Like Mary Karr or Frank McCourt, we can shape those stories into dramatic narratives that are compelling to others. Blending literary scholarship with practical coaching, Rainer shares her remarkable techniques for finding the essentials of story structure within your life's scattered experiences. Most important, she explains how to treasure the struggles in your past and discover the meaning within those experiences to capture the unique myth at work in your life.

    Can't find that amazing idea in your pile of sticky notes? Distracted by blog posts, social media, and email? Looking for an easy way to keep track of your research?This booklet (about 30 pages) introduces handy--and often free or inexpensive--computer-based tools to help you eliminate distractions, track your progress, organize your research, capture new ideas anywhere, streamline your writing process, and safeguard your hard work.Lessons in this booklet are based on a week-long class Gwen taught for the Romance Writers of America in June 2013.

    Romance author Serenity Woods and best selling author Mark Dawson provide ten short tips to help the eager beginner interested in turning their hobby of writing romance stories into a way to earn a living.

     You know it’s been rattling around in your head since you were young. You want to write a book because the call of the muse has been getting stronger. And, perhaps you have heard You Must Write a Book. The two keys to success for aspiring authors is consistency and a little bit of time. Honorée Corder and Brian D. Meeks are full-time authors who have written over three dozen books combined, both fiction and non-fiction. Honorée is an expert in non-fiction and Brian has penned tomes across five fiction genres. They’ve combined their knowledge to lay out the best practices and answer the most common questions they hear from new authors. The Nifty Fifteen will take you from the blank page to finished book by wiping away the fear that is born of not knowing where to begin. In addition, you’ll be given access to Brian’s Beautiful Gears, which is a session by session look at how he wrote his 13th novel in just fifteen minutes per day. You’ll see the unedited work with all of its errors to show how a full-time author is worried about one thing…get the first rough draft out. The edited version, all polished up and without the daily comments, will also be made available upon its release. Lastly you’ll be given exercises that will make the process easy to undertake. Everyone has a story to tell. It just takes a little time each day, so why not give The Nifty Fifteen a read.

    Together with interviews from authors, agents and publishers (including the CEO of Harper Studio, and the Editorial Director of Macmillan New Writing) as well as buyers from Waterstones and Asda, it offers advice on:* finding an agent or publisher * successful approaches for covering letters and synopses* understanding contractual terms * working with publishers and the editorial process * your role in helping to publicise your workThe Writers' and Artists' Yearbook Guide to Getting Published will enable you to market your work more professionally, understand the relationship you will have with both agent and publisher and offers a contemporary inside view of the publishing industry. Along with the essential contacts in the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, this is a professional tool you will not want to be without.

    Practical, brutally honest, and done with the kind of humor that will make it stick in your brain. Whether you’re a veteran writer or new to the craft, you’ll find something useful in here. Plus he says ‘fuck’ a lot, so, you know, there’s that.”– Stephen Blackmoore, author of Dead Things500 Ways To Write Harder aims to deliver a volley of micro-burst idea bombs and advisory missiles straight to your frontal penmonkey cortex. Want to learn more about writing, storytelling, publishing, and living the creative life? This book contains a high-voltage dose of information about outlining, plot twists, writer’s block, antagonists, writing conferences, self-publishing, and more.All this, straight from the sticky blog pages of terribleminds.com, one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers (as named by Writer’s Digest).This book contains the following chapters:25 Bad Writer Behaviors25 Hard Truths About Writing & Publishing25 Steps To Becoming A Self-Published Author25 Steps To Edit The Unmerciful Suck Out Of Your Story25 Things To Do Before You Start Your Novel25 Things You Should Know About Antagonists25 Things You Should Know About Conventions & Conferences25 Things You Should Know About Metaphor25 Things You Should Know About Narrative Point-of-View25 Things You Should Know About Outlining25 Things You Should Know About Worldbuilding25 Things You Should Know About Young Adult Fiction25 Things Writers Should Beware25 Things Writers Should Know About Traveling25 Turns, Pivots and Twists To Complicate Your Story25 Ways To Be A Happy Writer25 Ways To Get Your Authorial Groove Back25 Ways To Survive As A Creative Person25 Ways To Unstick A Stuck Story25 Writer ResolutionsAppendix: 50 Rantypants Snidbits Of Writing And Storytelling Advice

    The result is lively, funny and moving, especially for anyone who cares about art and the business of writing well.”—Evan Thomas, Newsweek In Writing Places, William Zinsser—the author of On Writing Well, the bestseller that has inspired two generations of writers, journalists, and students—recalls the many colorful and instructive places where he has worked and taught. Gay Talese, author of A Writer’s Life, calls Writing Places, “Wonderful,” while the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette praises this unique memoir for possessing “all the qualities that Zinsser believes matter most in good writing—clarity, brevity, simplicity and humanity.”

