Like a freshman orientation for writers, this book includes an in-depth exploration of all the elements of a writer's life, from your writing practice to your reading practice, to your writing craft and the all-important and often-overlooked business of writing. Harness the powers of crowdsourcing and social media to grow your writing career, and use the most current research on success, gamification, and lifestyle design to take your writing life to the next level. Complete with writing exercises, tools, checklists, infographics, and behind-the-scenes tips from working writers of all types, this book offers everything you need to jump-start a successful writing life.

    Through months of trial-and-error, hundreds of hours of experimentation, and dozens of manuscripts, she tweaked and honed until she could easily write 10,000 words in a day, at speeds over 3500+ words per hour! She shares all her insights, secrets, hacks, and data in this tome dedicated to improving your writing speeds, skyrocketing your monthly word count, and publishing more books. You'll learn: - The 4-step framework that Monica used to reach speeds of 3500+ new fiction words per hour - The tracking systems you need to double or triple your writing speed in the next couple months - The killer 4-step pre-production method Monica uses to combat writer's block, no matter what the project is! - The secrets to developing a daily writing habit that other authors don't talk about enough - How Monica went from publishing only one book per year from 2009-2013, to publishing 8 books in a single year in 2014 For serious authors, both beginner and advanced, who want to improve their output this year! Write Better, Faster: How To Triple Your Writing Speed and Write More Every Day will help you kick your excuses and get more writing done. As part of the Growth Hacking For Storytellers series, it explores how to hack your writing routine to be more efficient, more productive, and have a ton of fun in the process!

    Offering poetry exercises, journal writing, and other practices to encourage creative playâ��including foraging and assembling collages with found objectsâ��Foolsgold: Making Something from Nothing and Freeing Your Creative Process will motivate you to reevaluate whatâ��s most important in your world. Through intimate stories about transforming what life brings your way, the book will help open your heart to more creativityâ��DELIGHT AND VITALITYâ��whether itâ��s through photography, dance, gardening, cooking, songwriting, or poetry. Foolsgold includes dozens of suggestions to help you free the artist within by cultivating a creative lifestyle that will not only expand and inspire you but may also ground and heal you.

    In this exceptionally positive and encouraging book, Stephanie Dowrick frees the journal writer she believes is in virtually everyone, showing through stories and examples that a genuine sense of possibility can be revived on every page. Creative journal writing goes way beyond just recording events on paper. It can be the companion that supports but doesn?t judge, a place of unparalleled discovery, and a creative playground where the everyday rules no longer count. Proven benefits of journal writing include reduced stress and anxiety, increased self-awareness, sharpened mental skills, genuine psychological insight, creative inspiration and motivation, strengthened ability to cope during difficult times, and overall physical and emotional well-being. Combining a rich choice of ideas with wonderful stories, quotes, and her refreshingly intimate thoughts gained through a lifetime of writing, Dowrick?s insights and confidence make journal writing irresistible?and your own life more enchanting. Included in Creative Journal Writing are: u stories of how people have used journal writing to transform their lives; · inspirational instructions, guidelines, and quotes; · key principles, practical suggestions, and helpful hints; · 125 starter topics, designed to help even the most reluctant journal writer; · more than forty powerful exercises; · and much more!

    5,000 Words Per Hour also has a companion app available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch! The fastest way to succeed as an author is to write more books. How do you do that with a day job, family, school or all your other time commitments? The secret is efficiency. 5K WPH will help you maximize your writing time by building effective habits that both measure and increase your writing speed. - Create an effective writing habit - Track and improve your Words Per Hour - Stop the endless editing and tinkering so you can finish your draft - Use voice dictation software to dramatically increase words per hour. It’s time to shift your writing into high gear.

