Download or read book Write Worlds Your Readers Won t Forget written by Stant Litore and published by . This book was released on 2017-11-06 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There are other worldbuilding books out there; this is the one you want." - Travis Heerman, author of the Ronin trilogy and Death Wind. Like a god, you get to invent a world. Maybe several. But how do you make these worlds that readers want to visit? How do you make them worlds that readers never want to leave? In Write Worlds Your Readers Won't Forget, explore how to create unforgettable environments, creatures, and cultures in 33 intensive exercises. ADVANCE PRAISE FOR WRITE WORLDS YOUR READERS WON'T FORGET: "One of the best worldbuilding workbooks I've ever seen. Litore is inspirational, reveling in the power of imagination and packing his journey with top-notch examples and exercises. A superb resource for beginners and pros alike." - Richard Ellis Preston, Jr., author of Romulus Buckle and the City of the Founders "Stant Litore's book overflows with everything you need to know to build your own worlds from the ground up or the top down, from creatures to ecology to culture. Tons of thought-provoking exercises help create an elegant framework for speculative worldbuilding. With these techniques and your own creativity, you'll be able to create worlds your readers will never want to leave. There are other worldbuilding books out there; this is the one you want." - Travis Heermann, author of the Ronin trilogy and Death Wind "Not only is the advice great, but there's a warmth to the chapters that makes writing inviting rather than intimidating." - Todd Mitchell, author of The Traitor King and The Last Panther "A master class in world building: Litore has created an accessible, comprehensive approach. Covering religion, biology, technology, magic, language, justice, privilege and more, the book ignites the writer's imagination with provocative questions and exercises. Pro tip: read this with a notebook handy. You will be inspired to get down to the business of building your fictional world in ways you hadn't dreamed possible. Litore's passion for well-crafted sci-fi comes through in every chapter." - S.G. Redling, author of Flowertown and Damocles "This is a clear, comprehensive, and beautifully written guide to worldbuilding that will not only help emerging writers to find their voices and build imaginative worlds and characters, but one that will also prove invaluable to experienced writers seeking to spark their creative impulses or deepen the worlds they create. My favorite thing about this guide was how incredibly immersive it is. When Litore says the word 'worldbuilding, ' he's not kidding... Highly recommended. I can't wait to use some of the exercises and questions Litore offers here when writing my next book." - Angela Mitchell, author of Falada and Dancing Days "Stant Litore does an excellent job bringing structure and order to the art of world-building. His book makes the craft easy to understand and is filled with information for beginners and veterans alike." - Milton Davis, author of Changa's Safari "Stant Litore is a wonderful storyteller with a knack for creating nuanced characters and equally nuanced worlds. And this book delivers on its title: it offers a great glimpse at how to write worlds your readers won't forget." - James A. Hunter, author of the Yancy Lazarus series and Viridian Gate Online
Download or read book Write Characters Your Readers Won t Forget written by Stant Litore and published by . This book was released on 2015-04-02 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I just don't care enough about your character." "Write Characters Your Readers Won't Forget" is a toolkit for addressing that issue. Packed with 30 exercises, abundant examples, and practical strategies, this guidebook will help you write unforgettable characters who "come alive" on the page, create compelling dialogue, and chart a more breathtaking emotional journeys for your characters. Stant Litore is the author of "The Ansible Stories, The Zombie Bible, The Running of the Tyrannosaurs, " and "Dante's Heart." Best known for his weird fiction, alternate history, and scifi, he has taught frequent courses for writers across the genres and has served as a developmental editor for Westmarch Publishing. His own fiction has been acclaimed by NPR, has served as the subject of scholarly work in "Relegere" and "Weird Fiction Review, " and he has been hailed as "SF's premier poet of loneliness." He lives in Colorado with his wife and two daughters, and is working on his next book.