    A bestseller through six editions, Writing Fiction by novelists Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French explores the elements of fiction, providing practical writing techniques and concrete examples. Written in a tone that is personal and non-prescriptive, the text encourages students to develop proficiency through each step of the writing process, offering an abundance of exercises designed to spur writing and creativity. The text also integrates diverse, contemporary short stories in every chapter in the belief that the reading of inspiring fiction goes hand-in-hand with the writing of fresh and exciting stories.

    Mark McCutcheon eases the process of building convincing characters for stories and novels. He starts by conducting an inspiring and informative roundtable where six novelists reveal their approaches to characterization. Next, he provides a character questionnaire more detailed than the nosiest survey. Readers will fill it out and they'll know fictional people as though they'd grown up with them. Finally, there is a thesaurus of human characteristics - physical and psychological. Fit them together artfully and characters will climb right off the page.

    In this book-length essay, he offers a full range of notes and gives rare insight into a veteran writer’s process by inviting the reader to watch over his shoulder as he creates the short story “The Governor’s Ball.”“This is a story of a story,” he begins, and proceeds to offer practical advice for creating a great story, from the first glimmer of an idea to the final sentence. Carlson urges the writer to refuse the outside distractions—a second cup of coffee, a troll through the dictionary—and attend to the necessity of uncertainty, the pleasures of an unfolding story.“The Governor’s Ball”—included in its entirety—serves as a fascinating illustration of the detailed anatomy of a short story.

    "The Write-Brain Workbook" is the first of its kind–an easy, fun, and playful way to exercise your creative writing muscles each day.Eliminate the dreaded emptiness of the blank pageWrite without the pressure of preconceived expectationsLearn about your own unique writing processBuild the momentum of a quick daily writing practiceUnlock writer's blockApply the breakthroughs from daily practice to your "real" writingExpand how you see yourself as a writerExperiment with different ways to approach writingAffirm your commitment to being a writer"The Write-Brain Workbook" is bursting with 366 innovative exercises that let you experiment and play with words and styles. Whether you love the pure joy of writing, are just getting started, or are trying to get past a particular writing block ... this is the book you've been waiting for!

    It will help you understand how the genre works, the big do's and don't's - as well as giving you the inspiration and motivation you actually need to write. Written by a leading literary agent who knows what it takes to make it in this market, this book will give you the advice and tips you need to stand out. An essential book for anyone hoping to emulate the success and addictive qualities that characterize books like The Hunger Games, Twilight, Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars.

    Topics covered include law review articles and student notes, seminar term papers, how to shift from research to writing, cite-checking others' work, publishing, and publicizing written works. With supporting documents available on http://volokh.com/writing, the book helps law students and everyone else involved in academic legal writing: professors save time and effort communicating basic points to students; law schools satisfy the American Bar Association's second- and third-year writing requirements; and law reviews receive better notes from their staff.

    This collection has more than twenty-five selections, including such important statements as "Modern Fiction" and "The Modern Essay."

    In a satisfying story or novel, all of the pieces seem to fit together so effortlessly, so seamlessly, that it's easy to find yourself wondering, "How on earth did the author do this?" The answer is simple: He sat alone at his desk, considered an array of options, and made smart, careful choices.In Alone With All That Could Happen, award-winning author and respected creative writing professor David Jauss addresses overlooked or commonly misunderstood aspects of fiction writing, offering practical information and advice that will help you make smart creative and technical decisions about such topics as:writing prose whose syntax and rhythm create a "soundtrack" for the story it tellschoosing the right point of view to create the appropriate degree of "distance" between your characters and the readerwriting valid and convincing epiphaniesharnessing the power of contradiction in the creative processIn one thought-provoking essay after another, Jauss sorts through unique fiction-writing conundrums, including how to create those exquisite intersections between truth and fabrication that make all great works of fiction so much more resonant and powerful than fiction that follows the generic "write what you know" approach that's so often preached.