Download or read book A Writer s Craft written by Kendall Dunkelberg and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-16 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This introductory creative writing text uses a unique, multi-genre approach to provide students with a broad-based knowledge of their craft, treating them as professional writers. Beginning by discussing elements common to all genres, this book underscores the importance of learning good writing habits before committing to a genre, encouraging writers to look beyond their genre expectations and learn from other forms. The book then devotes one chapter to each of the major literary genres: fiction, poetry, drama and creative nonfiction. These style-specific sections provide depth as they compare the different genres, furnishing students with a comprehensive understanding of creative writing as a discipline and fostering creativity. The discussion concludes with a chapter on digital media and an appendix on literary citizenship and publishing. With exercises at the end of each chapter, a glossary of literary terms, and a list of resources for further study, A Writer's Craft is the ideal companion to an introductory creative writing class. It has been listed as one of the 'Best Books for Writers' by Poets and Writers magazine.

Download or read book Craft in the Real World written by Matthew Salesses and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2021-01-19 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This national bestseller is "a significant contribution to discussions of the art of fiction and a necessary challenge to received views about whose stories are told, how they are told and for whom they are intended" (Laila Lalami, The New York Times Book Review). The traditional writing workshop was established with white male writers in mind; what we call craft is informed by their cultural values. In this bold and original examination of elements of writing—including plot, character, conflict, structure, and believability—and aspects of workshop—including the silenced writer and the imagined reader—Matthew Salesses asks questions to invigorate these familiar concepts. He upends Western notions of how a story must progress. How can we rethink craft, and the teaching of it, to better reach writers with diverse backgrounds? How can we invite diverse storytelling traditions into literary spaces? Drawing from examples including One Thousand and One Nights, Curious George, Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea, and the Asian American classic No-No Boy, Salesses asks us to reimagine craft and the workshop. In the pages of exercises included here, teachers will find suggestions for building syllabi, grading, and introducing new methods to the classroom; students will find revision and editing guidance, as well as a new lens for reading their work. Salesses shows that we need to interrogate the lack of diversity at the core of published fiction: how we teach and write it. After all, as he reminds us, "When we write fiction, we write the world."

Download or read book The Creative Writer s Craft written by Richard Bailey and published by NTC Learning Works. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Creative Writer''s Craft encourages readers to write in three genres - poetry, short stories and one-act plays - and to develop the writer''s attitude which embraces the writing process rather than the final result.'

Download or read book On Writing and Worldbuilding written by Timothy Hickson and published by . This book was released on 2023-11-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Creative Writer Level Three Building Your Craft The Creative Writer written by Boris Fishman and published by Peace Hill Press. This book was released on 2013-02-15 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third volume of the four-book series that guides students into the creation of sophisticated short fiction and mature poetry. • Complements Peace Hill Press’s expository series Writing With Skill by providing the imaginative element that many students want. • Unlike most “how to write” books, these are designed to be used in a mentor/student relationship, with teaching, guidance, and evaluation tips provided for the mentor or teacher. • All exercises build towards the production of finished creative pieces • Sequential, logical, step-by-step instruction • The third level builds on the introductory volume, The Creative Writer: Five Finger Exercises, but can be started directly by older students. • Instruction in the five essentials of fiction: plot, characters, dialogue, point of view, and setting. Level Three leads students into the construction of more complex plots, evocative settings, and three-dimensional characters • Guidance in the essential art of poetry: sound, rhythm, word choice, and poem construction. Level Three draws students into even more sophisticated use of words and themes.

Download or read book The Art and Craft of Fiction written by Michael Kardos and published by Macmillan Higher Education. This book was released on 2016-09-30 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brief, practical, and affordable, The Art and Craft of Fiction gives aspiring writers all they need, in a friendly voice that students love. Michael Kardos focuses on technique and presents fiction writing as a teachable (and learnable) art. With an organization built on methods and process rather than traditional literary elements, Kardos helps students begin their stories, write strong scenes, use images and research detail, revise for aesthetics and mechanics, and finish and polish their own stories. Instructors trust The Art and Craft of Fiction to help structure their course, and reinforce and complement their teaching points with examples and exercises. A brief fiction anthology at the back of the book includes 15 selections that instructors praise for their usefulness in the creative writing classroom.

Download or read book Steering the Craft written by Ursula K. Le Guin and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2015 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revised and updated guide to the essentials of a writer's craft, presented by a brilliant practitioner of the art

Download or read book Re Writing Craft written by Tim Mayers and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2005-06-10 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Re)Writing Craft focuses on the gap that exists in many English departments between creative writers and compositionists on one hand, and literary scholars on the other, in an effort to radically transform the way English studies are organized and practiced today. In proposing a new form of writing he calls "craft criticism," Mayers, himself a compositionist and creative writer, explores the connections between creative writing and composition studies programs, which currently exist as separate fields within the larger and more amorphous field of English studies. If creative writing and composition studies are brought together in productive dialogue, they can, in his view, succeed in inverting the common hierarchy in English departments that privileges interpretation of literature over the teaching of writing.

