With its intuitive organization, you'll easily find appropriate words for children of various ages, and discover substitute words that might work even better.This comprehensive resource keeps you in touch with reading levels for today's kids, and saves you valuable research time by putting all the information you need in one volume. You'll find:- Lists of specific words that are introduced at seven key reading levels (kindergarten through sixth grade) - A thesaurus of those words with synonyms, annotated with reading levels - Detailed guidelines for sentence length, word usage, and themes at each reading level - A thorough explanation of guidelines for national standards on reading This new edition also addresses important timely topics of the day, such as disability issues and sensitivity to race, religion, and culture. Other new additions relate to divorce, the concept of death, space exploration, the internet, fantasy and science fiction, ethnic and cultural pride, and much more.With Children's Writer's Word Book, 2nd edition, you can rest assured you'll be able to address your young audience with a vocabulary and style they'll understand and enjoy--and improve your chances with children's publishers.

    Keep Playing. Keep Creating. In his previous books Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work!, both New York Times bestsellers, Austin Kleon gave readers the keys to unlock their creativity and showed them how to become known. Now he offers his most inspiring work yet, with ten simple rules for how to stay creative, focused, and true to yourself—for life. The creative life is not a linear journey to a finish line, it’s a loop—so find a daily routine, because today is the only day that matters. Disconnect from the world to connect with yourself—sometimes you just have to switch into airplane mode. Keep Going celebrates getting outdoors and taking a walk (as director Ingmar Bergman told his daughter, ”The demons hate fresh air”). Pay attention, and especially pay attention to what you pay attention to. Worry less about getting things done, and more about the worth of what you’re doing. Instead of focusing on making your mark, work to leave things better than you found them.Keep Going and its timeless, practical, and ethical principles are for anyone trying to sustain a meaningful and productive life.

    It includes: how to test your premise, some easy steps to develop your character and define your story question from that character, how to hit your major plot points, and how to write a scene outline. Concise, clear, and action-oriented, this book is all about plotting, simplified.

    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.

    "Every author can find something to add to their writing process from reading this book.." - A. Davis "...felt like having a cup of good coffee with a friend and learning from his experience." - K. Struggling to finish your novels? Learn how to tweak your workflow process and write one in only FIVE DAYS! After taking way too long to write a fantasy epic, author and educator Scott King refined his writing process so that he could crank out a novel in five days! Through easy-to-follow tips and helpful examples, Scott takes a theme and shapes an entire story around it. Let him walk you through the prewriting process, slogging through a first draft, and doing the rewrites. In this book, you’ll learn: How to get in the right mindset How to cut distractions & manage your time The ingredients necessary to form a story How to stay focused and keep writing How to plan your rewrites The things to look for when line editing If you like honesty, no bull, a bunch of humor, and tons of examples in your writing guides, then you’ll love Scott King’s behind-the-scenes look at how to write a novel in five days. Buy THE 5 DAY NOVEL today and start writing tomorrow!

    A fascinating collection of six essays, written for the William Empson Lectures in Oxford, each exploring an aspect of writerly contemplation.

    And now Jon Franklin, himself a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and undisputed master of the great American nonfiction short story, shares the secrets of his success. Franklin shows how to make factual pieces come alive by applying the literary techniques of complication/resolution, flashback, foreshadowing, and pace. He illustrates his points with a close analysis and annotation of two of his most acclaimed stories, so that the reader can see, step-by-step, just how they were created. This lively, easy-to-follow guid combines readability and excitement with the best of expository prose and illuminates the techniques that beginning journalists—and more experienced ones, too—will find immensely helpful:Stalking the true short storyDrafting an effective outlineStructuring the rough copyPolishing like a proand the tips, tools, and techniques that will put your stories on the cutting edge

    Writing memoir is a deeply personal, and consequential, undertaking. As the acclaimed author of five memoirs spanning significant turning points in her life, Beth Kephart has been both blessed and bruised by the genre. In Handling the Truth, she thinks out loud about the form—on how it gets made, on what it means to make it, on the searing language of truth, on the thin line between remembering and imagining, and, finally, on the rights of memoirists. Drawing on proven writing lessons and classic examples, on the work of her students and on her own memories of weather, landscape, color, and love, Kephart probes the wrenching and essential questions that lie at the heart of memoir. A beautifully written work in its own right, Handling the Truth is Kephart’s memoir-writing guide for those who read or seek to write the truth.

    Heroic characters can be broken down into sixteen archetypes. By following the guidelines of the archetypes presented in this comprehensive reference work, writers can create extraordinarily memorable characters and elevate their writing to a higher level. Throughout the book, the authors give examples of well-known heroes and heroines from television and film so the reader can picture the archetype in his or her mind.At the very core of a character, every hero can be traced back to one of the eight major archetypes, as can every heroine. The core archetype tells the writer the most basic instincts of heroes or heroines - how they think and feel, what drives them and how they reach their goals. Whether you are a seasoned professional or a novice, The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes & Heroines will help you improve your own writing and help you create truly memorable characters.

