But as any writer can tell you, the blank page can be daunting. It's tough to know where to get started, what details to include in each scene, and how to move from the kernel of an idea to a completed manuscript. Writing great fiction isn't a gift reserved for the talented few. There is a craft to storytelling that can be learned, and studying writing techniques can be incredibly rewarding - both personally and professionally. Even if you don’t have ambitions of penning the next Moby-Dick, you'll find value in exploring all the elements of fiction. From evoking a scene to charting a plot to revising your drafts, Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques offers a master class in storytelling. Taught by award-winning novelist James Hynes, a former visiting professor at the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, these 24 insightful lectures show you the ins and outs of the fiction writer's craft. Get tips for developing believable and memorable characters, explore how to craft plausible dialogue that serves the purposes of your narrative, compare the advantages of different points of view, and more. A wealth of exercises will inspire you to practice the many techniques you learn. Professor Hynes is an able guide, showing you what has worked for him and other novelists, and pointing out pitfalls to avoid. Writing Great Fiction is truly an exceptional course for anyone interested in storytelling.©2014 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2014 The Great Courses

    In On Writing and Worldbuilding, we will discuss specific and applicable ideas to consider, from effective methods of delivering exposition and foreshadowing, to how communication, commerce, and control play into the fall of an empire.

     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.

    Yet writers looking for guidance on reporting and writing true stories have had few places to turn for advice. Now in Storycraft, Jack Hart, a former managing editor of the Oregonian who guided several Pulitzer Prize–winning narratives to publication, delivers what will certainly become the definitive guide to the methods and mechanics of crafting narrative nonfiction.Hart covers what writers in this genre need to know, from understanding story theory and structure, to mastering point of view and such basic elements as scene, action, and character, to drafting, revising, and editing work for publication. Revealing the stories behind the stories, Hart brings readers into the process of developing nonfiction narratives by sharing tips, anecdotes, and recommendations he forged during his decades-long career in journalism. From there, he expands the discussion to other well-known writers to show the broad range of texts, styles, genres, and media to which his advice applies. With examples that draw from magazine essays, book-length nonfiction narratives, documentaries, and radio programs, Storycraft will be an indispensable resource for years to come.

    The book is useful to writers, at every stage of their career.

     The plan works on any budget. It works for the wealthy busy professional as well as for the struggling artist short on funding. About the Author ~ As the founder of Online Book Club, Scott Hughes has spent over a decade in this new industry, working with thousands of authors to advertise books online. Scott Hughes has worked in the ebook marketing industry before the Kindle ever existed!

    "The Observation Deck" is a 160-page book by Naomi Epel presenting the writing secretsinsights, tips, exercisesof today's most talented writers. It's paired with 50 inspiring flash cards to break the spell of writer's block and overcome hurdles to creativity. Great for both beginning and seasoned writers, "The Observation Deck" offers encouragement and ingenious strategies from great writers who've been there. This little box, tailor-made for writers, is loaded with effective techniques to get the writing going, right now.

    Harvard creative writing professor and acclaimed author Bret Anthony Johnston brings you an irresistible interactive guide to the craft of narrative writing. From developing characters to building conflict, from mastering dialogue to setting the scene, Naming the World jump-starts your creativity with inspiring exercises that will have you scrambling for pen and paper. Every chapter is a master class with the country’s most eminent authors, renowned editors, and dedicated teachers.• Infuse emotion into your fiction with three key strategies from Margot Livesey.• Christopher Castellani dumps the “write what you know” maxim and challenges you to really delve into the imagination.• A point-of-view drill from Susan Straight can be just the breakthrough you need to flesh out your story.• Jewell Parker Rhodes shares how good dialogue is not just about what is being said but about what is being left unsaid.Brimming with imaginative springboards and hands-on exercises, Naming the World has everything you need to become a stronger, more inventive writer. “A delicious book. Imagine yourself at a cocktail party crammed with literary lions. You have the chance to spend a few moments with each of them. Wit and wisdom abound.”–Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way“A highly useful and perceptive book. With charm and intelligence it touches on nearly every teachable aspect of the devilishly difficult art of writing.” –Ethan Canin, professor of creative writing at the Iowa Writers Workshop, and author of Carry Me Across the Water “These entertaining and useful exercises, intelligently organized, are a boon for both beginning and experienced writers.”–Andrea Barrett, National Book Award—winning author of The Air We Breathe“Forget about getting an MFA! For any writer struggling with his craft, here is the equivalent of a master class in writing by some of the best writer/teachers around.”–Betsy Lerner, author of The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers

    Baxter's experience from decades as a career martial artist make this book a valuable resource for writers who want to understand what fighting is all about - what it really feels like and what does and doesn't work - and how to factor those things into their writing to make their fight scenes visceral, realistic page turners. Baxter won't tell you how to write, but he will tell you what makes a great fight scene.

    A bestseller through six editions, Writing Fiction by novelists Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French explores the elements of fiction, providing practical writing techniques and concrete examples. Written in a tone that is personal and non-prescriptive, the text encourages students to develop proficiency through each step of the writing process, offering an abundance of exercises designed to spur writing and creativity. The text also integrates diverse, contemporary short stories in every chapter in the belief that the reading of inspiring fiction goes hand-in-hand with the writing of fresh and exciting stories.

