Where do these would-be novelists go wrong? Are the characters dull and cliched? Did the story arc collapse? Did they succumb to a dreaded bout of -writer's block-? Or maybe it was all just taking too long?These problems used to stop writers in their tracks, but nothing will get in your way after reading Write Your Novel in a Month. Author and instructor Jeff Gerke has created the perfect tool to show you how to prepare yourself to write your first draft in as little as 30 days. With Jeff's help, you will learn how to organize your ideas, create dynamic stories, develop believable characters, and flesh out the idea narrative for your novel--and not just for the rapid-fire first draft. Jeff walks you through the entire process, from initial idea to the important revision stage, and even explains what to do with your novel once you've finished.Whether you are participating in National Novel Writing Month or you're simply hoping to complete a draft over winter break or your vacation, this book covers the entire scope of writing a novel and lays out exactly what you need to know to get it done fast and right.

    In these pages, aspiring comics writers will learn everything they need to know about how to write their own comic book stories, complete with easy to understand instruction, tips of the trade, and invaluable advice even for more advance writers. From the secrets to creating concepts, plots, to writing the script, the man with no peer — Stan Lee—is your guide to the world of writing and creating comics.From the Trade Paperback edition.

    And be advised: Those who are the best prepared to effectively compete in today’s still dynamic job market will have the best chance to be hired for one of these new jobs.Here is another factor to consider in today’s job market: According to LinkedIn, up to 50% of currently employed men and women say they are interested in exploring new career opportunities. Altogether, then, it is estimated that as many as 70 million people are now (or soon will be) competing for a finite number of available jobs.If you count yourself among those who want to explore new career opportunities in today's expanding job market, are you adequately prepared to successfully compete? If not, top professional "headhunter" and best-selling job-hunting book author Skip Freeman can show you how to get prepared and land the job of your dreams!In "Headhunter” Hiring Secrets, Skip shows you how you can adopt and implement the time-tested tactics and strategies he has successfuly used for over a decade in his executive recruiting firm, The HTW (Hire to Win) Group, to turn your job search into a job found!Attesting to the effectiveness of his firm's approach and candidate coaching & preparation is this fact: Whenever candidates The HTW Group presents to hiring company clients go up against candidates either going it alone or being presented by other recruiting firms, The HTW Group candidates walk away with the job offer SEVEN out of TEN times! Using an easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach, Skip shows you how to . . . Avoid the “shadows on the wall” syndrome (saying or doing something during an interview that makes the hiring manager uneasy about your candidacy). ”Lead the Witness,” i.e., the hiring manager, to take the interview in the direction you desire. Ask questions Superstars ask during a job interview. Answer tricky “Gotcha!” questions, e.g., “Tell me about yourself.” “How do you get along with your current boss?” “Why should I hire you?” Close the interview on a high note, making sure you not only stand out from the competition, but also that you stay in the game! And much, much more!Also prominently featured in ”Headhunter” Hiring Secrets are time-tested examples of . . . Job-winning resumes. Targeted, effective cover letters. A wide variety of telephone scripts that actually work. Direct mail letters to use in campaigns.

    What if life were like a video game? How can we incorporate creative work and the desire to build something into our routine? What truly matters?

    In Process, acclaimed journalist Sarah Stodola examines the creative methods of literature’s most transformative figures. Each chapter contains a mini biography of one of the world’s most lauded authors, focused solely on his or her writing process. Unlike how-to books that preach writing techniques or rules, Process puts the true methods of writers on display in their most captivating incarnation: within the context of the lives from which they sprang. Drawn from both existing material and original research and interviews, Stodola brings to light the fascinating, unique, and illuminating techniques behind these literary behemoths.

    'The Crime Writer's Guide To Police Practice And Procedure' is the detective in your pocket - something you can reach for when you feel your writing needs that short sharp shock of real-life investigating.

    His latest book is the first by anyone to target financial advice specifically at young adults graduating from university or college and moving into the workforce, into the housing market and into family life. Financial beginners, in other words. Carrick offers what can only be described as a wealth of information, on the full life cycle of financial challenges and opportunities young people face, including saving for a post-secondary education and paying off student debts, establishing a credit rating, basic banking and budgeting, car and home buying, marriage and raising children of their own, and insurance. The book is mindful throughout that parents have a big role to play in all this. It addresses young readers throughout but regularly asks them to see things from their parents' perspective. In that way, Rob Carrick is able to offer advice to both generations. He even recognizes that in these difficult times, moving back in with the folks is sometimes a short-term necessity. So there is a section devoted to such important questions as: Should your parents be charging you rent? For that and many thousands of dollars' worth of other reasons, this is a book that every parent needs to buy for each of their kids, plus one for themselves.

    Throughout history, the timely use of the apt word has held enormous sway, in literature, speeches, and texts. How is it that some words hold such power? One thing we know: great words often engage the senses. Thesaurus of the Senses expands your possibilities to see, hear, touch, taste, and smell to describe the world around you. It collects some of the best English sensory words in one place to enliven your writing and help you build persuasive description. It's an indispensable tool for writers, poets, bloggers, editors, storytellers, students, teachers, communicators, and word lovers alike — anyone wanting to add more spark to his or her writing.

    You dream of sharing your words with the world, and you're willing to put in the hard work to achieve success. You may have even considered earning your MFA, but for whatever reason--tuition costs, the time commitment, or other responsibilities--you've never been able to do it. Or maybe you've been looking for a self-guided approach so you don't have to go back to school. This book is for you."DIY MFA" is the do-it-yourself alternative to a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. By combining the three main components of a traditional MFA--writing, reading, and community--it teaches you how to craft compelling stories, engage your readers, and publish your work. Inside you'll learn how to: Set customized goals for writing and learning.Generate ideas on demand.Outline your book from beginning to end.Breathe life into your characters.Master point of view, voice, dialogue, and more.Read with a "writer's eye" to emulate the techniques of others.Network like a pro, get the most out of writing workshops, and submit your work successfully.Writing belongs to everyone--not only those who earn a degree. With "DIY MFA," you can take charge of your writing, produce high-quality work, get published, and build a writing career.

