A lively and comprehensive guide on the importance of structuring your plot with in-depth looks at different techniques and lots of practical advice, including at least one writing exercise in each chapter on topics such as building tension, staging drama, identifying and rectifying structural issues and internal and external plot journeys. So if you're struggling with structure or grappling with your plot points, this up-to-date and informative book is a terrific aid for both emerging and established writers alike.
In a luminous memoir of a life richly lived, one of America’s finest writers explores the themes that have shaped his life and work: the glories of the natural world, the lure of working for a circus and fighting forest fires, the afflictions of temporary blindness and blocked speech, and the enduring influence of literary friendships, including John Berryman’s, Edward Abbey’s, and his mentor, Archibald MacLeish. From his childhood in rural Connecticut to some of the earth’s last remaining wildernesses, Hoagland has traveled the world wielding his unusual gift for observation. In Compass Points he delivers an honest and lively accounting of his voyages through two marriages; the New York parties he attended as a precocious young writer; Vermont hippiedom and academia; his many vivid sojourns into Europe, Alaska, British Columbia, the Sudan; and, perhaps most unforgettably, his stint in the “Animal Department” of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus fifty years ago. Leavened with Hoagland’s trademark humor and insight, Compass Points is an entertaining and moving account of the days and nights of one of our most eminent literary voices.
In the year 2513, the only thing higher than the seas is what’s at stake for those who sail them. Rose was born facing due north, with an inherent perception of cardinal points flowing through her veins. Her uncanny sense of direction earns her a coveted place among the Archipelago Fleet elite, but it also attracts the attention of Admiral Comita, who sends her on a secret mission deep into pirate territory. Accompanied by a ragtag crew of mercenaries and under the command of Miranda, a captain as bloodthirsty as she is alluring, Rose discovers the hard way that even the best sense of direction won’t be enough to keep her alive if she can’t learn to navigate something far more dangerous than the turbulent seas. Aboard the mercenary ship, Man o’ War, Rose learns quickly that trusting the wrong person can get you killed—and Miranda’s crew have no intention of making things easy for her—especially Miranda’s trusted first mate, Orca, who is as stubborn as she is brutal.
REFRAME YOUR STORY, RECLAIM YOUR LIFE Every day we relate stories about our highs and lows, relationships and jobs, heartaches and joys. But do we ever consider the choices we make about how to tell our story? In this groundbreaking book, Kim Schneiderman shows us that by choosing a version that values life lessons and meaningful personal victories we can redirect our energy and narrative toward our desires and goals. It presents character development workouts and life-affirming, liberating exercises for retelling our stories to find redemptive silver linings and reshape our lives. As both a therapist and a writer, Schneiderman knows the power of story. By employing the storytelling techniques she offers, you’ll learn to view your life as a work in progress and understand big-picture story lines in ways that allow you to easily steer your actions and relationships toward redefined — and realistic — “happy endings.”
The horror novel has often been looked upon as the poor relation in the literary world, and yet some of our greatest writers have published novels under its banner. Horror writer (Whittlewood and The Wild Horseman) and former Gothic Society member, Suzanne Ruthven brings us a step-by-step guide to writing horror fiction. ,
This fast-paced graphic novel, set in New York City in 1860, follows twins Alexander and Cleo and their adventures at sea, from the same team who created the Eisner Award-winner Salt Magic.
A one-stop refresher course in editing fiction, suitable for both new writers and more experienced ones. When to edit, how to edit, why to edit – and when not to edit. The different stages of editing. Checklists, examples, and advice from other writers, editors, competition judges and a literary agent.
