Book picks similar to
Crossing Unmarked Snow: Further Views on the Writer's Vocation by William Stafford
poetry
non-fiction
on-writing
nonfiction
Writing Day In and Day Out: Living a Practice of Words
Andi Cumbo-Floyd - 2015
The world says that writing doesn't matter much. Our families and jobs need us. We have to make money. The ugly voices in our head tell us we're not good enough. There are a ton of reasons why we choose to not write. . . and yet, if we are writers, we must find a way to the page. Over and over again. Often one of the hardest things for writers is allowing ourselves the time and space to write when so many other obligations fill our time. Writing Day in and Day Out is a book for writers who would like to find that time and space and build a practice of writing in their daily lives.In this intimate volume, Cumbo-Floyd tells about her own writing practice, shares suggestions - but never rules - for how you might find a way to more words in your daily life, and offers encouragement for the days when writing seems to be too far away or too painful.
CreateSpace & Kindle Self-Publishing Masterclass: The Step-By-Step Author's Guide to writing, Publishing and Marketing Your Books on Amazon
Rick Smith - 2013
You need a System. Step-By-Step - Amazon's Paperback and E-Book Publishing Systems Explained In CreateSpace and Kindle Self-Publishing Masterclass, top-selling independent author Rick Smith demonstrates a logical, step-by-step system which new Authors can use to succeed. This book will fast-track you through the Jungle! Writing, Publishing, and Marketing Your Books Here you'll find the truth about what to write and how to get it finished. You'll learn the 16 Golden Rules for Successful Amazon Authors. You'll be shown the important things that must be done correctly, and the other stuff which just slows you down.
Why you should publish both Paperback and Kindle formats
Why you should always do Createspace first
What are the best software tools for organisation, creativity, and productivity
How to create or source amazing low-cost Covers that drive your sales
How to build world-class Sales Pages on Amazon's storefront, with no technical skills required
In fact, everything you'll need to take your book to market. Marketing 101 for New Independent Authors You’ll also discover the right moves to achieve commercial success for your book;
Where to find your first willing customers who'll kick-off your sales
The importance of Reviews and how to get genuine customers to write them
Using the right Keyword tactics to get your book onto Page 1 in Amazon's Category Search
How to price, track, and promote your book, and when to write the next one
Brand New Chapters on Kindle Unlimited, Countdown Deals, and Pre-Order, the powerful new Amazon Marketing Programs
As you follow these step-by-step instructions you'll quickly learn everything you need to know in order to start a new career as an Independent Self-Published Author. Along the way, you'll acquire a few Secret Weapons that could propel your book to it's Category's Top-Row, where every author wants to be and every potential buyer can see you. Publishing your first book is the ride of your life; get it right first time!Rick Smith is an independent Author and Publisher on Amazon, with multiple Top-Ten books in their categories, and numerous Best Seller badges. Click on “Look Inside” to Find Out Much More!
Writing the Breakout Novel
Donald Maass - 2001
Maybe you've already been published, but your latest effort is stuck in mid-list limbo. Whatever the case may be, author and literary agent Donald Maass can show you how to take your prose to the next level and write a breakout novel - one that rises out of obscurity and hits the best-seller lists.Maass details the elements that all breakout novels share - regardless of genre - then shows you writing techniques that can make your own books stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace.You'll learn to:- establish a powerful and sweeping sense of time and place - weave subplots into the main action for a complex, engrossing story - create larger-than-life characters that step right off the page - explore universal themes that will interest a broad audience of readers - sustain a high degree of narrative tension from start to finish - develop an inspired premise that sets your novel apart from the competitionThen, using examples from the recent works of several best-selling authors - including novelist Anne Perry - Maass illustrates methods for upping the ante in every aspect of your novel writing. You'll capture the eye of an agent, generate publisher interest and lay the foundation for a promising career.