Download or read book Write Stories Your Readers Won t Forget written by Stant Litore and published by Westmarch Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-18 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Write the story you've always wanted to write. Stant Litore's third toolkit for writers will empower you to sharpen your story's thematic intensity. Theme is your answer to the question, Why does this story matter? Why does this story matter to each of your characters, and why does it matter to you? Why this story? What hold does it have on your heart? If you find the most compelling answer to that question - and then write that answer into every scene in your book - you'll have a story that will matter to readers, too. This toolkit provides a sequence of 30 story-building exercises plus guidelines on how to craft a thematic outline for your story and use it as a potent tool for revision. In these pages, explore how character, theme, and plot interact; how what matters most in your story gets expressed through each character's unique voice and gets performed dramatically through your plot; and discover how a mastery of theme can help you establish a powerful threshold text to begin your story, solve "the saggy middle," and deliver a denouement that your readers will never forget. Advance Review "Learning to write fiction that moves readers is a lifelong pursuit, but successful writers often struggle with showing others how they do it. For that, you need a good teacher. Stant Litore is an extraordinary teacher, and in Write Stories Your Readers Won't Forget he shares what he knows in clear, practical and profound chapters. Packed with insight, examples, and exercises, Stant's book will cut years off your learning curve." - James Van Pelt, author of Pandora's Gun Reviews for Stant Litore's Other Toolkits for Emerging Writers "Not only is the advice great, but there's a warmth to the chapters that makes writing inviting rather than intimidating." - Todd Mitchell, author of The Traitor King and The Last Panther "There are other worldbuilding books out there; this is the one you want." - Travis Heerman, author of the Ronin trilogy "A master class: Litore has created an accessible, comprehensive approach." - S.G. Redling, author of Flowertown and Damocles "This is a clear, comprehensive, and beautifully written guide that will not only help emerging writers to find their voices and build imaginative worlds and characters, but one that will also prove invaluable to experienced writers seeking to spark their creative impulses or deepen the worlds they create." - Angela Mitchell, author of Falada and Dancing Days
Download or read book Dante s Heart written by Stant Litore and published by Westmarch Publishing. This book was released on 2018-05-18 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One day, homo sapiens will burn half the universe—and after, our descendants will cross billions of light years to atone and forget. In the pages of Dante's Heart, join Mara the naiad, the monster-hunter Dante, Fang Yu the cyborg knight and her lover Siwatu the necromancer, and Azar Almasi the intergalactic geneticist (and deity) as they search the universe for the secret of violence. From a foot-trek through forests made of glass, to the pools where the tadpoles of dragons are born, from alien planetscapes to pitched battles in the silent dark between the stars, who will survive humanity's last pilgrimage? This lavish, full-color edition includes 20 illustrations and 9 sketches by artists Roberto Calas, Chaz Kemp, and Frankie Serna. EARLY REVIEWS FOR DANTE'S HEART "Dante's Heart is like Clive Barker, Octavio Paz, and Dante Alighieri are playing D&D together. Lush stuff and more imaginative than most fantasy fare." - Marc McDermott "Dante's Heart isn't as much a story as it is an epic poem. Visually and emotionally evocative, it seems to be this gifted author’s heartfelt rumination on pain, loss, and the human propensity toward violence. To read it is to step through an oil painting into another world. But beware: Once there, you may have trouble finding your way back out. Not that you'll necessarily want to, because Dante's Heart is both terrifyingly and achingly beautiful." – Michael Whiteman Jones REVIEWS FOR STANT LITORE'S PREVIOUS FICTION "Heartbreaking and wonderful." – Conflictium "I find myself riveted to Stant's prose, not only because I'm eager to find out the characters' fate but because his words are so beautiful. The story has stayed with me days after reading it. I highly recommend." – Denise Grover Swank, author of The Curse Keepers "To say I loved this book would be an understatement. I could not put it down." – The Seattle Post-Intelligencer "Stant Litore may be SF's premier poet of loneliness." – Jason Kirk, author of Reverb and The Other Whites in South Africa "Litore's stories aren't only entertaining. They are stories invading our lives, unexpectedly. You encounter them, as you might encounter people. They are those random elements in life that happen to you, like a mugging, like childbirth, like falling in love and marriage, like death and the funeral that follows. They are moments that leave a mark, and leave you changed." – Andrew Hallam, Ph.D., Metropolitan State University of Denver "Stant eloquently writes passages that are so moving, full of passion, fury, loneliness, blind drive … He takes us to places of amazing beauty, awe-inspiring, as well as places where the implications in the story can leave you almost in despair for the human race." – Nikki Ebright, Director, Shiny Garden
