An author blog doesn't have to follow the rules that monetized business blogs do. This book teaches the secrets that made Anne R. Allen a multi-award-winning blogger and one of the top author-bloggers in the industry.And you'll learn why having a successful author blog is easier than you think.Here are some things you'll learn in this book:1) How an author blog is different—and easier to maintain—than a business blog2) What authors should blog about at different stages of their careers3) Choosing the right blog topics for your genre and audience4) How one type of blogpost can build your platform quickly5) Basic SEO tips that don't make your eyes glaze over with tech jargon6) How to write headers that will grab the attention of Web surfers 7) How to keep your audience by learning the tricks of content writing8) Essential blog and social media etiquette rules9) What happens to your blog when you die?

    The book became a national bestseller, won a slew of awards, and is soon to be a major motion picture. Get the first draft down quickly! The 90-Day Novel is a day-by-day guide through the process of getting the first draft of your novel onto the page. The 90-Day Novel has been used at the L.A. Writers' Lab over ten years and has helped hundreds of writers complete their work. Some of Watt's students have gone on to become bestselling authors and win major literary awards.The 90-Day Novel is structured into three parts. Part One describes the process of getting your story from imagination to the page and prepares you, through a few simple, powerful writing exercises to access the story within. Part Two is a series of 90 daily letters that will guide you through the hero's journey. Writers often tend to get stuck halfway through, mired somewhere in their "idea" of the story. The 90-Day Novel will show you how and why you got stuck, and how to get to the end of your first draft. Part Three is a compendium of stream-of-consciousness writing exercises designed to access the primal forces in your story, as well as the Structure Questions that will invite up images at key stages in your hero's journey. The 90-Day Novel teaches you how to distill your plot to its nature, and clarifies the mysterious process of assembling vague disparate images into a coherent narrative. Working in this way, story structure (which is often taught as a formula) becomes a springboard, setting you free to explore the far reaches of your imagination. "There are no rules," Watt tells us. "Stay out of your left brain, and let your unconscious do the heavy lifting." The 90-Day Novel clearly articulates the process of marrying the rigor of story structure to the wildness of the imagination, and in the process reminds us of something we so often forget . . . that writing is actually fun. For more information, go to www.lawriterslab.com."For years I have been fascinated by the industry legend of how Alan Watt wrote his masterful novel, Diamond Dogs, in 90 days. Now, at last, he shares his secrets. The 90-Day Novel is smart, insightful, thorough and wise. It's also one of the best books on novel-writing I have ever seen. I feel confident that anyone who takes this program seriously will have a solid manuscript to show for the effort."- David Liss (national bestselling author and Edgar winner of A Conspiracy of Paper)"Let Al Watt take your heart by its hand and get your 90-Day Novel onto the page. It will be the experience of a lifetime."- Viki King (author of How to Write a Movie in 21 Days: The Inner Movie Method)"The 90-Day Novel is the real deal. Alan Watt gets down to it by brilliantly articulating the fusion of the muse to the rigor of story structure. If you've been struggling with your story, or really want to get dangerous on the page, read this book. Follow it, and you will have a first draft in 90 days."- Eric Miles Williamson (Pen finalist for his novel East Bay Grease, and author of Say It Hot) "The 90-Day Novel provides the inspiration, focus, and structure that every novelist needs to finally put down on paper what has been alive inside him, perhaps for years, struggling to get out."- Allison Burnett (author of Christopher, finalist for Pen Center USA's Literary Award in Fiction)"The 90 daily letters are absolutely worth the price of admission. A friendly nudge, a gentle reminder of our commitment, a powerful blast of insight: all serve to boost our flagging morale, or comb out our confusion, or intercede with the bitter fight against our creative impulses."- Mary Shannon (Professor of Creative Writing, Cal State Northridge/90-Day NovelistAbout the AuthorBestselling author Alan Watt has received many awards for his writing, including France's 2004 Prix Printemps (best foreign novel). He founded LA Writers' Lab in 2002. He lectures on the creative process and teaches The 90-Day Novel workshops to writers throughout the world.

