Creative writing Books

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Book SynopsisYou''ve just boarded a plane. You''ve loaded your phone with your favorite podcasts, but before you can pop in your earbuds, disaster strikes: The guy in the next seat starts telling you all about something crazy that happened to him--in great detail. This is the unwelcome storyteller, trying to convince a reluctant audience to care about his story. We all hate that guy, right? But when you tell a story (any kind of story: a novel, a memoir, a screenplay, a stage play, a comic, or even a cover letter), you become the unwelcome storyteller. So how can you write a story that audiences will embrace? The answer is simple: Remember what it feels like to be that jaded audience. Tell the story that would win you over, even if you didn''t want to hear it.The Secrets of Story provides comprehensive, audience-focused strategies for becoming a master storyteller. Armed with the Ultimate Story Checklist, you can improve every aspect of your fiction writing with incis

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Book SynopsisÊWorkshopping the New PlayÊ is a guide for playwrights directors dramaturgs and other theater professional and students. The book begins with an overview of the basics of playwriting and goes on to cover all aspects of the new-play workshopping process: selecting a director and/or dramaturg to run the workshop sessions assembling a team of actor/readers and dealing with constructive criticism putting together a staged reading of one''s work structuring a successful talkback and properly and professionally submitting one''s work to theaters. Throughout the book are essays by well-known theater professionals: playwrights teachers dramaturgs an artistic director a spoken word performer and workshopping experts. The book is written in a friendly nonacademic style but should be valuable for educators as well as practitioners of theater.