    Filled with memories, self-reflection, ideas, inspiration, creativity, experiences, achievements, gratitude, short stories, photographs, goals and direction. Unlock the potential of your journal and enjoy some time for yourself. Inside you will find:JOURNAL WRITING TIPS & TRICKS. Learn how to beat the blank page to start your journal writing practice, how to make the time to write, how to organize your journal/diary, find ideas on how to add visual interest to your journal, a collection of alternative journal prompts, a photography challenge checklist and more.365 JOURNALING PROMPTS & QUESTIONS. Enjoy a years-long guided journal writing course for self exploration through daily writing prompts. To help you use your journal/diary as a place to remember where you have been (memoir), appreciate where you are now (gratitude) and decide on where you are going (goals). Not only helping you gain clarity, closure and purpose but also resulting in your very own mini memoir or life journal keepsake. Mixed in amongst the reflective journal writing questions are creative writing prompts, light hearted questions and short story writing idea generator tables to help get your creative writing juices flowing and to have some fun with your journal.52 WEEKLY ACTIONS. Feel like you are stuck in a bit of a rut? Looking to boost your self confidence by expanding your comfort zone? Or do you want some new experiences to write about? Along with your trusty journal, complete one action each week over the 365 days to make the next 52 weeks of your life just that little bit more interesting. For example: Week 30 - Send someone a gift without them knowing it is from you. Report back to journal.***BONUS***OVER 400 QUOTES. A quote collection of over 400 quotes and proverbs ordered by subject, from adventure to writing. To be used as an extra source of inspiration, wisdom and starting points for your journaling practice. After all, who doesn't love a quote collection? IS THIS JOURNAL WRITING BOOK FOR YOU?Are you intimidated by the blank page?Is your journal writing becoming repetitive?Are you looking to find some direction and start setting goals?Are you a writer or blogger who wants to knock the wind out of writer's block?Have you found it difficult maintaining a journal writing practice?Do you want to create a record of your life in a life journal?Are you looking for a creative outlet?Do you enjoy creative and short story writing?Do you feel a need to clear out and process some mental clutter?Have you built up a collection of blank journals because you are scared of ruining them?Have you googled ‘how to write a journal?’ or ‘how to write a diary?’ but still don’t know where to start?If so, this book is for you. Let's get journaling...NOTE: The journal prompts & actions in this book are not dated so you can start from journaling prompt No.1 & weekly action No.1 at any point in the year. You can also pick and choose the prompts at random if you are looking for an occasional resource to help beat writer's block.NO KINDLE? NO PROBLEM. You don’t need a Kindle to read Kindle books, you can buy 365 Journal Writing Ideas today to enjoy it instantly on the FREE Kindle app for PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry. So you could use this book with your journal to do some journaling curled up in bed, on your lunch break at work, at a coffee shop or even learn how to journal at the beach (lucky you).10% of proceeds from 365 Journal Writing Ideas are donated to The Make-A-Wish Foundation.

    He encouraged the fledgling painters, musicians, writers, and dreamers to break rules and think outside the box. Most of all, he encouraged them to make good art.The book Make Good Art, designed by renowned graphic artist Chip Kidd, contains the full text of Gaiman’s inspiring speech.

    John Cleese shows us how. Creativity is usually regarded as a mysterious, rare gift that only a few possess. John Cleese begs to differ, and in this short, immensely practical and often very amusing guide he shows it's a skill that anyone can acquire. Drawing on his lifelong experience as a writer, he shares his insights into the nature of the creative process, and offers advice on how to get your own inventive juices flowing.What do you need to do to get yourself in the right frame of mind? When do you know that you've come up with something that might be worth pursuing? What do you do if you think you've hit a brick wall?Not only does he explain the way your mind works as you search for inspiration, he also shows that, regardless of the task you've set yourself, you can learn to be better at coming up with a promising idea, refining it and knowing when you're ready to act on it. We can all unlock new reserves of creativity within ourselves. John Cleese shows us how.____________________________'Humorous and practical ... Whether you're hoping to write a novel or paint a masterpiece, you're sure to feel inspired' OK Magazine'His candor is endearing ... An upbeat guide to the creative process' Kirkus'A jovial romp ... Cleese fans will enjoy, and writers and other artists will breeze through, picking up a few nuggets of wisdom along the way' The Festival Review'A sincere and thoughtful guide to creativity, and a very useful book' Graham Norton'Wise words on the serious business of being silly' Sunday Business Post