    Filled with down-to-earth discussions on the various debates of writing, as well as innovative research on neuroscience and reader response, this book shows you how to:Navigate the various debates on writing fiction--showing versus telling, purple prose, outlining, writing description, and more--to decide what kind of novelist you want to be.Hack your reader's brain to hook her interest and trigger emotional engagement from the very first page.Incorporate enduring elements of storytelling from masters like Joseph Campbell, Aristotle, and Carl Jung.Readers want to be swept away by your stories. When you eschew the rules and focus on your readers' desires, you're free to write truly irresistible fiction.

    Based on his acclaimed classes at UCLA Extension, Writing for Emotional Impact goes beyond the basics and argues that Hollywood is in the emotion-delivery business, selling emotional experiences packaged in movies and TV shows. Iglesias not only encourages you to deliver emtional impact on as many pages as possible, he shows you how, offering hundreds of dramatic techniques to take your writing to the professional level.

    Trouble is, plot is where most writers fall down--but you don't have to be one of them. With this book, you'll learn how to create stories that build suspense, reveal character, and engage readers--one scene at a time.Celebrated writing teacher and author Martha Alderson has devised a plotting system that's as innovative as it is easy to implement. With her foolproof blueprint, you'll learn to devise a successful storyline for any genre. She shows how to:Use the power of the Universal StoryCreate plot lines and subplots that work togetherEffectively use a scene tracker for maximum impactInsert energetic markers at the right points in your storyShow character transformation at the book's climaxThis is the ultimate guide for you to write page-turners that sell!

    Use them to pry, chip, yank and sift good characters out of the place where they live in your memory, your imagination and your soul.Award-winning author Orson Scott Card explains in depth the techniques of inventing, developing and presenting characters, plus handling viewpoint in novels and short stories. With specific examples, he spells out your narrative options–the choices you'll make in creating fictional people so "real" that readers will feel they know them like members of their own families.You'll learn how to: draw the characters from a variety of sources, including a story's basic idea, real life–even a character's social circumstances make characters show who they are by the things they do and say, and by their individual "style" develop characters readers will love–or love to hate distinguish among major characters, minor characters and walk-ons, and develop each one appropriately choose the most effective viewpoint to reveal the characters and move the storytelling decide how deeply you should explore your characters' thoughts, emotions and attitudes

    Read this book and steal her secrets!"--Kelly Harms, Washington Post-bestselling author of The Overdue Life of Amy Byler"Tiffany Yates Martin is an exceptional editor, so of course her advice and counsel in Intuitive Editing is exceptional as well. Whether you're a seasoned author looking to fine-tune your craft, pacing, or tension or just starting out and looking for guidance on building overall structure and engaging characters, this book is a must-read that will take you from idea to finished manuscript."--New York Times-bestselling author Allison Winn Scotch"This book is a must have tool every author needs in their toolkit. When you are ready to go deeper, to dig into the revision process, using Tiffany's Intuitive Editing strategies will help you take your writing to the next level."--New York Times- and USA Today-bestselling author Steena Holmes"Authors, if you can't be lucky enough to have Tiffany as your editor, then Intuitive Editing is the next-best thing. Her advice is sound, thoughtful, no-nonsense and given with the compassion that every author and their book deserves."--Elisabeth Weed, literary agent, the Book Group"Editing your own writing can feel like doing your own brain surgery...."After you've completed your manuscript and you're standing at the foot of Revision Mountain, climbing to the summit can feel impossible. It's hard to look at your own writing with the objective eye needed to shape it into a tight, polished, publishable story--but just like writing, self-editing is a skill you can learn. Developmental editor Tiffany Yates Martin has spent her career in the publishing industry honing practical, actionable techniques to help authors evaluate how well their story is working, where it might not be, and how to fix it.With a clear, accessible, user-friendly approach, she leads writers through every step of deepening and elevating their own work, as well as how to approach the edit and develop their "editor brain," and how to solicit and process feedback. Intuitive Editing doesn't offer one-size-fits-all advice or rigid writing "rules"; instead it helps authors discover what works for their story and their style--to find the best version of their vision.Whether you're writing fiction, narrative nonfiction, or memoir; whether this your first story or your fiftieth, Intuitive Editing will give you the tools you need to edit and revise your own writing with inspiration, motivation, and confidence.Tiffany Yates Martin has spent nearly thirty years as an editor in the publishing industry, working with major publishers and bestselling authors as well as newer writers. She's led workshops and seminars for conferences and writers' groups across the country and is a frequent contributor to writers' sites and publications. Visit her at www.foxprinteditorial.com.