The Book on Writing
Paula LaRocque - 2013
A celebrated writing coach with a sense of humor and a gentle touch, she’s also a master writer herself with a long and distinguished career in both teaching and practicing the art of writing.The Book on Writing contains 25 chapters in three sections: A dozen essential but easy-to-apply guidelines to good writing, from the importance of clarity to the value of a conversational tone. Paula LaRocque believes learning is easier and more successful when we are not only told but also shown. So her Book on Writing is chockfull of actual writing examples that supplement and illustrate principles that apply as naturally to fiction as they do to nonfiction.How to tell a story—from building suspense, to effective description, to the uses of metaphor and literary devices. Paula LaRocque also deals with the narrative “engine” and the value of the archetype in plotting and characterization—as well as with pace and speed and leveling what she terms writing’s “speedbumps.” A clear and concise handbook that deals with common problems in grammar, usage, punctuation, and style—the kind of problems that often trouble even wordsmiths. The handbook also debunks pesky language “rules” that are actually myths. The Book on Writing is one-stop shopping for writers. Read it once, and you’ll be a better writer. Read it often, and you’ll be among the best.
Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success
K.M. Weiland - 2011
But when properly understood and correctly wielded, the outline is one of the most powerful weapons in a writer’s arsenal. Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success will: Help you choose the right type of outline for youGuide you in brainstorming plot ideasAid you in discovering your charactersShow you how to structure your scenesExplain how to format your finished outlineInstruct you in how to use your outlineReveal the benefits:Ensures cohesion and balancePrevents dead-end ideasProvides foreshadowingOffers assurance and motivationDispel misconceptions:Requires formal formattingLimits creativityRobs the joy of discoveryTakes too much timeEven if you're certain outlining isn't for you, the book offers all kinds of important tips on plot, structure, and character. Includes exclusive interviews with Larry Brooks, Elizabeth Spann Craig, Lisa Grace, Dan L. Hays, Jody Hedlund, Carolyn Kaufman, Becky Levine, Roz Morris, John Robinson, and Aggie Villanueva, answering important questions:Can you describe your outlining process?What is the greatest benefit of outlining?What is the biggest potential pitfall of outlining?Do you recommend "pantsing" for certain situations and outlining for others?What's the most important contributing factor to a successful outline?
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them
Francine Prose - 2006
Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart - to take pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; she is deeply moved by the brilliant characterization in George Eliot's Middlemarch. She looks to John Le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue and to Flannery O'Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail. And, most important, Prose cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which all literature is crafted.
The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot
Charles Baxter - 2007
Using an array of examples from Melville and Dostoyevsky to contemporary writers Paula Fox, Edward P. Jones, and Lorrie Moore, Baxter explains how fiction writers create those visible and invisible details, how what is displayed evokes what is not displayed.The Art of Subtext is part of The Art of series, a new line of books by important authors on the craft of writing, edited by Charles Baxter. Each book examines a singular, but often assumed or neglected, issue facing the contemporary writer of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. The Art of series means to restore the art of criticism while illuminating the art of writing.
Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction: How to Create Out-Of-This-World Novels and Short Stories
Orson Scott Card - 2010
Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction is full of advice from master authors offering definitive instructions on world building, character creation, and storytelling in the many styles and possibilities available to writers of speculative fiction.Combining two Writer's Digest classics, Orson Scott Card's How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy and The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference, along with two new selections from award-winning science fiction and fantasy authors Philip Athans and Jay Lake, this new book provides the best of all worlds. You'll discover:—How to build, populate, and dramatize fantastic new worlds.—How to develop dynamic and meaningful themes that will expand the cannon of sci-fi and fantasy storytelling.—Exciting subgenres such as steampunk, as well as new developments in the sci-fi and fantasy genres.—How to imbue your tales with historically accurate information about world cultures, legends, folklore, and religions.—Detailed descriptions of magic rituals, fantastic weapons of war, clothing and armor, and otherworldly beasts such as orcs, giants, elves, and more.—How societies, villages, and castles were constructed and operate on a day-to-day basis.—Astounding methods of interstellar travel, the rules of starflight, and the realities and myths of scientific exploration.—How to generate new ideas and graft them to the most popular themes and plot devices in sci-fi and fantasy writing.The boundaries of your imagination are infinite, but to create credible and thrilling fiction, you must ground your stories in rules, facts, and accurate ideas. Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction will guide you through the complex and compelling universe of fantasy and science fiction writing and help you unleash your stories on the next generation of readers and fans.