Download or read book The Creative Writer Level Three written by Boris Fishman, Mfa and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2012-12-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third volume of the four-book series that guides students into the creation of sophisticated short fiction and mature poetry. • Complements Peace Hill Press’s expository series Writing With Skill by providing the imaginative element that many students want. • Unlike most “how to write” books, these are designed to be used in a mentor/student relationship, with teaching, guidance, and evaluation tips provided for the mentor or teacher. • All exercises build towards the production of finished creative pieces • Sequential, logical, step-by-step instruction • The third level builds on the introductory volume, The Creative Writer: Five Finger Exercises, but can be started directly by older students. • Instruction in the five essentials of fiction: plot, characters, dialogue, point of view, and setting. Level Three leads students into the construction of more complex plots, evocative settings, and three-dimensional characters • Guidance in the essential art of poetry: sound, rhythm, word choice, and poem construction. Level Three draws students into even more sophisticated use of words and themes.

Download or read book Why Writing Matters written by Nicholas Delbanco and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing lessons from writers of all ages and writing across genres, a distinguished teacher and writer reveals the enduring importance of writing for our time In this new contribution to Yale University Press’s Why X Matters series, a distinguished writer and scholar tackles central questions of the discipline of writing. Drawing on his own experience with mentors such as John Updike, John Gardner, and James Baldwin, and in turn having taught such rising stars as Jesmyn Ward, Delbanco looks in particular at questions of influence and the contradictory, simultaneous impulses toward imitation and originality. Part memoir, part literary history, and part analysis, this unique text will resonate with students, writers, writing teachers, and bibliophiles.

Download or read book The Art of Fiction written by John Gardner and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-08-18 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic guide, from the renowned novelist and professor, has helped transform generations of aspiring writers into masterful writers—and will continue to do so for many years to come. John Gardner was almost as famous as a teacher of creative writing as he was for his own works. In this practical, instructive handbook, based on the courses and seminars that he gave, he explains, simply and cogently, the principles and techniques of good writing. Gardner’s lessons, exemplified with detailed excerpts from classic works of literature, sweep across a complete range of topics—from the nature of aesthetics to the shape of a refined sentence. Written with passion, precision, and a deep respect for the art of writing, Gardner’s book serves by turns as a critic, mentor, and friend. Anyone who has ever thought of taking the step from reader to writer should begin here.

Download or read book Writing the Breakout Novel written by Donald Maass and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2002-08-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 - regardless of genre - then shows you writing techniques that can make your own books stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace. You'll learn to: • establish a powerful and sweeping sense of time and place • weave subplots into the main action for a complex, engrossing story • create larger-than-life characters that step right off the page • explore universal themes that will interest a broad audience of readers • sustain a high degree of narrative tension from start to finish • develop an inspired premise that sets your novel apart from the competition Then, using examples from the recent works of several best-selling authors - including novelist Anne Perry - Maass illustrates methods for upping the ante in every aspect of your novel writing. You'll capture the eye of an agent, generate publisher interest and lay the foundation for a promising career.

Download or read book Playing With Words written by Shelley Davidow and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-16 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on years of experience of writing, teaching and publishing, this book offers essential tools for writers interested in honing their craft. Whether you're a poet, non-fiction writer, novelist, journalist, student or simply a lover of words, it will take you on an exciting and challenging journey to becoming a sophisticated writer. As in the learning of any true craft or art, first the focus is on specific skills, then on consolidating those skills, which by the end will be innate. Through a variety of exercises and freewriting prompts, Playing with Words will help you develop your writing, trying out new styles and approaches along the way. Use this book in a class, in a group, or alone in a writer's attic.

Download or read book The Soul of Place written by Linda Lappin and published by Travelers' Tales. This book was released on 2015-04-20 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This is such a pleasure to read. Unlike most books with writing prompts, this one goes in depth with sensitizing you to ground yourself in awareness of where you are and why. Grazie, Linda, for this marvelous work.”—Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun In this engaging creative writing workbook, novelist and poet Linda Lappin presents a series of insightful exercises to help writers of all genres—literary travel writing, memoir, poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction—discover imagery and inspiration in the places they love. Lappin departs from the classical concept of the Genius Loci, the indwelling spirit residing in every landscape, house, city, or forest—to argue that by entering into contact with the unique energy and identity of a place, writers can access an inexhaustible source of creative power. The Soul of Place provides instruction on how to evoke that power. The writing exercises are drawn from many fields—architecture, painting, cuisine, literature and literary criticism, geography and deep maps, Jungian psychology, fairy tales, mythology, theater and performance art, metaphysics—all of which offer surprising perspectives on our writing and may help us uncover raw materials for fiction, essays, and poetry hidden in our environment. An essential resource book for the writer’s library, this book is ideal for creative writing courses, with stimulating exercises adaptable to all genres. For writers or travelers about to set out on a trip abroad, The Soul of Place is the perfect road trip companion, attuning our senses to a deeper awareness of place.

