Book picks similar to
The Easy Way to Write Short Stories That Sell by Rob Parnell
writing
non-fiction
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nonfiction
The Ten Day Outline: A Writer's Guide to Planning a Novel in Ten Days
Lewis Jorstad - 2019
Along the way, it’ll help you form the foundation you need to write a novel you’re proud of. You’ll learn to:• Strengthen the ideas you have and discover new ones, even when inspiration seems far away.• Expand your original idea into a fully fledged story.• Develop a fleshed-out cast of characters, without overwhelming yourself with complex formulas and “best-practices."• Apply structure to your story in a way that honors and refines your original idea. • Bring it all together in a final Master Outline, designed to guide you through every stage of writing your novel.Each day of this outlining challenge comes with easy to follow prompts and intuitive goals, streamlining the outlining process. By the end, The Ten Day Outline will have taken the stress out of planning a novel, so you’ll be ready to set out on your own epic writing journey!
Making Shapely Fiction
Jerome Stern - 1991
You will see how a work takes form and shape once you grasp the principles of momentum, tension, and immediacy. "Tension," Stern says, "is the mother of fiction. When tension and immediacy combine, the story begins." Dialogue and action, beginnings and endings, the true meaning of "write what you know," and a memorable listing of don'ts for fiction writers are all covered. A special section features an Alphabet for Writers: entries range from Accuracy to Zigzag, with enlightening comments about such matters as Cliffhangers, Point of View, Irony, and Transitions.
The Moonlighter's Guide to: Online Writing for Immediate Income
Connie Brentford - 2011
It couldn’t be easier.” Connie BrentfordStart making money from home now as a paid writer.This beginner’s guide teaches you how anyone, using these resources can start the process of earning money from home as a freelance content writer this week! This book takes you through the world of online content writing, teaches you the basics of what you need to know to get paid to write and shows you the simple steps to increase your online income every month.This quick start guide has everything you need to get started making money from home as a web content writer, including a current list of online companies currently hiring writers and blogs paying contributors $50-$950 for posts. All sites are updated for 2014-2015. Thousands of freelance writers are already making money from home every day. Whether you just want a few extra dollars every month or want to make money from home full time – or from a beach in a foreign country – The Moonlighter’s Guide To: Online Writing For Immediate Income shows you how to make money online starting now!
Beginnings, Middles & Ends
Nancy Kress - 1992
Keep them tight and crisp throughout. Conclude them with a wallop.Is the story or novel you've been carrying around in your head the same one you see on the page? Or does the dialogue suddenly sound flat and predictable? Do the events seem to ramble?Translating a flash of inspiration into a compelling story requires careful crafting. The words you choose, how you describe characters, and the way you orchestrate conflict all make the difference--the difference between a story that is slow to begin, flounders midway, or trails off at the end--and one that holds the interest of readers and editors to the final page.By demonstrating effective solutions for potential problems at each stage of your story, Nancy Kress will help you...hook the editor on the first three paragraphs make--and keep--your story's "implicit promise"build drama and credibility by controlling your prose Dozens of exercises help you strengthen your short story or novel. Plus, you'll sharpen skills and gain new insight into...the price a writer pays for flashbacks six ways characters should "reveal" themselves techniques for writing--and rewriting Let this working resource be your guide to successful stories--from beginning to end.
The Ultimate Hero's Journey: 195 Essential Plot Stages Found in the Best Novels and Movies
Neal Soloponte - 2017
Every great novel and movie follows a common narrative pattern known as the Hero’s Journey. In this book, for the first time at such level of detail, independent writers can have a look into the Hollywood’s manual on how to create a classic. Make no mistake about it: This is not just another popular take on the subject. This is it. All the 195 plot milestones found in the greatest stories of all times are outlined here—clearly, exactly, concisely. If you are writing a novel or a script, don’t run with disadvantage: Step into this mythical landscape and follow your favorite heroes along The Ultimate Hero’s Journey, as you discover the master structure of timeless storytelling.
Write. Publish. Repeat. (The No-Luck-Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success)
Sean Platt - 2013
Publish. Repeat.
The No-Luck-Required Guide to Publishing
In 2013, Johnny B. Truant and Sean Platt published 1.5 million words and made their full-time livings as indie authors. In Write. Publish. Repeat., they tell you exactly how they did it: how they created over 15 independent franchises across 50+ published works, how they turned their art into a logical, sustainable business, and how any independent author can do the same to build a sustainable, profitable career with their writing. Write. Publish. Repeat. explains the current self-publishing landscape and covers the truths and myths about what it means to be an indie author now and in the foreseeable future. It explains how to create books your readers will love and will want to return to again and again. Write. Publish. Repeat. details expert methods for building story worlds, characters, and plots, understanding your market (right down to your ideal reader), using the best tools possible to capture your draft, and explains proven best practices for editing. The book also discusses covers, titles, formatting, pricing, and publishing to multiple platforms, plus a bit on getting your books into print (and why that might not be a good idea!). But most importantly, Write. Publish. Repeat. details the psychology-driven marketing plan that Sean and Johnny built to shape their stories into "products" that readers couldn't help but be drawn into -- thus almost automatically generating sales -- and explores ways that smart, business-minded writers can do the same to future-proof their careers. This book is not a formula with an easy path to follow. It is a guidebook that will help you build a successful indie publishing career, no matter what type of writer you are ... so long as you're the type who's willing to do the work.
Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew
Ursula K. Le Guin - 1998
Le Guin generously shares the accumulated wisdom of a lifetime's work.