    It’s the harmful debris of your education—a mixture of half-truths, myths, and false assumptions that prevents you from writing well. Drawing on years of experience as a writer and teacher of writing, Verlyn Klinkenborg offers an approach to writing that will change the way you work and think. There is no gospel, no orthodoxy, no dogma in this book. What you’ll find here isn’t the way to write. Instead, you’ll find a way to clear your mind of illusions about writing and discover how you write. Several Short Sentences About Writing is a book of first steps and experiments. They will revolutionize the way you think and perceive, and they will change forever the sense of your own authority as a writer. This is a book full of learning, but it’s also a book full of unlearning—a way to recover the vivid, rhythmic, poetic sense of language you once possessed. An indispensable and unique book that will give you a clear understanding of how to think about what you do when you write and how to improve the quality of your writing.

    Those cartoons eventually led to a popular blog-gapingvoid.com-and a reputation for pithy insight and humor, in both words and pictures.MacLeod has opinions on everything from marketing to the meaning of life, but one of his main subjects is creativity. How do new ideas emerge in a cynical, risk-averse world? Where does inspiration come from? What does it take to make a living as a creative person?Ignore Everybody expands on MacLeod's sharpest insights, wittiest cartoons, and most useful advice. For example:-Selling out is harder than it looks. Diluting your product to make it more commercial will just make people like it less.-If your plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain.-Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. There's no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one.-The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.After learning MacLeod's forty keys to creativity, you will be ready to unlock your own brilliance and unleash it on the world.

    They follow “best practices” in marketing that never seem to pan out, don’t produce results, and make them feel lost and oftentimes, frustrated. Be the Gateway offers a powerful way to have an impact. If you want to share your voice and inspire people with your writing, art, craft, or creative idea, you have to be the gateway for them. Instead of throwing “products” out into the marketplace, you open them up to a new way of looking at the world, of knowing themselves, and connecting with others. You unlock new experiences for them -- not just through what you create, but through the unique way you share it with the world. Too often we think about the creative process as separate from the marketing process. Instead, view them as the same. Replace the inclination to “promote” with the desire to share and engage. How and why you create is a story — and your best asset to truly engage people. Be the Gateway shows you how to use that gift with joy and with confidence.

    Are you tired of spinning your wheels as a content creator? It's time to get intentional so you can grow your audience and make more money doing what you LOVE.  Stop wasting time on what isn't working! Scale up your success with strategic plans for your writing and promotion this year.  You'll learn how to:  use simple analytics to narrow your focus create blog posts and other content your audience is hungry for utilize the power of microblogging reverse engineer your desired income plan launches without overwhelming your audience implement a working social media strategy ...and so much more! Whether you are a blogger, writer, podcaster, or YouTuber, you'll find helpul tips and resources to map out a successful year's worth of content. This in-depth planner also comes with a free printable content calendar with daily, weekly, and monthly planning pages to help you put your goals into action. If you are ready to see results for your creative work, this planner is the first step to success! Download your Yearly Content Planner and Strategy Guide today!

    But what does digital mean really, for agents, publishers, and most of all, for authors? What will the industry look like tomorrow, and what should authors be doing to properly position themselves today?Examining the history and mechanics of the publishing industry as it exists today, the way the digital revolution reflects recent events in Egypt and the Maghreb, and a completely inappropriate YouTube video featuring a randy monkey and an unlucky frog, bestselling authors (and friends) J.A. Konrath and Barry Eisler show in this 35,000 word online discussion that digital isn't just the future, it's right now. Konrath, a pioneer in self-publishing, is now making over a half-million dollars a year through his self-published books, and Eisler just turned down a half-million dollar deal from one of the Big 6 NYC publishers to self-publish his latest novel. To find out why and what it all means for you, read on.Please feel free to repost all or any portion of this discussion with attribution and a link back to the authors. About the authorsJoe Konrath is the author of more than twenty novels and hundreds of short stories, written under the names J.A. Konrath (the Lt. Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels series), Jack Kilborn (Afraid, Trapped, Endurance, Draculas), and Joe Kimball (Timecaster.) Joe has a lot of names, apparently. He began self-publishing on Kindle in April, 2009. As of March, 2011, he's sold over 200,000 ebooks. On his blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, he has chronicled his writing journey.Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA's Directorate of Operations, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center along the way. Eisler's bestselling thrillers have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller of the Year, have been included in numerous "Best Of" lists, and have been translated into nearly twenty languages. The first book in Eisler's John Rain series, Rain Fall, is now a minor motion picture (kidding, it’s reasonably major) starring Gary Oldman. Eisler lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and, when he's not writing novels, blogs about torture, civil liberties, and the rule of law. You can find out more on his website, friend him on Facebook, and follow him on Twitter. He was also in the movie Freakonomics, which he forgot to tell Joe.

    Survey Methodology describes the basic principles of survey design discovered in methodological research over recent years and offers guidance for making successful decisions in the design and execution of high quality surveys. Written by six nationally recognized experts in the field, this book covers the major considerations in designing and conducting a sample survey. Topical, accessible, and succinct, this book represents the state of the science in survey methodology. Employing the "total survey error" paradigm as an organizing framework, it merges the science of surveys with state-of-the-art practices. End-of-chapter terms, references, and exercises enhance its value as a reference for practitioners and as a text for advanced students.