Download or read book The Modern Library Writer s Workshop written by Stephen Koch and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2009-05-14 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Make [your] characters want something right away—even if it’s only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.” —Kurt Vonnegut “‘The cat sat on the mat’ is not the beginning of a story, but ‘the cat sat on the dog’s mat’ is.” —John Le Carré Nothing is more inspiring for a beginning writer than listening to masters of the craft talk about the writing life. But if you can’t get Vladimir Nabokov, Virginia Woolf, and Gabriel García Márquez together at the Algonquin, The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop gives you the next best thing. Stephen Koch, former chair of Columbia University’s graduate creative writing program, presents a unique guide to the craft of fiction. Along with his own lucid observations and commonsense techniques, he weaves together wisdom, advice, and inspiring commentary from some of our greatest writers. Taking you from the moment of inspiration (keep a notebook with you at all times), to writing a first draft (do it quickly! you can always revise later), to figuring out a plot (plot always serves the story, not vice versa), Koch is a benevolent mentor, glad to dispense sound advice when you need it most. The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop belongs on every writer’s shelf, to be picked up and pored over for those moments when the muse needs a little help finding her way.

Download or read book The Creative Writer s Toolbelt Handbook written by Andrew J Chamberlain and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-09-14 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book has been written for you with one simple aim: to present the fundamentals of creative writing in a practical, accessible way that you can apply straight away to your own work. Each chapter takes you through the principles of the craft, combining the best advice from professional writers, artists, and editors with examples from classic and contemporary literature. The Handbook is full of "toolbelt tips"; applicable advice on every dimension of the craft; from story development to genre, narrative structure to writing voice, and characterisation to world-building & setting. This is what other writers have been saying about the Creative Writer's Toolbelt Handbook: "A unique and comprehensive handbook... it lays the foundations and then helps you build." "A refreshing change to many writing books." "I've found so few advice givers as competent and informative as Andrew Chamberlain" The handbook divides into eight chapters, each focusing on dimension of the craft, with sections in each chapter giving you a range of tools that you can apply straight away to your own writing. Chapter 1: Creating a Story Learn the classic shape of stories and understand why throughout history, one approach to story construction has been so successful. Chapter 2: Characters and characterisation Explore the two primary aspects of characterisation: character essence and goal, motivation, and passion. Learn why getting these right is most of the hard work of character development. Chapter 3: Setting, world-building, and research Understand the two critical requirements of a setting - that it be credible and immersive. Grounded with examples, we also look at the best way to gather and apply research, with expert insights into the process, and guidance on the important issue of understanding and writing 'the other'. Chapter 4: Tools of the trade Understand how to use the most important tools of the craft; from 'showing not telling' to point of view, and foreshadowing to exploiting the power of sensory description. Chapter 5: The building blocks of writing Explore the techniques for harnessing the power of punctuation and structure, understand the power of verbs in driving the pace of a sentence. Chapter 6: The sound of your writing Unlock the secrets of tone, style, and voice, and wield the sharpest tools in the toolbelt: clarity, brevity, and precision. Chapter 7: Story identity - Genre and theme Explore the strategies for harnessing genre and trope tooth reassure and absorb the reader. See how symbol, dilemma, and innovation interweave with theme and moral, and how to apply these aspects to enrich and enhance our work Chapter 8: The Writer's Life Think about living well. From physical health to mental and emotional wellbeing, the handbook offers suggestions for the writer's life. This chapter also explores the author experience with publishers and some thoughts on how to effectively market both ourselves and our work. The Creative Writer's Toolbelt Handbook gives you practical, accessible advice that you can apply straight away to your own writing. Find out more about the Handbook and the Creative Writer's Toolbelt Podcast at andrewjchamberlain.com

Download or read book Creative Writing written by Marie Eager and published by . This book was released on 2014-08-29 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed with the fiction writer in mind, this book presents a combination of creative prompts and exercises focused on Character, Setting, Plot, and Voice. As writers move through these four key areas of storytelling, they will find:*Everything from open-ended prompts to step-by-step exercises*Linked activities that encourage writers to build on previous work *Questions for thought and reflection to promote deeper exploration of contentIn just 15 minutes a day, this book will help beat writer's block and open the doors of creativity, while simultaneously providing opportunities to develop craft. Creative Writing is an essential tool for the writer at heart.