds knowledge one day at a time with 366 masterful words, ages 8-12"--Provided by publisher.

    My memories don’t go back quite that far, but as far back as I do remember, I was never certain. I asked my mother and grandmother over and over again, ‘Am I a boy, or am I a girl?’–asked so many times they got sick of answering and started getting mad at me, and then I would hear, ‘I told you!’ They always told me that I was a boy, but I was never convinced. It would take me over sixty years to arrive at a clear understanding of my problem–I was trapped inside what we now would call ‘the gender binary,’ the notion that there are only two choices.”So begins The Bridge, Keith Maillard’s fascinating memoir of growing up in West Virginia in the 1940s and ’50s: a time and place where the word “nonbinary” didn’t exist. This memoir from one of Canada’s most celebrated writers is an instant classic–timely, accessible, and wonderfully evocative. Maillard is a natural, gifted storyteller.

    In this new era of remote, work and online presenting, it delivers powerful and persuasive outcomes for time-limited professionals dealing with complex ideas, attention-deficit audiences, and the evolving challenges of modern meetings.

    Self-publishing a book is difficult.  This book simplifies it by breaking down a self-publishing and marketing project into 10 steps.This step-by-step process will get your book published  and initiate the pre-launch marketing.Hank Quense has written and self-published over twenty books, both fiction and non-fiction.  He is the author of the Author Blueprint Series of books.  The Series concentrates on providing valuable guidance on fiction writing, self-publishing and book marketing.  Self-publish a Book in 10 Steps is Book 6 in the series.The book details such vital tasks as developing a compelling book description, building an author platform and getting book reviews to list a few.Learn the ten step process that will self-publish and market your book!

    . . Remember no good or bad. Just words on the page.With more than 1 million copies sold and translated into nineteen languages, Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones has inspired countless writers around the world. Now, Natalie answers one of the most frequent questions from writers: how do I begin? Right here! No matter what level. Writing Down the Bones Deck offers 60 all-new topics to awaken the mind and explore writing from fresh perspectives. Many of the topics offer multiple angles, providing inspiration again and again. Working with this deck is like a personal course with beloved writing instructor Natalie Goldberg.Each card contains a writing topic on one side and a short lesson on the reverse, delivered in Natalie's honest, heartfelt urgency. From classic prompts that Natalie Goldberg has used a thousand and ten times for her own writing, like I'm looking at . . . and I'm thinking of . . . to writing about memories of silence and things you forgot to say, the cards will spark you. Whether you are new to establishing a writing practice or you've been going strong for years, the Writing Down the Bones Deck will help you focus on the details and inspire you to develop discipline, gain confidence, and break free to tell your story.