    Filled with professional tips and a wealth of instructive examples, this valuable, easy-to-use handbook can help you solve any and all writing problems.

    Never fear--author and editor Chuck Sambuchino provides expert, practical advice for increasing your visibility, selling more books, and launching a successful career. In "Create Your Writer Platform," you'll learn: The definition of a platform--and why you should start building one "now."How to harness the 12 Fundamental Principles of Platform."Old School" and "New School" approaches to platform, from article writing and conference speaking to website development, blog posts, and social media avenues.How to develop a platform for nonfiction, fiction, and memoir. In addition to Chuck's invaluable insights, you'll also find 12 case studies from authors with effective platforms, as well as professional advice from literary agents. If you're serious about building a platform tailored to "you" and "your writing"--a platform that's going to help you succeed as a writer--look no further than "Create Your Writer Platform."

    It enables us to write faster and avoid the dangers of RSI and a sedentary lifestyle. But many of us give up on dictating when we find we can't get the accuracy we need to be truly productive. This book changes all of that. With almost two decades of using Dragon software under his belt and a wealth of insider knowledge from within the dictation industry, Scott Baker will reveal how to supercharge your writing and achieve sky-high recognition accuracy from the moment you start using the software. You will learn: - Hidden tricks to use when installing Dragon NaturallySpeaking on a Windows PC or Dragon Dictate for Mac; - How to choose the right microphone and set it up perfectly for speech recognition; - The little-known techniques that will ensure around 99% accuracy from your first install – and how to make this even better over time; - Setting up fail-safe dictation profiles with multiple microphones and voice recorders, without impacting your accuracy; - How to train the software to adapt to you and avoid your accuracy declining; - Strategies for achieving your entire daily word count in just one or two hours; - Many more tips and tricks you won't find anywhere else. At the end of the book, you'll also find an exclusive list of resources and links to FREE video training to take your knowledge even further. It's time to write at the speed of speech – and transform your writing workflow forever!

    McNair explains the common mistakes made by most writers and shows how eliminating unnecessary words strengthens action, shorten sentences, and makes writing crackle with life. Containing 21 simple, straightforward principles, Editor-Proof Your Writing teaches how to edit weak verb forms, strip away author intrusions, ban redundancies, eliminate foggy phrases, correct passive-voice sentences, slash misused and overused words, and fix other writing mistakes. A superb addition to any writer’s toolkit, this book will not only make writing clearer and more grammatical, it will also make it more concise, entertaining, and appealing to publishers.

    Throughout, the emphasis is on promoting a plain English style. This little book can help you communicate more effectively by showing you how to enliven your sentences.

    It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sold, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.

    Now, for the first time ever, bestselling author and writing teacher, Jessica Brody, takes the beloved Save the Cat! plotting principals and applies them to the craft of novel writing in this exciting new “workshop style” guide, featuring over 20 full beat sheets from popular novels throughout time.Whether you’re writing your first novel or your seventeenth, Save the Cat! breaks down plot in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step method so you can write stories that resonate! This book can help you with any of the following:Outlining a new novelRevising an existing novelBreaking out of the dreaded “writer’s block”Fixing a “broken” novelReviewing a completed novelFleshing out/test driving a new idea to see if it “has legs”Implementing feedback from agents and/or editorsHelping give constructive feedback to other writersBut above all else, SAVE THE CAT! WRITES A NOVEL will help you better understand the fundamentals and mechanics of plot, character transformation, and what makes a story work!

    Offers advice for would-be science fiction writers, covering such topics as setting, plot, character, and dialogue, as well as the mechanics of grammar, tense, sentence structure, and paragraph transition.