Let Rebecca McClanahan guide you through an inspiring examination of description in its many forms. With her thoughtful instruction and engaging exercises, you'll learn to develop your senses and powers of observation to uncover the rich, evocative words that accurately portray your mind's images. McClanahan includes dozens of descriptive passages written by master poets and authors to illuminate the process. She also teaches you how to weave writing together using description as a unifying thread.

This is The Elements of Style, the classic style manual, now in a fourth edition. A new Foreword by Roger Angell reminds readers that the advice of Strunk & White is as valuable today as when it was first offered. This book's unique tone, wit and charm have conveyed the principles of English style to millions of readers. Use the fourth edition of "the little book" to make a big impact with writing.

Most writing books dwell on common issues of style and grammar. Yet most writers also confront complex problems of story design. This fifty-rule guide by Francis Flaherty, a New York Times editor, offers much-needed solutions and sage advice to address these concerns. “Sometimes, say things sideways,” Flaherty writes. “The reader will be grateful.” “White is whitest on black,” he observes. “Let contrast work for you.” Through such hard-won, story-level insights, sprinkled with examples from real stories and leavened with a good dose of newsroom memoir, The Elements of Story merits a spot on every writer’s shelf.

Whether you're writing a rags-to-riches tell-all memoir or literary journalism, telling true stories well is hard work. In You Can't Make This Stuff Up, Lee Gutkind, the go-to expert for all things creative nonfiction, offers his unvarnished wisdom to help you craft the best writing possible. Frank, to-the-point, and always entertaining, Gutkind describes and illustrates every aspect of the genre. Invaluable tools and exercises illuminate key steps, from defining a concept and establishing a writing process to the final product. Offering new ways of understanding the genre, this practical guidebook will help you thoroughly expand and stylize your work.

All too often, following the "rules" of writing can constrict rather than inspire you. With Story Trumps Structure, you can shed those rules - about three-act structure, rising action, outlining, and more - to craft your most powerful, emotional, and gripping stories. Award-winning novelist Steven James explains how to trust the narrative process to make your story believable, compelling, and engaging, and debunks the common myths that hold writers back from creating their best work. • Ditch your outline and learn to write organically. • Set up promises for readers - and deliver on them. • Discover how to craft a satisfying climax. • Master the subtleties of characterization. • Add mind-blowing twists to your fiction. When you focus on what lies at the heart of story - tension, desire, crisis, escalation, struggle, discovery - rather than plot templates and formulas, you'll begin to break out of the box and write fiction that resonates with your readers. Story Trumps Structure will transform the way you think about stories and the way you write them, forever.

Organized into six accessible, easy-to-navigate sections, The Way of the Writer is both a literary reflection on the creative impulse and a utilitarian guide to the writing process. Johnson shares his lessons and exercises from the classroom, starting with word choice, sentence structure, and narrative voice, and delving into the mechanics of scene, dialogue, plot and storytelling before exploring the larger questions at stake for the serious writer.

It's every novelist's greatest fear: pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into writing hundreds of pages only to realize that their story has no sense of urgency, no internal logic, and so is a page-one rewrite. The prevailing wisdom in the writing community is that there are just two ways around this problem: pantsing (winging it) and plotting (focusing on the external plot). Story coach Lisa Cron has spent her career discovering why these methods don't work and coming up with a powerful alternative, based on the science behind what our brains are wired to crave in every story we read (and it’s not what you think). In Story Genius,Cron takes you, step by step, through the creation of a novel from the first glimmer of an idea, to a complete, multilayered blueprint - including fully realized scenes - that evolves into a first draft with the authority, richness, and command of a riveting sixth or seventh draft.

Drawing on the lessons learned throughout a distinguished writing career and nearly 20 years as a teacher of creative writing, McCann delivers a collection of essays that combines practical advice, creative inspiration, and a profound call to arms for a new generation of writers to bring truth and light to a dark world through their art. Addressing subjects such as "The Terror of the White Page," "Embrace the Critics," and "If You're Done, You've Just Begun," this collection is a testament to the bruises of writing as profession and as calling, and a paean to the power of language.

The definitive handbook for the novelist who is ready to revise...This wise and friendly guide shows writers how to turn first-draft manuscripts into the novels of their dreams. A critic, longtime teacher, and award-winning novelist, Sandra Scofield illustrates how to reread a work of fiction with a view of its subject and vision, and how to take it apart and put it back together again, stronger and deeper.

The history of fiction has been dominated by the novel and the short story. But now a brave new genre has emerged: very brief fiction. FLASH! identifies the qualities that make for excellent flash fiction, demystifies the writing process, and guides writers by exercise and example through the world of the very short story.

It's a question that plagues every writer. And once you've got an idea, what then? Ideas without a plan, without a purpose, are no more than pleasant thoughts. So how do you come up with those ideas, and how do you turn them into writing that will engage your reader? The Writer's Idea Book is here to help you find the answers. Utilizing more than 400 prompts and exercises, you'll generate intriguing ideas and plumb their possibilities to turn them into something amazing. This indispensable guide will help you: • Develop good writing habits that foster creativity • Explore your own life for writing material • Draw inspiration from the world around you • Find form for your ideas, develop them into a piece of writing, and make them better Let The Writer's Idea Book give you the insight and self-awareness to create and refine ideas that demand to be transformed into greater works, the kind of compelling, absorbing writing that will have other writers asking "where do you get your ideas?"