Download or read book Write Magic Systems Your Readers Won t Forget written by Stant Litore and published by Westmarch Publishing. This book was released on 2022-12-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magic is the grammar you build into your fantasy world; spells are the vocabulary. Discover varied possibilities for the design of a magic system for your fictional world-and discover how different magic systems can reveal unexpected opportunities for your story. "Magic always comes at a cost, dearie," Rumpelstiltskin glories in telling the heroines of Once Upon a Time. Like other lectures and handbooks that have addressed the topic of magic systems, Write Magic Systems Your Readers Won't Forget will help you design the costs and constraints that render magic plausible in your imagined world-but we won't stop there. This book will also help you explore possible cultural functions of magic, define the mechanics of how your magic system works, consider the ethical implications of your magic system, and reveal how your choices in creating a magic system can open up exciting opportunities for character development, conflict, plot, and thematic intensity in your novel, script, or game. Diverse examples of how magic has worked in fictions from different cultural traditions plus 30 unique storycrafting exercises will ignite your creativity and empower you to tackle this particular worldbuilding assignment with both playfulness and intentionality. Unlock the magic in your story! Reviews for Stant Litore's Previous Toolkits for Fiction Writers "Not only is the advice great, but there's a warmth to the chapters that makes writing inviting rather than intimidating." - Todd Mitchell, author of The Traitor King and The Last Panther "There are other worldbuilding books out there; this is the one you want." - Travis Heerman, author of the Ronin trilogy "A master class: Litore has created an accessible, comprehensive approach." - S.G. Redling, author of Flowertown and Damocles "This is a clear, comprehensive, and beautifully written guide that will not only help emerging writers to find their voices and build imaginative worlds and characters, but one that will also prove invaluable to experienced writers seeking to spark their creative impulses or deepen the worlds they create." - Angela Mitchell, author of Falada and Dancing Days "Learning to write fiction that moves readers is a lifelong pursuit, but successful writers often struggle with showing others how they do it. For that, you need a good teacher. Stant Litore is an extraordinary teacher, and in Write Stories Your Readers Won't Forget he shares what he knows in clear, practical and profound chapters. Packed with insight, examples, and exercises, Stant's book will cut years off your learning curve." - James Van Pelt, author of Pandora's Gun
Download or read book The Last Panther written by Todd Mitchell and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For animal lovers and fans of The One and Only Ivan and Hoot, this is the uplifting story of a girl who discovers a family of panthers that were thought to be extinct, and her journey to save the species. Eleven-year-old Kiri has a secret: wild things call to her. More than anyone else, she’s always had a special connection to animals. But when Kiri has an encounter with the last known Florida panther, her life is quickly turned on end. Caught between her conservationist father, who wants to send the panther to a zoo, and the village poachers, who want to sell it to feed their families, Kiri must embark on a journey that will take her deep into the wilderness. There has to be some way to save the panther, and for her dad and the villagers to understand each other. If Kiri can’t figure out what it is, she’ll lose far more than the panthers—she’ll lose the only home she’s ever known, and the only family she has left. 2018 Green Earth Book Award Honor 2018 Colorado Book Award Winner CAL Book Award Winner Green Prize for Sustainable Literature Award Winner A Bank Street "Best Children's Book of the Year" A National Geographic Giant Traveling Map of Florida Selection "A powerful tale of a future to be avoided." —Kirkus Reviews "An eerie cautionary tale about the dangers of not protecting the environment, tackles an important theme in a compelling way...a fantastical tale with roots in real-world issues." —Booklist "Earnest, heartfelt, and passionate, this book will likely inspire new environmentalists." —Bulletin "A boldly original, profoundly wise, deeply moving book. It’s a rare gift to any reader, as well as to our planet.” —T. A. Barron, best-selling author of the Merlin Saga
Download or read book Poisoned Blade written by Kate Elliott and published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2016-08-16 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this thrilling sequel to World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott's bestselling young adult debut Court of Fives, a girl immersed in a high-stakes competition holds the fate of a kingdom in her hands. Jessamy is moving up the ranks of the Fives--the complex athletic contest favored by the lowliest Commoners and the loftiest Patrons in her embattled kingdom. Pitted against far more formidable adversaries, success is Jes's only option, as her prize money is essential to keeping her hidden family alive. She leaps at the change to tour the countryside and face more competitors, but then a fatal attack on her traveling party puts Jes at the center of the war that Lord Kalliarkos--the prince she still loves--is fighting against their country's enemies. With a sinister overlord watching her every move and Kal's life on the line, Jes must now become more than a Fives champion....She must become a warrior.
