The prose feels off. The scene isn’t gelling. The dialogue sounds stilted or clunky. But they don’t know why or how to fix it. This book lays it all out 5 Editors Tackle the Twelve Fatal Flaws of Fiction Writing demonstrates the deadly dozen pitfalls on the road to a strong story, along with revisions that show writers exactly how to avoid novel failure.No other writing craft book offers such detailed instruction in how to spot and remedy the major flaws of fiction writing. What makes this book an important addition to a writer’s bookshelf? More than 60 Before and After passages showcase each of the twelve fatal flaws, which are then picked apart and examined to help writers spot these flaws in their own writing and fix them. Five editors with extensive background in both editing fiction and writing novels bring a wealth of insights, examples, and solutions to these flaws, using various genre styles and POVs. Each chapter ends with a checklist to help writers seek and destroy these fatal flaws in their manuscript, followed by bonus Before and After passages to help them test what they’ve learned. This in-depth guide to self-editing is an invaluable resource for any writer of any genre. It shows, not just tells, how to write better fiction. Using it, you’ll be armed with the tools and skills you need to conquer the twelve fatal flaws of fiction writing. Here are some of the 12 fatal flaws: Overwriting—the most egregious and common flaw in fiction writing. Nothin’ Happenin’—Too many stories take too long to get going. Learn what it means to start in medias res. Weak Construction—It sneaks in at the level of words and sentences, and rears up in up in the form of passive voice, ing verbs, and misplaced modifiers. Too Much Backstory—the bane of many manuscripts. Backstory has its place, but too often it serves as an info dump and bogs down pacing. POV Violations—Head hopping, characters knowing things they can’t know, and foreshadowing are just some of the many POV violations explored. Telling instead of Showing—Writers have heard this admonition, but there’s a lot to understanding how and when to show instead of tell. Lack of Pacing and Tension—Many factors affect pacing and tension: clunky passages, mundane dialogue, unimportant information, and so much more. Flawed Dialogue Construction—Writers need to learn to balance speech and narrative tags and avoid “on the nose” speech. “Underwriting”—just as fatal as overwriting.

    And he shares them with brutal honesty in this very book, along with plenty of hilarious (and sometimes painful) anecdotes about his career.This is not a book that will tell you how to format a manuscript or write a compelling query letter. It's a book about how to cope with rejection and bad reviews. Book signings where nobody shows up. Helplessly watching your peers go on to greater success than you. He's been through all of that and so much more, and in these pages you'll have a bunch of laughs as you commiserate and figure out how to get through it all.

    She’d never hear him again if she didn’t survive the tragedy…Marie Lindstrom was ready to take on the world. After months of research poured into planning a birthday trip to remember, the mother of two beamed with happiness as they touched down in Thailand. And she was positive they were bound for a trek full of lasting memories… until the tsunami wave hit.Terrified by the prospect of losing all she held dear, Marie struggled to keep her head above water after being swept underground and enshrouded in darkness. But even after the catastrophe passed and she embraced what remained, the guilt accompanying her survival proved staggering.Would the soul-wrenching pain tear her apart or be miraculously transformative?No. 204 is Going Home is a heart-shaking memoir about the unbreakable strength of motherhood. If you like honest depictions of disaster, raw emotional transformations, and moving accounts of healing, then you’ll love Marie Lindstrom’s sail through calamity.Buy No. 204 is Going Home to stare into the maw of real-life terror today!