Each year thousands of fiction writers, from beginners to bestselling author, benefit from Sol Stein's sold-out workshops, featured appearances at writers' conferences, software for writers, on-line columns, and his popular first book for writers, Stein on Writing. Stein practices what he teaches: He is the author of nine novels, including the million-copy bestseller The Magician, as well as editor of such major writers as James Baldwin, Jack Higgins, Elia Kazan, Budd Schulberg, W. H. Auden, and Jacques Barzun, and the teacher and editor of several current bestselling authors. What sets Stein apart is his practical approach. He provides specific techniques that speed writers to successful publication. How to Grow a Novel is not just a book, but an invaluable workshop in print. It includes details and examples from Stein's editorial work with a #1 bestselling novelist as well as talented newcomers. Stein takes the reader backstage in the development of memorable characters and fascinating plots. The chapter on dialogue overflows with solutions for short-story writers, novelists, screenwriters, and playwrights. Stein shows what readers are looking for-- and what they avoid-- in the experience of reading fiction. The book offers guidelines-- and warnings-- of special value for nonfiction writers who want to move into fiction. Stein points to the little, often overlooked things that damage the writer's authority without the writer knowing it. And this book, like no other writing book, takes the reader behind the scenes of the publishing business as it affects writers of every level of experience, revealing the hard truths that are kept behind shut doors.

As Jane Alison writes in the introduction to her ... book about the craft of writing: 'For centuries there’s been one path through fiction we’re most likely to travel--one we’re actually told to follow--and that’s the dramatic arc: a situation arises, grows tense, reaches a peak, subsides... But something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculosexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Why not draw on them, too?' ... Meander, Spiral, Explode is a singular and brilliant elucidation of literary strategies that also brings high spirits and wit to its original conclusions.

Although revision is essential to writing, readers only see the final draft, leaving the practice shrouded in mystery. Peter Ho Davies addresses this invisibility by examining his own work, alongside classic and contemporary authors, while also reaching beyond literature to film adaptations and retconning. And a story about his father--told and retold across the book--serves as impetus for the exhilarating conclusion that it is not just the writing, but the writer, who must change.

Whether you’re a student or an adult looking to refresh your knowledge, Barron’s Painless Writing provides review and practice in an easy, step-by-step format. Perfect for: Virtual Learning Homeschool Learning pods Inside you’ll find: Comprehensive instruction, including information on expressing your thoughts clearly, enlivening your writing with vivid images, avoiding the dull, passive voice, and much more Painless writing techniques with sample writing passages, painless tips, common pitfalls, and instructive tables Brain Tickler quizzes and answers throughout each chapter to test your progress

The world has changed since 2017, and The Chicago Manual of Style is changing to meet the moment. The eighteenth edition of this classic guide for writers, editors, and publishers is the most extensive revision in two decades. Every chapter has been reexamined with diversity and accessibility in mind, and major changes include updated and expanded coverage of pronoun use and inclusive language, revised guidelines on capitalization, a broader range of examples, new coverage of Indigenous languages, and expanded advice on making publications accessible to people with disabilities. The Manual's traditional focus on nonfiction has been expanded to include fiction and other creative genres on topics such as punctuation and dialogue, and its attention to the needs of self-published authors has also widened. The citation chapters have been thoroughly reorganized for the benefit of new and experienced users alike, and the chapter on mathematics has been dropped, its key contents covered elsewhere in the Manual, where they will be useful to both generalists and specialists. Evolving technologies--from open-access publishing models to citations of AI content--are covered throughout. And of course there are well-considered updates to familiar rules, including a number of changes intended to align more closely with real-world usage. As with each new edition, devotees of the Manual will find much to discover and ponder here.

Drawing upon published examples, Cheney offers a wealth of inspiration and advice to both aspiring and experienced writers. In Writing Creative Nonfiction you'll find instruction on how to write gripping opening sentences, use dialogue to bring your characters to life, and incorporate research to add depth and breadth to your work. Other chapters cover structure, point of view, and ethical considerations of using diction, irony, and humor while staying within the bounds of journalistic professionalism.

Get Started in Creative Writing is an indispensable guide to unlocking your creativity, finding your voice and choosing a genre of writing that suits you best, whether fiction or non-fiction, short stories or novels, children's books or travel writing. It features guidelines for do's and don'ts along with suggestions for crafting a distinctive style. With tips from some of the best-known writers of fiction and non-fiction, you will receive loads of helpful advice to enable you get your own work published.

DIY MFA is the do-it-yourself alternative to a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. By combining the three main components of a traditional MFA - writing, reading, and community - it teaches you how to craft compelling stories, engage your readers, and publish your work. Writing belongs to everyone - not only those who earn a degree. With DIY MFA, you can take charge of your writing, produce high-quality work, get published, and build a career.

The secret to writing a dynamite novel is to first write a dynamite scene. Because if you can write one terrific scene, you can write a hundred. And that's a novel. This is a short book, with just one goal--to teach you the simple principles you can use right now to design a powerful scene before you write it.