The Writer's Lexicon: Descriptions, Overused Words, and Taboos
Kathy Steinemann - 2017
When they’re not nodding, they roll their eyes.Time to slash the Pinocchio strings and turn them into real people. Award-winning author Kathy Steinemann provides the tools. She cuts through the so-called rules and offers simple solutions.Too many repetitions of “little”? There’s a cure for that. Do you rely on “very” too often? There’s a cure for that too. You’ll find the remedies in this book’s dispensary.Should you ever use anything other than “said” to attribute dialogue? Are exclamation points taboo? The answers might surprise you.Learn how to harness body language, purge hackneyed adjectives, and draw on the environment for ambience. No more wooden characters. You’ll transform them into believable personalities that your readers will learn to love. Or hate.Get in the driver’s seat, relax, and enjoy your journey—with Kathy Steinemann’s book as your GPS.
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print
Renni Browne - 1993
Here at last is a book by two professional editors to teach writers the techniques of the editing trade that turn promising manuscripts into published novels and short stories.In this completely revised and updated second edition, Renni Browne and Dave King teach you, the writer, how to apply the editing techniques they have developed to your own work. Chapters on dialogue, exposition, point of view, interior monologue, and other techniques take you through the same processes an expert editor would go through to perfect your manuscript. Each point is illustrated with examples, many drawn from the hundreds of books Browne and King have edited.
To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction
Phillip Lopate - 2013
Here, combining more than forty years of lessons from his storied career as a writer and professor, he brings us this highly anticipated nuts-and-bolts guide to writing literary nonfiction. A phenomenal master class shaped by Lopate’s informative, accessible tone and immense gift for storytelling, To Show and To Tell reads like a long walk with a favorite professor—refreshing, insightful, and encouraging in often unexpected ways.
Thinking About Memoir
Abigail Thomas - 2008
Yet almost nothing in our culture prepares us for reflection on the great themes of existence: courage, friendship, listening, dignity—those everyday virtues that can transform our world. Because AARP believes it’s never too late (or too early) to learn, they, together with Sterling Publishing, have created the About Living series to address these crucial issues. Each entry will be written by only the best authors and thinkers.Thinking About Memoir, the first of these volumes, helps adults look back at their past and use writing as a means of figuring out who they used to be and how they became who they are today. It’s written by Abigail Thomas, whose own memoir A Three Dog Life was selected as one of the Best Books of 2006 by the LA Times and the Washington Post and called “perfectly honed” (Newsweek), “bracingly honest” (Vanity Fair), and “stunning” by the Los Angeles Book Review. Thomas writes that memoir can consist of looking back at a single summer or the span of a whole life. Through her experience as a writing teacher, she knows how difficult that can be; this book is about the habit of writing as a way to keep track of what’s going on in the front and the back of your mind. It inspires different ways for us to look at the moment we’re in right now and will help would-be memoirists find their own “side door” into a subject. Thomas writes eloquently about how to get started and find that jumping-off point for your work, and provides exercises that liberate our creativity, enable us to get the distance and perspective we need, and open our eyes to possibilities that may not at first seem obvious.Whether your words are for publication, for your loved ones, or for you alone, Thomas makes the process fulfilling, thoughtful, and even fun.