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Book SynopsisPoetry: A Survivor's Guide has earned high praise from students, teachers, and readers from around the globe for its playful sincerity and idiosyncratic humor and for its approach to a subject both loved and feared. Updated and expanded, including six new sections, the second edition probes a range of strategies for inspiring students and aspiring poets on the ways poetry relates to their own lives. These include the delights and pitfalls of individual meditation, the complications of identity and appropriation, and the uses and utility of poetry as a tool of social change.The second edition also includes a curated companion website for teachers, students, and aspiring poets that features poetry examples, writing prompts and exercises, and resources for publishing poetry. Online resources to accompany this book are available at:https://bloomsbury.pub/poetry-a-survivors-guide-2e.Trade ReviewA companionable and enriching book for readers and writers of poetry alike. Diverse in scope and fresh in its perspective, Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide is an essential resource. * Isabel Galleymore, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of Birmingham, UK *Mark Yakich’s Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide is more than a guide, it’s a heart’s hornbook for all of us who occasionally look at a poem and see nothing but alphabet soup. Ranging freely from topics like “Culture Jamming” to “Ineffability” to “Procrastination,” Yakich brings us closer to the mysteries of art in entries of dazzling intimacy and intelligence. You will find cartoons here, and logos, and recipes, and illusions—and then, when you put down Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide and pick up a poem to read, you’ll find all those things there, too. If you’re a poet, this book will remind you of the reasons why you fell in love with the art in the first place. If you’re a reader falling in love with the art in the first place, it might just make you a poet. * Srikanth Reddy, Professor of English, University of Chicago, USA, and author of Underworld Lit *Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide is a brilliantly provocative, witty and illuminating book about poetry in its many guises. It is both an homage to poetry and a reveille for its reanimation. In a series of superb vignettes – everything from 'Reader’s Block' to 'Culture Jamming' and 'Procrastination' – Mark Yakich offers sage advice and in doing so, bursts the urban myths about poetry wide open. This book will turn on its head everything you have ever thought about poetry, it will empower and entertain you and, most importantly, it will change the way you think about poetry. * Cassandra Atherton, Professor of Literary Studies and Professional & Creative Writing, Deakin University, Australia *Yakich’s irreverent style, conversational tone, and quirky illustrations make for a guide that will be both instructive and entertaining for anyone interested in learning more about reading and writing poetry. * Publishers Weekly [on the first edition] *Surviving the "poetry bug" isn’t always easy and can sometimes feel very lonely. But, Yakich’s (English, Loyola Univ. New Orleans; A Meaning for Wife) handy guide could be the help lonely and not-so-lonely poets need. It presses tenets, techniques, and propositions about poetry in a gentle and reassuring way. Filled with clear examples and helpful tips, ostensibly this is a book for people who are interested in the making of poetry, but that could be writers as much as readers. ...Yakich is never pedantic or overly intellectual, writing instead in an informal voice that tends to feel more like a friendly discussion at the watercooler than a college lecture. ...[It] is cheerfully written and kindly meant. * Library Journal [on the first edition] *Yakich (Loyola Univ., New Orleans) has written an excellent textbook for any poetry classroom. Aimed at readers and writers of poetry, as well as those who are not comfortable with the genre, the book is full of humorous anecdotes and suggestions for how to enjoy poems and how to write them. The engaging writing is that of a poet, and the author speaks with an informal authority. He breaks down poetry by author, style, and theme and encourages even the most dubious to tackle poetry. A quick and easy read, the book offers suggestions in short bursts, one after the next. Wry and entertaining, the book appears superficially simplistic but clearly has layers of thought put into it. Good for reading for enjoyment or to inspire and educate. The book will also appeal to poets who struggle with writer's block or just want an entertaining read on a topic they love. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; general readers; professionals. * CHOICE [on the first edition] *Irreverent and often profound pronouncements define Mark Yakich’s Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide, which seeks to bridge the gap between those haughty academic treatises on verse (such as Ezra Pound’s ABC of Reading) and those quaint, but ultimately limited, workbooks brimming with writing exercises ... A light yet bountiful read, Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide offers concise, practical advice for those who yearn to hone their craft and deepen their appreciation for poetry’s strange majesty ... In his best moments, Yakich captures a genuine excitement for artistic possibility while remaining ever mindful of the practical demands we must confront with the world’s oldest art form ... Poetry: A Surivor’s Guide succeeds due to its sincere, idiosyncratic counsel for those embarking on their poetic journey. Though the field of creative writing suffers from no shortage of craft books, few offer readers a study so accessible, engaging, and comprehensive. * Plume [on the first edition] *This is a funny, brash, sweet, in-your-face, humble, questioning, advice-dispensing, and utterly smart-as-hell book. Everything you ever wanted (or didn’t know you wanted) to know about “surviving” the reading or writing of a poem, or being a poet, or maybe even what it feels like to be a poem is in this “guide.” With a light touch, Yakich fills these pages with stories, ruminations, and wisdom backed by years of reading, writing, and teaching poetry. His discussions of poems and poets range across time periods and aesthetics and he covers a wide-range of topics, with everything from heavy-hitters like image and metaphor to less frequent comers like spirituality and how not to fear literary critics. This book is indeed a guide, but not ultimately for how to “survive” poems so much as how to revel in them—not despite but because of their ambiguity, their strangeness, their lack of value (and the opposite), and for the chance they offer us to “play.” Dedicated to Yakich’s students, Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide is for anyone who continues, for whatever ineffable reasons, to travel with poems in our pockets. * Shara McCallum, Director of the Stadler Center for Poetry, Bucknell University, USA, and author of The Face of Water: New & Selected Poems [on the first edition] *When we lose our connection to language, we lose our connection to ourselves. This book will teach you how to make sense of any poem. But, more importantly, how to make sense of the amazing and baffling world around us. Funny, inventive, perceptive, astute, accessible, affable, compassionate; Yakich is the perfect tour guide for a trip into, through, and around poetry. You will survive, and be stronger, more creative, and less alone after the adventure. * Priscila Uppal, Poet, Novelist, and Professor of English, York University, Canada [on the first edition] *In a market glutted with conventional poetry primers, it's quite a relief to discover the wide-ranging candor of Mark Yakich. Playful, soulful, sardonic, this is the kind of survivalist manual you'll want to cozy up to in bed. * Timothy Liu, author of poetry collections including Of Thee I Sing and Bending the Mind Around the Dream’s Blown Fuse [on the first edition] *Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide is filled with helpful advice, anecdotes, examples—and humor. Yakich takes his subject seriously (he does, after all, make a living writing and teaching it), but he also sees the fun in it. Poetry is part of life, in all its glorious wonder, awe, joy, tragedy, and ridiculousness, and Yakich would say that’s how we should read it and write it. * Tweetspeak Poetry [on the first edition] *Reading this survivor’s guide will make you feel why you fell in love with the poem. Not only will it remind you why you fell in love, Yakich’s smart, playful, humble and sometimes brash words towards the poetry will make you realize (hopefully you already knew) the importance of the art in your life, others, and the social setting. * Elijah Tubbs, [r] blog [on the first edition] *Divided into two main sections: Reading and Writing, this ‘survivor’s guide’ touches on everything from sections on poetry basics like enjambment and rhythm, to ‘reader’s block’ and advice on applying to MFA programs and submitting to literary magazines. It includes bits of guidance (‘Close study of how a line ends and moves into the next is as good as any entry point in examining a poem’) to moments of reassurance (‘There’s no need to finish reading an epic poem you only got halfway through. Its purpose was to be read halfway’). * Taylor Murrow, Room 220 (“Bringing poetry down from a pedestal: an interview with Mark Yakich”) [on the first edition] *Table of ContentsWarning Introduction Part I. Reading Essentials Poetic Aims Accessibility Biography Close Reading Emotion Pattern and Variation Ineffability Sound Work Rhythm Enjambment The Line The Lyric Metaphor Ambiguity Dickinson Classics Myths Appropriation Great Books Whitman Imagery Roses Prose Poetry Narrative Criticism and Theory Pessoa Political Poetry Aesthetics Reader Response Classroom Reading Poetry Readings Reader’s Block Spirituality Flight Part 2. Writing First Principles Form Sonnet Identity Self-Expression Memory Sublimation Imitation Avant-Garde Translation Technique The Creative Writing Classroom The Workshop Peer Review Revision Poet-Teachers Professionalization Master of Fine Arts Literary Magazines Publication Series, Sequence Chapbook, Manuscript Collections Book Reviews Writing Conferences Culture Jamming Poetic Practices Moods Depression Meditation Procrastination End Notes Epilogue Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisPaperback Original