    Thomas Wolfe wrote standing up in the kitchen, the top of the refrigerator as his desk, dreamily fondling his “male configurations”. . . Jean-Paul Sartre chewed on Corydrane tablets (a mix of amphetamine and aspirin), ingesting ten times the recommended dose each day . . . Descartes liked to linger in bed, his mind wandering in sleep through woods, gardens, and enchanted palaces where he experienced “every pleasure imaginable.” Here are: Anthony Trollope, who demanded of himself that each morning he write three thousand words (250 words every fifteen minutes for three hours) before going off to his job at the postal service, which he kept for thirty-three years during the writing of more than two dozen books . . . Karl Marx . . . Woody Allen . . . Agatha Christie . . . George Balanchine, who did most of his work while ironing . . . Leo Tolstoy . . . Charles Dickens . . . Pablo Picasso . . . George Gershwin, who, said his brother Ira, worked for twelve hours a day from late morning to midnight, composing at the piano in pajamas, bathrobe, and slippers . . . Here also are the daily rituals of Charles Darwin, Andy Warhol, John Updike, Twyla Tharp, Benjamin Franklin, William Faulkner, Jane Austen, Anne Rice, and Igor Stravinsky (he was never able to compose unless he was sure no one could hear him and, when blocked, stood on his head to “clear the brain”). Brilliantly compiled and edited, and filled with detail and anecdote, Daily Rituals is irresistible, addictive, magically inspiring.

    DeSalvo advises her readers to explore their creative process on deeper levels by getting to know themselves and their stories more fully over a longer period of time. She writes in the same supportive manner that encourages her students, using the slow writing process to help them explore the complexities of craft. The Art of Slow Writing is the antidote to self-help books that preach the idea of fast-writing, finishing a novel a year, and quick revisions. DeSalvo makes a case that more mature writing often develops over a longer period of time and offers tips and techniques to train the creative process in this new experience.DeSalvo describes the work habits of successful writers (among them, Nobel Prize laureates) so that readers can use the information provided to develop their identity as writers and transform their writing lives. It includes anecdotes from classic American and international writers such as John Steinbeck, Henry Miller, Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence as well as contemporary authors such as Michael Chabon, Junot Diaz, Jeffrey Eugenides, Ian McEwan, and Salman Rushdie. DeSalvo skillfully and gently guides writers to not only start their work, but immerse themselves fully in the process and create texts they will treasure.

    From adjectives and exclamation points to dialect and hoopetedoodle, Elmore Leonard explains what to avoid, what to aspire to, and what to do when it sounds like "writing" (rewrite).Beautifully designed, filled with free-flowing, elegant illustrations and specially priced, Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing is the perfect writer's—and reader's—gift.

    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.

    How do you find the time to write? How do you keep momentum? How do you deal with the horror of showing anyone a single sentence of your work-in-progress? The answers remain fun and easy, and author Elizabeth Sims will take your hand, dispel your worries, and show you how it's done in this stress-free guide to accomplishing your dream of writing your book.In You've Got a Book in You, Elizabeth is that encouraging voice guiding you through the entire process, from finding the right time and place to gathering all of your creative tools to diving right in and getting it done--page by page, step by step. It's easier than you think, and it all starts right here, right now.

    But too many writers--and writing guides--overlook this most important unit. The result? Manuscripts that will never be published and writing careers that will never begin. In this wickedly humorous manual, language columnist June Casagrande uses grammar and syntax to show exactly what makes some sentences great--and other sentences suck. With chapters on "Conjunctions That Kill" and "Words Gone Wild," this lighthearted guide is perfect for anyone who's dead serious about writing, from aspiring novelists to nonfiction writers, conscientious students to cheeky literati. So roll up your sleeves and prepare to craft one bold, effective sentence after another. Your readers will thank you. "From the Trade Paperback edition."

    Uninspired and lifeless, we wonder what happened. Was the author in a hurry? Did she have a bad year? Has he lost interest altogether?Something similar is true of a great many unpublished manuscripts. They are okay stories that never take flight. They don't grip the imagination, let alone the heart. They merit only a shrug and a polite dismissal by agents and editors.It doesn't have to be that way. In The Fire in Fiction, successful literary agent and author Donald Maass shows you not only how to infuse your story with deep conviction and fiery passion, but how to do it over and over again. The book features:Techniques for capturing a special time and place, creating characters whose lives matter, nailing multiple-impact plot turns, making the supernatural real, infusing issues into fiction, and more.Story-enriching exercises at the end of every chapter to show you how to apply the practical tools just covered to your own work.Rich examples drawn from contemporary novels as diverse as The Lake House, Water for Elephants, and Jennifer Government to illustrate how various techniques work in actual stories.Plus, Maass introduces an original technique that any novelist can use any time, in any scene, in any novel, even on the most uninspired day...to take the most powerful experiences from your personal life and turn those experiences directly into powerful fiction.Tap into The Fire in Fiction, and supercharge your story with originality and spark!