    The theory itself may be simple — "Purpose opposed by Obstacle yields Conflict" — but Cook takes his "Plottoist" through hundreds of situations and scenarios, guiding the reader’s hand as a dizzying array of purposes and obstacles come to a head. Cook’s method is broken down into three stages: First, the master plot. This four-page chart distills the most basic plot points into a three-line sentence. Next, the conflict situation. Each master plot leads the reader to a list of circumstances, distributed among 20 different conflict groups (these range from “Love’s Beginning” to “Personal Limitations” to “Transgression”). There are over 2,000 unique conflict situations in the book, and each is cross-referenced with designs for how the situation might have started, or where it might go. Finally, there are character combinations — Cook offers an extensive index of protagonists, each cross-referenced with various supporting players — themselves tied to various conflict situations, for what appears to be an inexhaustible reservoir of suggestions and inspiration.

     (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 Deep Scenes teaches you how to write strong, layered, and engaging scenes--the secret to memorable, page-turning plots. It's filled with practical tools for building layers and nuance into your scenes, employing the right scene types at the right junctures, and developing a profound understanding of how plot and scene intertwine.Inside you'll learn:- How scenes are comprised of three key layers: action, emotion, and theme. - How to recognize each layer and weave them seamlessly into a scene. - How to develop an intricate relationship between the action and emotion in every scene. - How thematic imagery embedded in scenes increases a story's tension and contributes to the story's meaning.Using contemporary examples from a variety of genres, Writing Deep Scenes provides an effective method for plotting at the scene level. Use these techniques and enrich your fiction and memoirs with page-turning suspense and pathos, and explore new depths in every story you write.

    You’ve heard of “organic writing,” but that seems a bit squishy to you. Take a look at the wildly popular Snowflake Method—a battle-tested series of ten steps that jump-start your creativity and help you quickly map out your story. All around the world, novelists are using the Snowflake Method right now to ignite their imaginations and get their first drafts down on paper. In this book, you’ll follow the story of a fictitious novelist as she learns to tap into the amazing power of the Snowflake Method. Almost magically, she finds her story growing from a simple idea into a deep and powerful novel. And she finds her novel changing her—turning her into a stronger, more courageous person.Zany, Over the Top, and Just Plain FunHow to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method is a “business parable”—a how-to guide written in story form. It’s zany. It’s over the top. It’s just plain fun. Most important, it’s effective, because it shows you, rather than telling you.You’ll learn by example how to grow your story idea into a sizzling first draft. You’ll discover:* How to define your “target audience” the right way, so you know exactly how your ideal readers think and feel. Forget what the experts tell you about “demographics.”* How to create a dynamite selling tool that will instantly tell people whether they’ll love your story or hate it. And you want them to either love it or hate it.* How to get inside the skin of every one of your characters—even your villain. Especially your villain.* How to find a deep, emotively powerful theme for your story. Do you know the one best point in your novel to unveil your theme—when your reader is most eager to hear it?* How to know when to backtrack, and why backtracking is essential to writing great fiction.* How to fire-test each scene to guarantee it’ll be high-impact—before you write it.Excerpt from Chapter 1:Goldilocks had always wanted to write a novel. She learned to read before she went to kindergarten. In grade school, she always had her nose in a book. In junior high, the other kids thought she was weird, because she actually liked reading those dusty old novels in literature class. All through high school, Goldilocks dreamed of writing a book of her own someday.But when she went to college, her parents persuaded her to study something practical. Goldilocks hated practical, and secretly she kept reading novels. But she was a very obedient girl, so she did what her parents told her. She got a very practical degree in marketing. After college, she got a job that bored her to tears—but at least it was practical.Then she got married, and within a few years, she had two children, a girl and then a boy. She quit her job to devote full time to them. As the children grew, Goldilocks took great joy in introducing them to the stories she had loved as a child. When her son went off to kindergarten, Goldilocks thought about looking for a job. But her resume now had a seven-year hole in it, and her practical skills were long out of date. The only jobs Goldilocks could qualify for were minimum wage.She suddenly realized that being practical had made her horribly unhappy. On a whim, Goldilocks decided to do the one thing she had always wanted more than anything else—she was finally going to write a novel.She didn’t care if it was impractical.She didn’t care if nobody would ever read her novel.She was going to do it just because she wanted to.For the first time in years, she was going to do something just for herself.And nobody was going to stop her.

    You'll discover comprehensive instruction such as:The art of crafting visceral violence, from Jack KetchumWhy horror classics like Dracula, The Exorcist, and Hell House are as scary as ever, from Robert WeinbergTips for avoiding one of the biggest death knells in horror writing--predicable cliches--from Ramsey CampbellHow to use character and setting to stretch the limits of credibility, from Mort CastleWith On Writing Horror, you can unlock the mystery surrounding classic horror traditions, revel in the art and craft of writing horror, and find out exactly where the genre is going next. Learn from the best, and you could be the next best-selling author keeping readers up all night long.