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Book SynopsisIncludes 300 "quickwrites", 202 story starters, 141 writing forms, a trait-based writing guide, and more!

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Book SynopsisIn this wickedly humorous manual, language columnist June Casagrande uses grammar and syntax to show exactly what makes some sentences great—and other sentences suck.Great writing isn’t born, it’s built—sentence by sentence. But too many writers—and writing guides—overlook this most important unit. The result? Manuscripts that will never be published and writing careers that will never begin.   With chapters on “Conjunctions That Kill” and “Words Gone Wild,” this lighthearted guide is perfect for anyone who’s dead serious about writing, from aspiring novelists to nonfiction writers, conscientious students to cheeky literati. So roll up your sleeves and prepare to craft one bold, effective sentence after another. Your readers will thank you.

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Book SynopsisTake 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 competitionThen, 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.

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Book SynopsisCreate Complex CharactersHow do you create a main character readers won''t forget? How do you write a book in multiple-third-person point of view without confusing your readers (or yourself)? How do you plant essential information about a character''s past into a story?Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint by award-winning author Nancy Kress answers all of these questions and more! This accessible book is filled with interactive exercises and valuable advice that teaches you how to:   • Choose and execute the best point of view for your story   • Create three-dimensional and believable characters   • Develop your characters'' emotions   • Create realistic love, fight, and death scenes   • Use frustration to motivate your characters and drive your story With dozens of excerpts from some of today''s most popular writers, Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint provides you with the techniques you need to create characters and stories sure to linger in the hearts and minds of agents, editors, and readers long after they''ve finished your book.

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Book SynopsisDon’t let the daily grind drain your creative energy!You can work full time and still have a productive writing life. Many writers waste time waiting for the day they can finally quit their day jobs and live the so-called writing dream. Don’t wait. You can do both †and your writing will be the better for it.Balancing a full-time job and a productive writing life is no easy feat! This book offers writers advice, skill-building techniques, prompts, and exercises in every chapter, and strategies on how to get and keep writing while also working the 9 to 5 grind.Readers will discover tips and exercises for:   • Setting and protecting personal writing goals   • Creating a schedule that complements their stamina   • Getting creative before and after work - and on their lunch hour   • Finding inspiration in the most unlikely of spots and at the most impromptu of times   • Writing proficiently in multiple forms (long and short) so that they don't get bogged down writing one long project   • Becoming an active participant in writing communities so they have a solid support system at the ready   • Figuring out how (if at all) to share their writing life with co-workers, friends, and family membersYou’ll also get quick, practical tutorials to help you master scenes, point of view, characters, settings, dialogue, and more.Writer With a Day Job gives you the strategies and motivation you need to work 40 hours a week (or more!) and achieve writing success.

