Download or read book Creating Characters written by Dwight V. Swain and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-11-28 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A jargon-free manual on the basics of developing interesting fictional characters Vibrant, believable characters help drive a fictional story. Along with a clever plot, well-drawn characters make us want to continue reading a novel or finish watching a movie. In Creating Characters, Dwight V. Swain shows how writers can invent interesting characters and improve them so that they move a story along. “The core of character,” he says in chapter 1, “lies in each individual story person’s ability to care about something; to feel implicitly or explicitly, that something is important.” Building on that foundation—the capacity to care—Swain takes the would-be writer step-by-step through the fundamentals of finding and developing “characters who turn you on.” This basic but thought-provoking how-to is a valuable tool for both the novice and the seasoned writer.
Download or read book Creating Characters written by Writer's Digest Books and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-10-03 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Create characters that leap off the page--and into readers' hearts! Populating your fiction with authentic, vivid characters is a surefire way to captivate your readers from the first sentence to the last. Whether you're writing a series, novel, short story, or flash fiction, Creating Characters is an invaluable guide to bringing your fictional cast to life. This book is a comprehensive reference to every stage of character development. You'll find timely advice and helpful instruction from best-selling authors like Nancy Kress, Elizabeth Sims, Orson Scott Card, Chuck Wendig, Hallie Ephron, Donald Maass, and James Scott Bell. They'll show you how to: • Effectively introduce your characters • Build a believable protagonist • Develop strong anti-heroes and compelling villains • Juggle multiple points of view without missing a beat • Craft authentic dialogue that propels the story forward • Motivate your characters with powerful objectives and a believable conflict • Show dynamic character development over the course of a story No matter what your genre, Creating Characters gives you the tools necessary to create realistic, fascinating characters that your readers will root for and remember long after they've finished the story.
Download or read book Million Dollar Outlines written by David Farland and published by WordFire +ORM. This book was released on 2023-02-03 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the secrets to crafting a successful novel in this guide by a master writer & instructor and New York Times–bestselling author. Bestselling author David Farland taught dozens of writers who went on to staggering literary success, including such #1 New York Times Bestsellers as Brandon Mull (Fablehaven), Brandon Sanderson (Wheel of Time), James Dashner (The Maze Runner) and Stephenie Mayer (Twilight). In this book, Dave teaches how to analyze an audience and outline a novel to appeal to a wide readership. The secrets found in his unconventional approach will help you understand why so many of his authors went on to prominence. Hailed as “the wizard of storytelling,” Dave was an award-winning, international best-selling author with more than fifty novels in print, and a tireless mentor and instructor of new writers. His book Million Dollar Outlines is a seminal work teaching authors how to create a blueprint for a novel that can lead to bestseller success.
Download or read book Her Dark Lies written by J.T. Ellison and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Elegant, propulsive, and utterly unputdownable… The work of one of our most talented thriller writers at the very top of her game.” —Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of Confessions on the 7:45 Fast-paced and brilliantly unpredictable, J.T. Ellison’s breathtaking novel invites you to a wedding none will forget—and some won’t survive. Jutting from sparkling turquoise waters off the Italian coast, Isle Isola is an idyllic setting for a wedding. In the majestic cliff-top villa owned by the wealthy Compton family, up-and-coming artist Claire Hunter will marry handsome, charming Jack Compton, surrounded by close family, intimate friends…and a host of dark secrets. From the moment Claire sets foot on the island, something seems amiss. Skeletal remains have just been found. There are other, newer disturbances, too. Menacing texts. A ruined wedding dress. And one troubling shadow hanging over Claire’s otherwise blissful relationship—the strange mystery surrounding Jack’s first wife. Then a raging storm descends, the power goes out—and the real terror begins… Don't miss J.T. Ellison's next thriller, IT'S ONE OF US, coming February 2023!