Download or read book The Lamplighters written by Emma Stonex and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-03-16 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Transported me effortlessly…Haunting, harrowing and heartbreaking, this is a novel that will stay with you.” --Ashley Audrain, New York Times bestselling author of The Push “A ghost story and fantastically gripping psychological investigation rolled into one. It is also a pitch-perfect piece of writing. . . . As with Shirley Jackson’s work or Sarah Waters’s masterpiece Affinity, in Stonex’s hands the unspoken, unexamined, unseen world we can call the supernatural, a world fed by repression and lies, becomes terrifyingly tangible.” --The Guardian (London) Inspired by a haunting true story, a gorgeous and atmospheric novel about the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from a remote tower miles from the Cornish coast--and about the wives who were left behind. What strange fate befell these doomed men? The heavy sea whispers their names. Black rocks roll beneath the surface, drowning ghosts. And out of the swell like a finger of light, the salt-scratched tower stands lonely and magnificent. It's New Year's Eve, 1972, when a boat pulls up to the Maiden Rock lighthouse with relief for the keepers. But no one greets them. When the entrance door, locked from the inside, is battered down, rescuers find an empty tower. A table is laid for a meal not eaten. The Principal Keeper's weather log describes a storm raging round the tower, but the skies have been clear. And the clocks have all stopped at 8:45. Two decades later, the keepers' wives are visited by a writer determined to find the truth about the men's disappearance. Moving between the women's stories and the men's last weeks together in the lighthouse, long-held secrets surface and truths twist into lies as we piece together what happened, why, and who to believe. In her riveting and suspenseful novel, Emma Stonex writes a story of isolation and obsession, of reality and illusion, and of what it takes to keep the light burning when all else is swallowed by dark.
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 Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh t written by Steven Pressfield and published by Black Irish Entertainment LLC. This book was released on 2016-06-12 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There's a mantra that real writers know but wannabe writers don’t. And the secret phrase is this: NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T. Recognizing this painful truth is the first step in the writer's transformation from amateur to professional. From Chapter Four: “When you understand that nobody wants to read your shit, you develop empathy. You acquire the skill that is indispensable to all artists and entrepreneurs—the ability to switch back and forth in your imagination from your own point of view as writer/painter/seller to the point of view of your reader/gallery-goer/customer. You learn to ask yourself with every sentence and every phrase: Is this interesting? Is it fun or challenging or inventive? Am I giving the reader enough? Is she bored? Is she following where I want to lead her?
Download or read book Lives of Unforgetting written by Stant Litore and published by . This book was released on 2019-03-25 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient Greek word for "truth" means unconcealing or unforgetting. Yet today many ideas and stories that were once critical to how early Christians understood, practiced, and defended their faith often remain "hidden in plain sight" in our Bibles. These ideas are concealed from us by the distance between languages, between eras, and between cultures-yet they are so worth unconcealing and unforgetting. In this book, discover: The forgotten women who co-founded Christianity Whether the first-century church thought there was a hell What happens when you realize that in Greek, faith is a verb Why gender in the Bible is more complicated than we think Which concepts our modern tradition takes for granted that would have been alien to the original readers (like homophobia) We have also forgotten that to read the Bible is to receive an invitation to adventure-to encounter the impossible, to move mountains, to walk on water. Instead, we have been taught to read the Bible tamely, to make no choices, to risk no questioning of our tradition. What would happen if we took the adventure? If we readers walked out into the wilderness toward God, leaving home far behind? If we stepped out of the boat of our received tradition, out onto the crashing waves? Let's find out.