    For some, it was nothing more than an aimless wandering into the bush but for others, it has been a tale whose personas never lived to tell. Nevertheless, it has over the millennia been a necessity; an important phase and time for self-assessment and self-discovery.This transition, though often dangerous and risky in many cultures, must have reached its highest peak in history in the early 1980s when a regular odyssey of a boy in his early 20s turned into a near-death experience filled with momentous and deadly catch 22s.With the trigger happy boys soldiers armed with AK-47 in war-torn Africa, the Andes and the catastrophes of the Sahara desert to the disease in South America only describing the tip of the iceberg, Chris Donaldson's book takes you on a devastatingly blood-rushing and thrilling journey as you experience the tumultuous adventure just as it happened decades ago.Question is, are you interested in finding out: - How a young man's personality and sanity can endure before being challenged and changed by strains and stresses of solo traveling?- How one of the last true explorers to discover the world, before the internet, changed traveling forever?- How a wild journey dogged by misfortune, trouble, and fantasy ends?If you are, then this book is what you've been looking for!Scroll up and click Buy Now With 1-Click or Buy Now to get started!What could possibly go wrong when a 21- year old man decides to fire up his set of wheels; his beautiful caf� racing Moto Guzzi and head for somewhere, yet nowhere- in response to his desire to explore; break free from his mediocre, middle-class life and reach out for the unknown?What could go wrong during a 50,000-mile travel across the world, through 33 countries, executed by an unleashed 20-year old, making the spiritual transition to become a man?As it turns out, a ton of things could go wrong, but a life-time of lessons would be learned as well- the hard way.Ready for a journey of discovery through the eyes of someone who experienced all the horror, excitement, thrill, and hell; a boy turned man?Keep reading!Since the first set of people roamed the earth, boys have been transitioning into men by setting off on journeys without particular destinations. For some, it was nothing more than an aimless wandering into the bush but for others, it has been a tale whose personas never lived to tell. Nevertheless, it has over the millennia been a necessity; an important phase and time for self-assessment and self-discovery.This transition, though often dangerous and risky in many cultures, must have reached its hig

    Outdated, overcrowded schools are taking up our children’s time and taking away from valuable life experiences. There’s a better way to learn—and The 5-Hour School Week is how we hacked homeschool so we could enjoy our life and our kids!When Aaron and Kaleena Amuchastegui took their kids out of school to travel the globe and educate them through experiences, their children became more engaged, self-aware, curious, and passionate about learning. Now, they share their inspiring successes and practical advice to give you the tools you need to create your own unconventional education plan, no matter what your budget, walking you through topics like:Teaching kids to love learningProviding a social educationIncorporating travel into lessonsEmphasizing practical skillsAnd moreThis isn’t your mom’s homeschooling. This is an innovative, eclectic approach to education that will revolutionize your family’s life.

    Rather, other factors can be even more crucial such as identifying our passions and following through on our commitments.Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently bemoaned her lack of smarts, Duckworth describes her winding path through teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not genius, but a special blend of passion and long-term perseverance. As a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Duckworth created her own character lab and set out to test her theory.Here, she takes readers into the field to visit teachers working in some of the toughest schools, cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she's learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers; from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to the cartoon editor of The New Yorker to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that not talent or luck makes all the difference.

    That's what happens to many bloggers. They work hard and create great content, but there's no way their blog will succeed. Why? Because they failed to research their blog topic ahead of time. In "How to Find a Profitable Blog Topic Idea" you'll learn a proven formula for locating a winning idea that merges YOUR personal passion with something that will actually make money. Start Your Blogging Journey... Finding a great niche is one of the first steps you'll take as a blogger. That's why it's important to get it right. Everything you do online depends on locating a topic that actually has profit potential. Fortunately, it's not hard to research a blog niche. Really, it's a simple process that anyone can do - even if you don't have computer experience. Follow the Six-Step Plan for Starting a Blog "How to Find a Profitable Blog Topic Idea" provides a step-by-step strategy that can be applied TODAY. Here's what's covered: Learn the 3 B's of Demonstrating Authority Complete the Four-Step Plan for Identifying Your Passion Use Four Tools to Find a "Hook" for Your Blog Follow the Seven-Step Plan to Determine the Profit Potential of ANY Market Ask Five Simple Questions to Finalize Your Blog Decision Learn How to Make LOTS of Mistakes and Still Succeed as a Blogger It's not hard to find a great blog idea. Just follow this blueprint and you can do it today. Would You Like To Know More? Download now and locate that perfect blog idea.

      We have been spoon-fed the notion that creativity is the province of genius -- of those favored, brilliant few whose moments of insight arrive in unpredictable flashes of divine inspiration.  And if we are not a genius, we might as well pack it in and give up. Either we have that gift, or we don’t.  But Allen shows that simply isn’t true.  Recent research has shown that there is a predictable science behind achieving commercial success in any creative endeavor, from writing a popular novel to starting up a successful company to creating an effective marketing campaign.    As the world’s most creative people have discovered, we are enticed by the novel and the familiar. By understanding the mechanics of what Gannett calls “the creative curve” – the point of optimal tension between the novel and the familiar – everyone can better engineer mainstream success.    In a thoroughly entertaining book that describes the stories and insights of everyone from the Broadway team behind Dear Evan Hansen, to the founder of Reddit, from the Chief Content Officer of Netflix to Michelin star chefs, Gannett reveals the four laws of creative success and identifies the common patterns behind their achievement.