Download or read book 100 Days of Sunlight written by Abbie Emmons and published by . This book was released on 2019-08-07 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When 16-year-old poetry blogger Tessa Dickinson is involved in a car accident and loses her eyesight for 100 days, she feels like her whole world has been turned upside-down. Terrified that her vision might never return, Tessa feels like she has nothing left to be happy about. But when her grandparents place an ad in the local newspaper looking for a typist to help Tessa continue writing and blogging, an unlikely answer knocks at their door: Weston Ludovico, a boy her age with bright eyes, an optimistic smile...and no legs. Knowing how angry and afraid Tessa is feeling, Weston thinks he can help her. But he has one condition -- no one can tell Tessa about his disability. And because she can't see him, she treats him with contempt: screaming at him to get out of her house and never come back. But for Weston, it's the most amazing feeling: to be treated like a normal person, not just a sob story. So he comes back. Again and again and again. Tessa spurns Weston's "obnoxious optimism", convinced that he has no idea what she's going through. But Weston knows exactly how she feels and reaches into her darkness to show her that there is more than one way to experience the world. As Tessa grows closer to Weston, she finds it harder and harder to imagine life without him -- and Weston can't imagine life without her. But he still hasn't told her the truth, and when Tessa's sight returns he'll have to make the hardest decision of his life: vanish from Tessa's world...or overcome his fear of being seen. 100 Days of Sunlight is a poignant and heartfelt novel by author Abbie Emmons. If you like sweet contemporary romance and strong family themes then you'll love this touching story of hope, healing, and getting back up when life knocks you down.
Download or read book The Craft of Character written by Mark Boutros and published by Mark Boutros. This book was released on 2020-12-24 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The most complete and comprehensive guide to character I've ever read." Adam Croft Character is at the heart of every story. We love stories because we fall in love with characters, we want to see what happens to them and we want to see them experience hope and despair. International Emmy nominated writer, Mark Boutros, offers a guide to creating characters who are engaging, emotionally driven and memorable. With experience as a screenwriter, novelist, creative writing teacher and mentor, Mark shares a mixture of theory and creative writing exercises to get you thinking about the questions to have in your mind during character creation. A lot of stories are perfectly functional, hitting all the right beats, but often fall short due to a thin or obvious character. Problems people think are related to plot are often symptoms of a deeper issue with the characters. Mark highlights what is at the core of character, the importance of motivation, trauma, obstacles and how every little detail can enrich an experience for an audience and ultimately make people care. How do you get to know people? By asking questions and getting to know them so you move past the shallow. Do the same during character development and your story will be so much more engaging for it. Each chapter focuses on an aspect important to character development and ends with exercises so you can apply the concepts to your work and write better characters. The book includes: - Goals, desires, lessons - Stakes to your character’s goal - Character flaws - Developing your character’s voice and world view - Generating truthful obstacles - How to write anti-heroes and compelling villains - Character and personality traits - Common mistakes in character writing - Character research - A character questionnaire The majority of the ideas originate from the author’s screenwriting experience, but they apply to all forms of story, whether it be fiction writing or playwriting, because the focus is on what really makes a character stand out and memorable. The job of the writer is to deliver an emotional experience. Character is the heart of that. If you're looking for a book to help you to improve your screenplay writing, fiction writing, or play writing then this is for you. An invaluable tool for beginner and experienced writers. This is perfect for anyone interested in screenwriting books, fiction writing books, or character development books. Praise for The Craft of Character: “Would 100% recommend not only for beginners, but also for experienced writers looking to get to know their characters better. A bit like writer-character therapy.” reader review “Both the chapters and the exercises are easy to understand and get through. Mark Boutros clearly knows his stuff and seems happy to be able to help the reader, rather than becoming lecturing and elitist. The structure of the book also means that it is easy to dip back into, when you come across a specific problem, and as such it is a great little reference book, which any aspiring storyteller would benefit from.” reader review “Normally, I find myself arguing with the author of craft books, but here I would say 90% of what I read were things I either found helpful, or flat out agreed with whole heartedly and just needed a reminder on why these things are important. The exercises were a excellent touch, especially as someone who is teaching writing, it gave me ideas on what to do for my students.” reader review
Download or read book Creating Characters written by Howard Lauther and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2011-01-14 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A frequent problem area for fiction writers is characterization. If writers jump headlong into a story with only a fuzzy notion about the people who are in it, the result is a collection of characters who are cliched, stereotypical and not very interesting. Creating Characters is an easy to use reference work that looks at character development from many different angles. The book does not tell writers how to write. Instead, it generates a thought process by asking crucial questions about characters' internal and external traits, wants, needs, likes, dislikes, fears, beliefs, strengths, weaknesses, habits and backgrounds. Following these questions, the writer will find an ever deeper and wider array of options. Thus, Creating Characters helps writers delve as deeply into a character's psychology as they want. All characters, and the stories they people, can be made richer and more compelling.
