Let the Crazy Child Write! grew out of hundreds of creative writing workshops that Clive Matson has led during his career as poet and writer. Here he guides readers — as individuals or in groups — through twelve seminars designed to overcome inhibitions, locate hidden originality, and find a true creative writing voice. Let the Crazy Child Write! links the playful energy of the creative unconscious — essential to strong writing — to a solid, in-depth course of writing bas...

Learn to use Setting to quickly anchor the reader into the world of your story.Use Setting as movement through space effectively.Explore Setting in a series.Learn the most common Setting pitfalls.Readers usually remember the plot and characters of a story, but Setting is every bit as important in creating a memorable world. Discover the difference between Ordinary Setting that bogs down your story, and Active Setting that empowers your story -- creating a compe...

Conquer Act Two. Complete Your Story in Less Time--and with Less FrustrationIf you’re like me, you know how your screenplay or novel* is going to start and end. Maybe not the exact image or line, but you’ve got a rough idea of what you’re going to write. So you begin writing your story with lots of enthusiasm...until you reach the middle, aka Act Two.That’s where you get stuck. Suddenly, all of your enthusiasm evaporates. Blank pages are scary in general. B...

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

A practical and inspiring guide to transformational personal storytelling, The Story You Need to Tell is the product of Sandra Marinella’s pioneering work with veterans and cancer patients, her years of teaching writing, and her research into its profound healing properties. Riveting true stories illustrate Marinella’s methods for understanding, telling, and editing personal stories in ways that foster resilience and renewal. She also shares her own experience of using journaling ...

'In this excellent and provocative book, Matthew Ricketson lays bare the challenges of modern storytelling. I have found myself thinking about it every day, long after I put it down.' - William Powers, author of Hamlet's BlackBerry'An essential guide for the true storyteller.' - Chloe Hooper, award-winning author of fiction and non-fictionIt's etched into our neurological pathways; we can't live without it. Telling true stories is one of the things that makes us hu...

Why Writing Prompts Don't Work"Write about when you were 16," the writing prompt urges, but you wonder, "What about when I was 16?" You feel no insistence. Instead, you turn to How to Go Beyond Writing Prompts and peruse its suggestions. You find in the Teen Years section, "How did you describe 'best friend' then? Did you have one? Describe this person and state what it was like to be with this person. If you did not have a best friend, describe how that felt." As you see, this is ...

Since the publication of his groundbreaking books Writing Without Teachers and Writing with Power, Peter Elbow has revolutionized how people think about writing. Now, in Vernacular Eloquence, he makes a vital new contribution to both practice and theory. The core idea is simple: we can enlist virtues from the language activity most people find easiest-speaking-for the language activity most people find hardest-writing. Speech, with its spontaneity, naturalness of...

Creative Confidence:How To Unleash Your Confidence & Easily Write 3000 Words Without Writer's Block Box Set The thing about creativity is that it really exists in virtually everything. Many times, people have the misconception that creativity only exists in artistic endeavors such as music, writing or painting. However, that could not be further from the truth. In actuality, creativity exists in almost everything. People have to find ways to be creative in order to find solutio...

Novel Ideas provides a substantial introduction to the elements of fiction followed by in-depth interviews with successful novelists who speak with candor and insight into the complex process by which a novel is made. This edition includes new and updated interviews as well as writing exercises to enhance its use in the writing classroom.Dorothy Allison recalls "deliciously self-indulgent" days of writing in her bathrobe, wrapped in misery and exultation; Peter Cameron exp...

In this book, I take you to a place where every writer ought to go, but so few even know it exists. I am talking about reading aloud what you've written. The whole point of writing is to motivate a fellow human being, to seize their mind, their brain, their entire being, and suffuse it with your thoughts, your point of view, your unique take on the human condition, all its manifestations, and the improvements you offer.I am a fanatic about that human voice... at ensuring that it be...

Plan. Fail. Repeat.How exactly does anyone have the time and energy to work on their creative projects after coming home from work, catching up on chores, and putting the kids to bed?Do these people really have more time and energy than the rest of us, or were they were simply born with more self-discipline and motivation?Maybe they stumbled on some secret system that not only gives them the opportunity, but also the energy to create their ...