    But three things have changed the path to success:Boomers are realizing that a lot of the things they were promised aren't going to materialize, and they have started second and third careers.Technology has given access to an unprecedented number of people who are building online empires and changing their lives in ways that would have been impossible years ago.The days of "success first, significance later," have ended.While none of the stages can be skipped, they can be shortened and accelerated. There are only two paths in life: average and awesome. The average path is easy because all you have to do is nothing. The awesome path is more challenging, because things like fear only bother you when you do work that matters. The good news is "Start" gives readers practical, actionable insights to be more awesome, more often.

    She avoided the scales, she wore a uniform of baggy black clothes, refused to make connections between her weight and health issues and told herself that she was fat and happy. She was certainly fat. But the happy part was an Oscar-worthy performance. In private she lived with a growing sense of fear and misery that her weight would probably kill her before she made it to seventy. Interwoven with the science, social history and psychology of weight management, Fat Cow, Fat Chance is a refreshingly honest account of what it's like to be fat when society dictates that skinny is the norm. It asks why we overeat and why, when the weight is finally lost through dieting, do we simply pile the pounds back on again? How do we help young people become comfortable with the way they look? What are the consequences of the obesity epidemic for an already overstretched NHS? And, whilst fat shaming is so often called out, why is it that shouting 'fat cow' at a woman in the street hasn't been included in the list of hate crimes?Fusing politics, science and personal pain, this is a powerful exploration of our battle with obesity._______________'Agony and confusion, humour and hope. A beautiful book.' SUSIE ORBACH, author of Fat is a Feminist Issue

     In this important reference, content teachers and other educators explore why students need to understand how historians, novelists, mathematicians, and scientists use literacy in their respective fields. ReLeah shows how to teach students to:Evaluate and question evidence (Science) Compare sources and interpret events (History) Favor accuracy over elaboration (Math) Attune to voice and fi gurative language (ELA)

    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.

    For the past 33 years, Dee Ann Turner has been recruiting, training, and retaining some of the best employees in the restaurant business. Now she's ready to share her secrets on how to build, sustain, and grow an organizational culture that attracts world-class talent and consistently delights customers, no matter what your industry.In Bet on Talent, Turner shows you how to- create a remarkable company culture - select, sustain, and steward talent- nurture internal relationships- create company loyalty that leads to customer loyalty- instill the practice of servant leadership within your organization- treat everyone with honor, dignity, and respect- and much more

    Some say they are an extended adolescence. Others call them an emerging adulthood. But thirty is not the new twenty. In this enlightening book, Dr. Meg Jay reveals how many twentysomethings have been caught in a swirl of hype and misinformation that has trivialized what are actually the most defining years of adulthood. Drawing from more than ten years of work with hundreds of twentysomething clients and students, Dr. Jay weaves the science of the twentysomething years with compelling, behind-closed-doors stories from twentysomethings themselves. She shares what psychologists, sociologists, neurologists, reproductive specialists, human resources executives, and economists know about the unique power of our twenties and how they change our lives. The result is a provocative and sometimes poignant read that shows us why our twenties do matter. Our twenties are a time when the things we do--and the things we don't do--will have an enormous effect across years and even generations to come.

    But, in reality, critical thinking is still a luxury good, and students with the greatest potential are too often challenged the least. Thinking Like a Lawyer:Introduces a powerful but practical framework to close the critical thinking gap. Gives teachers the tools and knowledge to teach critical thinking to all students. Helps students adopt the skills, habits, and mindsets of lawyers. Empowers students to tackle 21st-century problems. Teaches students how to compete in a rapidly changing global marketplace. Colin Seale, a teacher-turned-attorney-turned-education-innovator and founder of thinkLaw, uses his unique experience to introduce a wide variety of concrete instructional strategies and examples that teachers can use in all grade levels and subject areas. Individual chapters address underachievement, the value of nuance, evidence-based reasoning, social-emotional learning, equitable education, and leveraging families to close the critical thinking gap.