Download or read book Techniques of the Selling Writer written by Dwight V. Swain and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-09-06 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Techniques of the Selling Writer provides solid instruction for people who want to write and sell fiction, not just to talk and study about it. It gives the background, insights, and specific procedures needed by all beginning writers. Here one can learn how to group words into copy that moves, movement into scenes, and scenes into stories; how to develop characters, how to revise and polish, and finally, how to sell the product. No one can teach talent, but the practical skills of the professional writer's craft can certainly be taught. The correct and imaginative use of these kills can shorten any beginner's apprenticeship by years. This is the book for writers who want to turn rejection slips into cashable checks.
Download or read book Writing Unforgettable Characters written by James Scott Bell and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-17 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What will take your fiction from good to great? From decent to dazzling? From lackluster to blockbuster? Characters who "jump off the page." Of course plot matters. So does conflict, and scenes, and every other aspect of the fiction craft. But without unforgettable characters, your books will always be less than they could be. Don't let that happen. In WRITING UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS you'll learn: -How to lay the foundation for a memorable character -How to bond the reader with the main character from the start -The super power of unpredictability -The secrets of grit, wit, and moxie -How to bring your character to life on the page-How and when to reveal backstory -All about arcs and what they truly mean -The key to unforgettable villains-How to make minor characters memorable, too -How to create a great series character And more, PLUS the powerful exercises James Scott Bell has taught in his sold-out writing workshops. No more flat stories! Give your readers what will turn them into career-long fans-characters who jump off the page.
Download or read book Story Genius written by Lisa Cron and published by Ten Speed Press. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following on the heels of Lisa Cron's breakout first book, Wired for Story, this writing guide reveals how to use cognitive storytelling strategies to build a scene-by-scene blueprint for a riveting story. 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.
Download or read book Bird by Bird written by Anne Lamott and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. Anne Lamott is "a warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps" (Los Angeles Times). “Superb writing advice…. Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.” —The New York Times Book Review For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title: “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”
Download or read book After the Plague written by T.C. Boyle and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2002-12-31 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few authors in America write with such sheer love of story, language, and imagination as T.C. Boyle, and nowhere is that passion more evident than in his inventive, wickedly funny, and widely praised short stories. In After the Plague, Boyle speaks of contemporary social issues in a range of emotional keys. The sixteen stories gathered here address everything from air rage to abortion doctors to first love and its consequences. The collection ends with the brilliant title story, a whimsical and imaginative vision of a disease-ravaged Earth. Presented with characteristic wit and intelligence, these stories will delight readers in search of the latest news of the chaotic, disturbing, and achingly beautiful world in which we live. "Boyle's imagination and zeal for storytelling are in top form here."—Publishers Weekly
Download or read book Creating Characters written by Dwight V. Swain and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-11-28 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A jargon-free manual on the basics of developing interesting fictional characters Vibrant, believable characters help drive a fictional story. Along with a clever plot, well-drawn characters make us want to continue reading a novel or finish watching a movie. In Creating Characters, Dwight V. Swain shows how writers can invent interesting characters and improve them so that they move a story along. “The core of character,” he says in chapter 1, “lies in each individual story person’s ability to care about something; to feel implicitly or explicitly, that something is important.” Building on that foundation—the capacity to care—Swain takes the would-be writer step-by-step through the fundamentals of finding and developing “characters who turn you on.” This basic but thought-provoking how-to is a valuable tool for both the novice and the seasoned writer.
Download or read book How to Write a Novel written by Nathan Bransford and published by Nathan Bransford. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author and former literary agent Nathan Bransford shares his secrets for creating killer plots, fleshing out your first ideas, crafting compelling characters, and staying sane in the process. Read the guide that New York Times bestselling author Ransom Riggs called "The best how-to-write-a-novel book I've read."