How Your Book Sells Itself
Bethany Atazadeh - 2019
It can seem impossible. How do you know if you’re focusing on the right marketing tactics? How do you know which strategy will work for you? What if you’re missing something?We’re here to help! Bethany Atazadeh and Mandi Lynn have each successfully marketed multiple novels and want to help you discover the best marketing tactics for YOU—starting with the book itself.Your book is your MOST powerful marketing tool.In these pages, we’ll walk through the ten fundamental aspects of your book that can make or break sales, and help you get them right! We’ll discuss genre, covers, titles, blurbs, formatting, editors, taglines, keywords, categories, how to develop a marketing mindset, and how to choose the right marketing strategies for you. This book is PACKED with information to help you succeed. Get your copy now!From indie authors Bethany Atazadeh and Mandi Lynn, please enjoy the first book in this new series, Marketing for Authors.
Scrivener Essentials: A Quick Start Visual Guide For Windows Users
Karen Prince - 2014
Imagine if you could use Scrivener for Windows like a seasoned professional, knowing the keyboard shortcuts, what the tools on the toolbar do; flying through the application and creating an amazing story without being distracted by having to look up how to use a feature every time you want to use it. In the back of your mind you know that the Scrivener software you bought is going to simplify your writing process and help you become more productive. You have heard about the cool split screen views, virtual cork boards and the collections feature where you can process all instances of a document at once even though you have it in several different collections. But best of all you’ve heard that you can export your content to multiple platforms without having to change the original draft document! Imagine the time you are going to save. Not to mention that if you can format your own work for export you will no longer be held hostage to the whims and schedules of anyone else. The problem is, before you can do all that, you have to learn how to use the Scrivener software. This can be time consuming if you try to learn from the Scrivener users manual which is highly technical and includes every conceivable function and feature of the software. Don’t get me wrong. The Scrivener users manual has every bit of information you will ever need regarding Scrivener because it is supposed to be like that, but it sure is difficult to weed out the bits that pertain to the project you want to write. I know because that is the way I had to learn it. What I would have liked was a Scrivener essentials guide with:
Plenty of pictures, so that you can instantly recognize the regions of the user interface.
Arrows pointing right at the buttons mentioned in the instructions, making them easy to find.
Instructions embedded into the images they refer to so that they don’t drift onto the next page because of the personal settings on your Kindle.
No distracting instructions for Macintosh users that send you on a wild goose chase after functions that are not supported by Scrivener for Windows.
So I wrote a guide just like that. In it you will learn to:
Open a project and customize your workspaces.
Toggle between normal Text Editing Mode, Cork Board Mode and Outlining Mode and how to use each of them as well as how to use the distraction free Full Screen Mode.
Split your screen to have two documents or two versions of the same document open at once.
Manage your files and folders, whether you are starting from scratch in Scrivener or want to import your content from another writing application pre-sorted into chapters or sections.
Make use of Scrivener’s editing tools like collections and snapshots (which takes a snap shot of the current state of a document so that you can revert to it if you don’t like your subsequent edits.)
Compile your work for export to your agent, as a paperback or as an eBook.
How to download some tools so that you can preview your content before you send it out.
If you are ready to improve your writing process, scroll up, click the buy button and start making the most of your Scrivener Software today!
Write Characters Your Readers Won't Forget
Stant Litore - 2015
Packed with 30 exercises, abundant examples, and practical strategies, this guidebook will help you write unforgettable characters who "come alive" on the page, create compelling dialogue, and chart more breathtaking emotional journeys for your characters. Stant Litore is the author of The Ansible Stories, The Zombie Bible, The Running of the Tyrannosaurs, and Dante's Heart. Best known for his weird fiction, alternate history, and scifi, he has taught frequent courses for writers across the genres and has served as a developmental editor for Westmarch Publishing. His own fiction has been acclaimed by NPR, has served as the subject of scholarly work in Relegere and Weird Fiction Review, and he has been hailed as "SF's premier poet of loneliness." He lives in Colorado with his wife and two daughters, and is working on his next book.