Creative Writing

In The Geography of Genius, acclaimed travel writer Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. He explores the history of places, like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley, to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity.

This is an excerpt from the book Creative Writing Career: Becoming a Writer of Movies, Video Games, and Books. This section comprises the entire section on video game writing, to include video game writer interviews, and is Part Five of the book.

This is an excerpt from the book Creative Writing Career: Becoming a Writer of Movies, Video Games, and Books. This section comprises the entire section on screenwriting, including screenwriter interviews, and is part four of the book.

Things are scary right now. We’re all being swept along by a tidal wave of history, and it’s easy to feel helpless. But we’re not helpless: We have minds, and imaginations, and the ability to visualize other worlds and valiant struggles. And writing can be an act of resistance that reminds us that other futures and other ways of living are possible. Full of memoir, personal anecdote, and insight about how to flourish during the present emergency, Never Say You Can’t Survive is the perfect manual for creativity in unprecedented times.

Writing fact-based nonfiction for large general audiences requires two different skills: the ability to conduct rigorous research and to craft engaging prose. Tilar J. Mazzeo is one of the few people with extensive experience in both arenas, as a tenured academic and a New York Times best-selling author whose books have been made into a major motion picture and translated into more than 15 languages. She is also a sought-after writing coach with a passion for helping others communicate their expertise more broadly.

In this audiobook, you'll discover tips on how to prepare yourself for writing classes and workshops, as well as tools to help you settle in as a full-time or part-time university student. By the time you finish this book, you will know if you’re ready to pursue higher education in writing and how to successfully complete your degree.

For 50 years, writers at every stage of their careers have turned to the literary nonprofit organization Poets & Writers and its award-winning magazine for resources to foster their professional development, from writing prompts and tips on technique to informative interviews with published authors, literary agents, and editors. But never before has Poets & Writers marshalled its 50 years’ worth of knowledge to create an authoritative guide for writers that answers every imaginable question about craft and career - until now.

A guide should give clear directions and then get out of your way. In this unique collaboration that bridges two generations, best-selling author Dan Millman and his co-author (and daughter) Sierra Prasada help orient you as you make your own way through five universal stages of creativity: Dream, Draft, Develop, Refine, and Share.

Like a seasoned sportscaster, Fish marvels at the adeptness of finely crafted sentences and breaks them down into digestible morsels, giving listeners an instant play-by-play. Drawing on a wide range of great writers, from Philip Roth to Antonin Scalia to Jane Austen, How to Write a Sentence is much more than a writing manual—it is a spirited love letter to the written word, and a key to understanding how great writing works. It is a book that will stand the test of time.

Have you ever wanted to captivate readers with a great opening, create fantastical creatures, realize a dastardly villain, or make your characters leap off the page? If you answered yes to any of these questions, Gail Carson Levine can help you achieve your goals. This companion to the popular Writing Magic teaches you how to become a world-class author. Drawing from her popular blog, the Newbery Honor author answers readers' questions and dives into how to make a story come alive.

This book will increase your child's word power, and you may learn something, too. A love of language is such an important skill, and this book explains the important of picking the right words and broadening your vocabulary with lots of examples. Learn the origins of the words gobbledygook and bop. Learn about compound words, metaphors, riddles, and even creating your own words. You'll also pick up some obscure words along the way from absquatulate to tintinnabulation and learn how lots of different words can describe similar activities.

Discover insightful guidance, tools and techniques to become a skilled writer and learn how to share your work with the world. Studies have shown it takes just 21 days to establish a new habit. If there's a skill you've always wanted to take advantage of, the answer is only a few weeks away with Hay House’s 21 Days series.

Everyone wants to be a writer, and they want to know what they can do to make that dream come true. However, most aspiring writers do not understand how to position themselves so they are ready when presented with an opportunity. They identify themselves as writers but have no writing samples, or their websites and social media talk all about their paintings or music but say nothing of who they are as writers.

This is an excerpt from the Military Veterans in Creative Careers book. It includes only the sections on writing books and screenwriting.

After a decade of teaching writing using the same methods he'd experienced as a student many years before, writer, editor, and educator John Warner realized he could do better. Drawing on his classroom experience and the most persuasive research in contemporary composition studies, he devised an innovative new framework: a step-by-step method that moves the student through a series of writing problems, an organic, bottom-up writing process that exposes and acculturates them to the ways writers work in the world.

In this sequel to Creative Writing Career: Becoming a Writer of Movies, Video Games, and Books, Stephan and Justin continue to bring you industry advice as well as interviews with screenwriters, video game writers, and authors of books and comics. These writers' credits include such amazing titles as: Big Fish; Batman; Game of Thrones; The Crow; Divergent; Brave; Yesterday's Gone; Sandman Slim; Jurassic World; and many more!

Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience and her bestselling Substack newsletter, For Dear Life, Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection, and hope. Each element is explored through short, inspiring, and craft-focused essays, followed by generative writing prompts. Dear Writer provides tools that artists of all experience levels can apply to their own creative practices and carry with them into all genres and all areas of life.

Compelling characters are what keeps readers turning pages and buying books—from fantasies to mysteries to the great literary novel. But how to do you create characters that feel three-dimensional and real on the page? Counsellor and author Eileen Cook shares common psychological techniques to help you build your characters and take your story to the next level. This book covers understanding your character's backstory and how it impacts their choices in your book by doing a structured counselling interview, personality structure, and the Stages of Change.

As the author of 24 novels, Elizabeth George is one of the most successful - and prolific - novelists today. In Mastering the Process, George offers listeners a master class in the art and science of crafting a novel. This is a subject she knows well, having taught creative writing both nationally and internationally for over 30 years. Drawing from her personal photos, early notes, character analyses, and rough drafts, George shows us every stage of how she wrote her novel Careless in Red.

The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop is a call to create healthy, sustainable, and empowering classroom communities. Award-winning educator Felicia Rose Chavez exposes the invisible politics of power and privilege that have silenced writers of color for far too long. It's more urgent than ever that we consciously work against traditions of dominance in the classroom, but what specific actions can we take to achieve authentically inclusive communities? The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop is a clear, compelling guidebook on a necessary step forward.