Download or read book Creating Character Bringing Your Story to Life written by William Bernhardt and published by Babylon Books. This book was released on 2013-05-12 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All fiction is character-driven, according to William Bernhardt, despite what you might have heard elsewhere. If your characters don’t interest readers, even the most exciting plots will fail. “Action is character,” Aristotle wrote, but what does that mean, and how can you use that fundamental principle to create dynamic fiction that will captivate readers? This book explains the relationship between character and plot, and how the perfect melding of the two produces a mesmerizing story. Using examples spanning from The Odyssey to The Da Vinci Code, Bernhardt discusses the art of character creation in a direct and easily comprehended manner. The book also includes exercises designed to help writers apply these ideas to their own work. William Bernhardt is the author of more than fifty novels, including the blockbuster Ben Kincaid series of legal thrillers. Bernhardt is also one of the most sought-after writing instructors in the nation. His programs have educated many authors now published by major houses. He is the only person to have received the Southern Writers Gold Medal Award, the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award (U Penn) and the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award (OSU), which is given "in recognition of an outstanding body of work that has profoundly influenced the way in which we understand ourselves and American society at large." The Red Sneaker Writing Center is dedicated to helping writers achieve their literary goals. What is a red sneaker writer? A committed writer seeking useful instruction and guidance rather than obfuscation and attitude. Red sneakers get the job done, and so do red sneaker writers, by paying close attention to their art and craft, committing to hard work, and never quitting. Are you a red sneaker writer? If so, this book is for you.
Download or read book GMC Goal Motivation and Conflict written by Debra Dixon and published by Bell Bridge Books. This book was released on 2013-07-15 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book belongs on every fiction writer's bookshelf. Anyone who has ever had a story to tell and is dying to get it down on paper will find guidance and inspiration in GMC. The presentation is clear, immediate, and relevant to all writers--from novices to seasoned professionals. Experienced author Debra Dixon has done a magnificent job of demystifying the toughest aspect of fiction writing: that of a giving a story shape, form and urgency." -- Susan Wiggs, New York Times bestselling and RITA® Award winning author of over 40 novels and novellas "One of the best in her craft." -- Toronto Star "Goal, Motivation & Conflict is one of my all time favorites." -- Jane Porter (Flirting With Forty), award winning and bestselling author with 10 million books in print, in twenty languages and 25 countries Goal, motivation, and conflict are the foundation of everything that happens in the story world. Using charts, examples, and movies, the author breaks these key elements down into understandable components and walks the reader through the process of laying this foundation in his or her own work. Learn what causes sagging middles and how to fix them, which goals are important, which aren't and why, how to get your characters to do what they need for your plot in a believable manner, and how to use conflict to create a good story. GMC can be used not only in plotting, but in character development, sharpening scenes, pitching ideas to an editor, and evaluating whether an idea will work. Be confident your ideas will work before you write 200 pages. Plan a road map to keep your story on track. Discover why your scenes aren't working and what to do about it. Create characters that editors and readers will care about.
Download or read book Elements of Fiction Writing Scene Structure written by Jack Bickham and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1999-03-15 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Craft your fiction with scene-by-scene flow, logic and readability. An imprisoned man receives an unexpected caller, after which "everything changed..." And the reader is hooked. But whether or not readers will stay on for the entire wild ride will depend on how well the writer structures the story, scene by scene. This book is your game plan for success. Using dozens of examples from his own work - including Dropshot,Tiebreaker and other popular novels - Jack M. Bickham will guide you in building a sturdy framework for your novel, whatever its form or length. You'll learn how to: • "worry" your readers into following your story to the end • prolong your main character's struggle while moving the story ahead • juggle cause and effect to serve your story action As you work on crafting compelling scenes that move the reader, moment by moment, toward the story's resolution, you'll see why... • believable fiction must make more sense than real life • every scene should end in disaster • some scenes should be condensed, and others built big Whatever your story, this book can help you arrive at a happy ending in the company of satisfied readers.