The Forest for the Trees
Betsy Lerner - 2000
From her long experience working with successful writers and discovering new voices, Lerner looks at different writer personality types and addresses the concerns of writers just getting started as well as those stalled mid-career.
Art & Craft of Writing Fiction: Secret Advice for Writers
Victoria Mixon - 2015
Written for her blog over the years as Victoria's editing business blossomed, this advice is now hard to find and hidden - and now collected just for you, for free.
How To Write A Novel The Easy Way Using The Pulp Fiction Method To Write Better Novels: Writing Skills
Jim Driver - 2014
Most people who try and write a novel give up or fail miserably. If you need help writing your novel, you need look no further. Publisher, editor and writer, Jim Driver, reveals many of the secrets the experts use to write bestselling novels. He says: "Taking inspiration from the Pulp Fiction writers of the 1940s and 1950s, showed me how to banish writers' block forever. I also discovered the easiest way to create and plot commercial novels." Know What Your Readers Will Buy Before You Write A Word "Writing your novel should be fun and it can be easy. But you have to know how to motivate yourself and reach a point where the words will not stop flowing out of you." How To Write A Novel – The Simple Way Take action now: use the LOOK INSIDE feature (above) to see how valuable the information inside this short eBook (less than 14,000 words). You need solid information, not useless flannel. I'm confident this will be the last book you need to read before you write your bestselling novel.
Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book
Courtney Maum - 2020
Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book has over 150 contributors from all walks of the industry, including international bestselling authors Anthony Doerr, Roxane Gay, Garth Greenwell, Lisa Ko, R. O. Kwon, Rebecca Makkai, and Ottessa Moshfegh, alongside cult favorites Sarah Gerard, Melissa Febos, Mitchell S. Jackson, and Mira Jacob. Agents, film scouts, film producers, translators, disability and minority activists, and power agents and editors also weigh in, offering advice and sharing intimate anecdotes about even the most taboo topics in the industry. Their wisdom will help aspiring authors find a foothold in the publishing world and navigate the challenges of life before and after publication with sanity and grace.Are MFA programs worth the time and money? How do people actually sit down and finish a novel? Did you get a good advance? What do you do when you feel envious of other writers? And why the heck aren’t your friends saying anything about your book? Covering questions ranging from the logistical to the existential (and everything in between), Before and After the Book Deal is the definitive guide for anyone who has ever wanted to know what it’s really like to be an author.
Hustling Hard For A Happily Ever After: …and how I made my dreams a reality one mantra at a time...
Frankie Love - 2020
She believes you can too.
The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression
Angela Ackerman - 2012
When showing our characters’ feelings, we often use the first idea that comes to mind, and they end up smiling, nodding, and frowning too much.If you need inspiration for creating characters’ emotional responses that are personalized and evocative, this ultimate show-don’t-tell guide for emotion can help. It includes:
Body language cues, thoughts, and visceral responses for 130 emotions that cover a range of intensity from mild to severe, providing innumerable options for individualizing a character’s reactions
A breakdown of the biggest emotion-related writing problems and how to overcome them
Advice on what should be done beforedrafting to make sure your characters’ emotions will be realistic and consistent
Instruction for how to show hidden feelings and emotional subtext through dialogue and nonverbal cues
And much more!
The Emotion Thesaurus, in its easy-to-navigate list format, will inspire you to create stronger, fresher character expressions and engage readers from your first page to your last.
How To Write Descriptions of Eyes and Faces
Val Kovalin - 2011
(Note: both books (1) How to Write Descriptions of Eyes and Faces and (2) How to Write Descriptions of Hair and Skin are now available in a single, unabridged volume for readers interested in both buying both books together at a cheaper price than buying them individually: How to Write Descriptions of Eyes, Faces, Hair, Skin. ASIN: B00670OUGW.) Here, you get more help than you could possibly imagine on describing eyes and faces. Each section centers on a type of description, such as Eye Color (for example, "Crystal blue eyes"), or Appearance of the Eye (for example, "Beady eyes," or "Bedroom eyes"), or Actions Involving the Eyes (for example, "Darting eyes" or "Gawking"). Each section lists its descriptive terms alphabetically with full explanations. You can read the lists to learn new terms, or you can look up a specific term. The eye section starts with the location of colors in the iris. Through examples, you learn how physical description starts with an accurate, detailed picture of everything you see, which you condense for your fiction. You learn about the appearance of the eyes, actions involving the eyes, and how to describe eyelids, eyebrows, and eyelashes. All of this leads into more than 2,000 words explaining 82 different color names to assign to eyes that are black, blue, brown, gray, green, hazel, or violet. The face section shows how to describe facial shapes, forehead, ears, cheekbones, nose, lips, chin, and facial hair, if any. You learn about facial expressions, such as simpering or sneering, and things like the differences between a frown and a scowl. You also get a section on how the face shows different emotions. For example, you can look up "Anger" and read about common physical signs of anger such as blood rising beneath the skin, the forehead tightening, the eyes narrowing, and the nose wrinkling in disgust. Who may benefit from this book? Anyone who wants a quick prompt or idea so as not to lose his writing momentum. Readers for whom English is a second language may enjoy the in-depth explanations of American English terms. Authors in genres that demand much physical description (for example, fantasy fiction and romance fiction) may also find this book useful. How to Write Descriptions of Eyes and Faces is about 15,000 words in total. Thank you for reading.
Writing Habit Mastery - How to Write 2,000 Words a Day and Forever Cure Writer’s Block
S.J. Scott - 2013
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.