A revised and expanded sequel to Stealing Fire from the Gods, this 2nd edition includes important new revelations concerning the ultimate source of unity, the structures of the whole story passage, the anti-hero's journey, the high-concept great idea, the

Take your fiction to the next level!Maybe you're a first-time novelist looking for practical guidance. Maybe you've already been published, but your latest effort is stuck in mid-list limbo. Whatever the case may be, author and literary agent Donald Maass can show you how to take your prose to the next level and write a breakout novel - one that rises out of obscurity and hits the best-seller lists.Maass details the elements that all breakout novels share -...

Create Complex CharactersHow do you create a main character readers won't forget? How do you write a book in multiple-third-person point of view without confusing your readers (or yourself)? How do you plant essential information about a character's past into a story?Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint by award-winning author Nancy Kress answers all of these questions and more! This accessible book is filled with i...

Do you feel overwhelmed trying to revise your novel? Faced with a hot mess of rough draft, maybe you feel confused, unsure of what to fix -- or rather, what to fix first! Editing fiction takes a slightly different mindset than writing the first rough pass of a novel. There are a lot of moving parts in a work of fiction. The trick is to not try and tackle everything at once. ROCK YOUR REVISIONS: A Simple System for Revising Your Novel

"[When we read and write poetry,] it is as if a long-settled cloud in our mind suddenly dissipates, and we are divine once again." -- from the IntroductionPoetry is the language of devotion in prayer, chant, and song. Reading and writing poetry creates clarity, deepens and expands spiritual inquiry, and cultivates wisdom, compassion, self-confidence, patience, and love. In author Robert McDowell's words, poetry makes you into a tuning fork of the Divine.But...

Writers flock to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) each November because it provides a procrastination-busting deadline. But only a fraction of the participants meet their goal. Denise Jaden was part of that fraction, writing first drafts of two subsequently published novels in that tight time frame. In Fast Fiction, she shows other writers how to do what she did, step-by-step, writer to writer. To ensure success, her program begins a month before the month of drafting. Dur...

If you were sitting in a room with twenty other people, at first glance you might think they are quite different. After all, people come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. But if you were to put on x-ray glasses and look at those same people's skeletons, unless one of them had an abnormality, they would appear almost identical. In the same way, short stories, novels, screen plays, children's books, and epic poetry may appear to be vastly different, but they all tell stories. And because the...

First you have to come out with a flow of ideas and decide which ones will work. Then you must give them a tight structure, and then write crisp dialogue which builds in constant laughs. This practical but inspirational book guides new and more experienced writers step by step through the process of each comedy genre. It gives space for your creativity to shine as you gradually build your skills.Beginning with sketches, the basic building blocks of comedy, you’ll find how you can q...

Based on the Zen philosophy that we learn more from our failures than from our successes, One Continuous Mistake teaches a refreshing new method for writing as spiritual practice.In this unique guide for writers of all levels, Gail Sher—a poet who is also a widely respected teacher of creative writing—combines the inspirational value of Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way with the spiritual focus of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Here she...

This follow-up book to Margret Geraghty's bestselling The Five Minute Writer contains 50 more inspirational exercises to inspire you to write - even if you have only five minutes a day to spare.Margret also includes a new feature: snippet triggers, which she has designed in order to show readers how they can develop quirky little anecdotes they find in newspapers and regional broadcasts.Each short section offers you a thought-provoking discussion, followed by a fiv...

Do you struggle with show, don't tell? You don't have to.Award-winning author Janice Hardy (and founder of the popular writing site, Fiction University) takes you deep into one of the most frustrating aspects of writing--showing, and not telling. She'll help you understand what show, don't tell means, teach you how to spot told prose in your writing, and reveal why common advice on how to fix it doesn't always work.With in-depth analysis, Understanding ...

An illuminating resource to help parents foster a love of writing in their child's life--filled with writing prompts, engaging home learning activities, and more.New educational research reveals that writing is as fundamental to a child's development as reading. But though there are books that promote literacy, no book guides parents in helping their child cultivate a love of writing. In this book, Pam Allyn, a nationally recognized educator and literacy expert, re...