Download or read book Mother Night written by Kurt Vonnegut and published by Dial Press. This book was released on 2009-08-11 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer . . . a zany but moral mad scientist.”—Time Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all. “A great artist.”—Cincinnati Enquirer “A shaking up in the kaleidoscope of laughter . . . Reading Vonnegut is addictive!”—Commonweal
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 Politics and the English Language written by George Orwell and published by Renard Press Ltd. This book was released on 2021-01-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Politics and the English Language, the second in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell takes aim at the language used in politics, which, he says, ‘is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind’. In an age where the language used in politics is constantly under the microscope, Orwell’s Politics and the English Language is just as relevant today, and gives the reader a vital understanding of the tactics at play. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times
Download or read book Lest We Forget written by Stephen Liddell and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-07-09 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The First World War was a catastrophe that engulfed not just the continent, but the rest of the world as well. It cost millions of lives, and changed the course of the century. 'Lest We Forget' provides an accessible overview of that titanic struggle, which was the foundation for the modern world and modern Britain, covering both life in the trenches and also life on the Home Front. It draws out the key events and themes that occurred throughout the conflict. The book provides both narrative and argument and will appeal to military historians and also students and soldiers interested in the Great War. It is split into 28 easy to read sections, including the following: The Road to War The Race to the Sea Life in the Trenches War Literature and Poetry The Battle of the Somme The War at Sea The Home Front Women and the War War in the Air Gallipoli The War around the World The Russian Revolution Armistice Stephen Liddell is a writer and historian and when not writing runs Ye Olde England Tours. He writes regularly for various publications as well as his own website www.stephenliddell.co.uk. His other works include 'Planes, Trains and Sinking Boats', 'How to Get Rich Using Airbnb', as well as the historical fiction trilogy 'The Promise', 'The Messenger' and 'Forever and Until'.
Download or read book Collaborative Worldbuilding for Video Games written by Kaitlin Tremblay and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2023-03-08 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a theoretical and practical deep dive into the craft of worldbuilding for video games, with an explicit focus on how different job disciplines contribute to worldbuilding. In addition to providing lenses for recognizing the various components in creating fictional and digital worlds, the author positions worldbuilding as a reciprocal and dynamic process, a process which acknowledges that worldbuilding is both created by and instrumental in the design of narrative, gameplay, art, audio, and more. Collaborative Worldbuilding for Video Games encourages mutual respect and collaboration among teams and provides game writers and narrative designers tools for effectively incorporating other job roles into their own worldbuilding practice and vice versa. Features: Provides in-depth exploration of worldbuilding via respective job disciplines Deep dives and case studies into a variety of games, both AAA and indie Includes boxed articles for deeper interrogation and exploration of key ideas Contains templates and checklists for practical tips on worldbuilding
Download or read book Mrs Dalloway written by Virginia Woolf and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-12-16 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf's fourth novel, offers the reader an impression of a single June day in London in 1923. Clarissa Dalloway, the wife of a Conservative member of parliament, is preparing to give an evening party, while the shell-shocked Septimus Warren Smith hears the birds in Regent's Park chattering in Greek. There seems to be nothing, except perhaps London, to link Clarissa and Septimus. She is middle-aged and prosperous, with a sheltered happy life behind her; Smith is young, poor, and driven to hatred of himself and the whole human race. Yet both share a terror of existence, and sense the pull of death. The world of Mrs Dalloway is evoked in Woolf's famous stream of consciousness style, in a lyrical and haunting language which has made this, from its publication in 1925, one of her most popular novels.