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Book SynopsisThe ultimate guide to reading and writing fiction, with useful creative exercises and fascinating analyses of great plots—from Plato and Tolstoy to The Matrix and Toy Story. The bestselling author of The End of Mr. Y shows you how to unlock any narrative and create your own.   Filled with creative exercises, structures, and charts, this creative writing manual breaks down the fiction writing process and demonstrates that everyone has material to write about—whether they believe it or not. Have you ever had your heart broken, or broken someone else’s heart? Have you ever won an argument but later realized you were wrong? Have you ever tripped in public or spilled wine on someone else’s carpet? Monkeys with Typewriters is an ode to the secret power of stories, and a guide to cracking those powers open. As a bestselling author, Thomas may appear as a naturally gifted writer. However, for Thomas, fiction unlocked itself only once she recognized the importance of an author’s individual experience and one’s willingness to ask questions, not simply provide solutions. She deems the communication of one’s humanity as the key to making a piece relatable, and Thomas does nothing less in her own work.   With startling and original insights into how we construct stories, Monkeys with Typewriters is a creative writing book like no other. It will show you how to not only write, but also to a finer degree, how to read.

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Book SynopsisTeaching and learning MLA style is about to get easier.For nearly seventy years, the Modern Language Association has helped student writers choose trustworthy sources and use them to support their own ideas. Now, the authority on writing and research presents the clearest approach to MLA style yet with the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook. The ninth edition works as both a textbook and a reference guide. Focusing on source evaluation, it features a wealth of visual examples and updated advice on punctuation and grammar, footnotes and endnotes, annotated bibliographies, and paper formatting.An all-in-one resource that makes MLA style easier to learn and use, the MLA Handbook includes• Expanded, in-depth guidance on creating works-cited-list entries using the MLA template of core elements that explains what each core element is, where to find it in various sources, and how to style it• A new, easy-to-follow explanation of in-text citations• A new chapter containing recommendations for using inclusive language• A new appendix with hundreds of sample works-cited-list entries by publication format, including books, databases, websites, YouTube videos, interviews, and more• Updated guidelines on avoiding plagiarismAlthough there are numerous websites, apps, reference works, and cheat sheets that claim to help with MLA style, there’s only one truly authoritative resource to help your students on their paths to becoming better writers. The ninth edition of the MLA Handbook is the most comprehensive guide the MLA has ever produced, with an all-inclusive approach to writing, research, documentation, and formatting.Trade ReviewGeared ... to the needs of today’s students and teachers. ...Essential." - ChoiceTable of Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Formatting Your Research Project 3. Principles of Inclusive Language 4. Documenting Sources: An Overview 5. The List of Works Cited 6. Citing Sources in the Text 7. Notes Appendix 1: Abbreviations Appendix 2: Works-Cited-List Entries by Publication Format Appendix Contents Work-Cited-List Entries Index

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Book SynopsisBreak through writer''s block using your five senses!The sensory details that infuse our everyday experience—the smell of a favorite dish cooking, the texture of a well-worn coat, hearing a song that reminds you of a person or a time in your life—can be used to add richness and spark to what we write. Whether you are a professional writer (or want to be one) or someone who enjoys just writing for your own personal fulfillment, Writing from the Senses will show you how to tap into an endless source of engaging material, using your senses as prompts. The exercises will stimulate you to develop stories, imagery, and details that will allow readers to see, taste, hear, smell, and feel that they''re in the scene.Writing from the Senses•Provides 60 prompts and creative writing exercises organized by sense; •Presents engaging narratives, personal essays, and instruction to entertain and inform readers and illustrate the effectiveness of each exercise;•Helps writers recognize the sensory prompts that surround them daily and use them to trigger their individual stories; and•Shows how freewrites from the prompts in this book can result in publishable pieces.

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