    Immediate Fiction covers the entire process of writing including manuscript preparation, time management, finding an idea, getting words on the page, staying unblocked, and submitting to agents and publishers.With insightful tips and advice, Jerry Cleaver helps writers manage doubts, fears, blocks, and panic all while helping to develop their writing in minutes a day. A practical and accessible resource, this book has everything the aspiring writer needs to write and sell novels, short stories, screenplays, and stage plays.

    The truth is this: Great writers don't have more time than you do. They make time to write. Not only do they make time, they also follow specific routines that help them avoid writer's block altogether. By developing the "writing habit" you'll have the confidence to sit down in front of a computer every day, knowing the words will come. YOUR GOAL: Write 2,000 Words a Day -- Every Day! One of the key factors to effectively developing ANY habit is choosing a specific, measurable goal. So if you want to become a prolific writer, then you'll need to choose a specific word count for each day. While I suggest 2,000 words as a goal, you can pick any number that fits in with your busy schedule. You might choose 500 or 1,000 words a day. Or, you might have more time than I do (or write faster than I do) and choose to write 3,000 or 10,000 words each day. The important thing is to establish a daily word count goal and then stick to it. In "Writing Habit Mastery" you'll learn how to incorporate writing into your daily routine. What you'll get is a strategy and list of tools that will help you develop a sustainable writing habit and demolish writer's block."Writing Habit Mastery" contains a step-by-step blueprint of habits and routines you can use to develop this routine.Inside this guide you'll learn how to: Establish the PERFECT writing routine and environment Find the time to write--even if you have a full-time job Minimize distractions and interruptions Crank out PUBLISHED works on a consistent basis Create an energized state where you're ready to write Make money from your completed books or screenplays < Follow a simple seven-step process that prevents writer's block You can write thousands of words every day. All you need is a strategy to develop this habit.

    It can be as inventive and creative as the writer can make it, a whirlwind of images and plot twists, but it cannot be built on a foundation of air. The world must be identifiable with our own, must offer us a frame of reference we can recognize.--Terry BrooksThis is your complete guide to the realm of the fantastic. Whether you write science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance or historical fiction, here you'll find the factual information you need to construct a fantasy world full of wonder, imagination and spellbinding detail.From fabled creatures to occult religions, every page of this intriguing guide reveals the hidden realities of all things mystical, mythical and supernatural.Featuring charts, lists, illustrations and timelines, each chapter focuses on a different facet of fantasy, including:* Pagan orders, secret societies, witchcraft and the rites and rituals of magic* Detailed profiles of fantastic societies and ancient civilizations, from the Incas and Aztecs to Egypt and the Far East* Medieval trades, occupations, laws and punishments* Dragons, naiads, kelpies and other creatures of myth and fantasy* Legendary races, including elves, dwarfs, giants and more* A comprehensive look at the anatomy of a castle, describing the forms and functions of everything from barbicans to trebuchetsThis guide also goes well beyond standard reference books, offering sound advice on the writing styles and structures of this complex genre, with important tips on how to weave the elements of fact and fantasy into an absorbing narrative.Fascinating and authoritative, The Writer s Complete Fantasy Reference is the resource you need to create fiction that is compelling, fresh and wildly fantastic.

    Many of us love to tell them, and even dream of making a living from it too. But what is a story? Hundreds of books about screenwriting and storytelling have been written, but none of them ask 'Why?' Why do we tell stories? And why do all stories function in an eerily similar way? John Yorke has been telling stories almost his entire adult life, and the more he has done it, the more he has asked himself why? Every great thinker or writer has their theories: Aristotle, David Hare, Lajos Egri, Robert McKee, Gustav Freytag, David Mamet, Christopher Booker, Charlie Kaufman, William Goldman and Aaron Sorkin - all have offered insightful and illuminating answers. Here, John Yorke draws on these figures and more as he takes us on a historical, philosophical, scientific and psychological journey to the heart of all storytelling.What he reveals is that there truly is a unifying shape to narrative - one that echoes the great fairytale journey into the woods, and one, like any great art, that comes from deep within. Much more than a 'how to write' book, Into the Woods is an exploration of this fundamental structure underneath all narrative forms, from film and television to theatre and novel-writing. With astonishing detail and wisdom, John Yorke explains to us a phenomenon that, whether it is as a simple fable, or a big-budget 3D blockbuster, most of us experience almost every day of our lives.

    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!

    Gilbert offers insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.