Writers seeking to create novels and screenplays with genuine layers and depth will find essential insight in Mitchell German’s Your Storytelling Potential! After studying filmmaking and screenwriting at NYU—one of the premier film studies programs in the United States (if not the world)—Mitchell German graduated with a complete doctrine on storytelling theory in his arsenal; yet his screenplays still lacked the potency he desired. He spent ten years studying every available book and “expert” on storytelling, but it wasn’t until 2002, after endlessly studying the movie Liar Liar, that Mitchell found the key and developed the Your Storytelling Potential Method. The truth about great storytelling is hidden in plain view for anyone to see, but nearly every expert ignores the most basic story construct. In Your Storytelling Potential, writers who seek to tell great stories will find: A complete understanding of the Identifiable Traits great novels and screenplays (namely movies) have that distinguish them from the other 99.99% of books and screenplays written every year How to use Two Stories within a screenplay and novel, which exponentially increases the chances of those stories gaining buzz and attention A proper understanding of the critical and essential role of Subplots to create genuine character depth and relationships How to properly integrate a Theme for stories to convey deep, relevant, and amazing ideas An outline for utilizing A/B Parallel Story Structure and the Simple Story Timeline to build multi-dimensional stories with the required converging events of the A-Story/B-Story relationship How the premise of every great story is created by the convergence of the A & B Storylines, and how this Key Information can unlock Your Storytelling Potential
Paolo Gallo offers a unique pathway toward identifying the right career, finding the ideal job and developing a moral compass – the solid value system that will then anchor the reader in their professional lives. With a creative and engaging mix of coaching practice, management theories, case studies and personal story-telling, this book helps readers to identify both their own compass – which relates to integrity, passion and internal value systems – and radar – which helps them to understand organizational complexity and 'read' workplace dynamics and situations. The Compass and the Radar is founded on a series of searching questions that will enable anyone to find their compass and radar to achieve personal success: · How can I find out what my real strengths and talents are? · Do I love what I do? · How can I find a job with a company that truly reflects my values? · What is the price I am willing to pay for a meaningful and rewarding career? · How should I define a successful career? Key chapters offer practical tools, as well as insights on the trade-offs and difficult choices that everyone will need to make at some point in their career – all of which will underline the importance of having the most robust moral compass. In the midst of a volatile and uncertain world, one in which technology, AI and digital resources are transforming working environments, The Compass and the Radar allows readers to pause, reflect, and consider who they are, what they stand for, and how to remain free.
"Your Mindful Compass" takes us behind the emotional curtain to see the mechanisms regulating individuals in social systems. There is great comfort and wisdom in knowing we can increase our awareness to manage the swift and ancient mechanisms of social control. We can gain greater flexibility by seeing how social controls work in systems from ants to humans. To be less controlled by others, we learn how emotional systems influence our relationship-oriented brain. People want to know what goes on in families that give rise to amazing leaders and/or terrorists. For the first time in history we can understand the systems in which we live. The social sciences have been accumulating knowledge since the early fifties as to how we are regulated by others. S. Milgram, S. Ashe, P. Zimbardo and J. Calhoun, detail the vulnerability to being duped and deceived and the difficulty of cooperating when values differ. Murray Bowen, M.D., the first researcher to observe several live-in families, for up to three years, at the National Institute of Mental Health. Describing how family members overly influence one another and distribute stress unevenly, Bowen described both how symptoms and family leaders emerge in highly stressed families. Our brain is not organized to automatically perceive that each family has an emotional system, fine-tuned by evolution and "valuing" its survival as a whole, as much as the survival of any individual. It is easier to see this emotional system function in ants or mice but not in humans. The emotional system is organized to snooker us humans: encouraging us to take sides, run away from others, to pressure others, to get sick, to blame others, and to have great difficulty in seeing our part in problems. It is hard to see that we become anxious, stressed out and even that we are difficult to deal with. But "thinking systems" can open the doors of perception, allowing us to experience the world in a different way. This book offers both coaching ideas and stories from leaders as to strategies to break out from social control by de-triangling, using paradoxes, reversals and other types of interruptions of highly linked emotional processes. Time is needed to think clearly about the automatic nature of the two against one triangle. Time and experience is required as we learn strategies to put two people together and get self outside the control of the system. In addition, it takes time to clarify and define one's principles, to know what "I" will or will not do and to be able to take a stand with others with whom we are very involved. The good news is that systems' thinking is possible for anyone. It is always possible for an individual to understand feelings and to integrate them with their more rational brains. In so doing, an individual increases his or her ability to communicate despite misunderstandings or even rejection from important others. The effort involved in creating your Mindful Compass enables us to perceive the relationship system without experiencing it's threats. The four points on the Mindful Compass are: 1) Action for Self, 2) Resistance to Forward Progress, 3) Knowledge of Social Systems and the 4) The Ability to Stand Alone. Each gives us a view of the process one enters when making an effort to define a self and build an emotional backbone. It is not easy to find our way through the social jungle. The ability to know emotional systems well enough to take a position for self and to become more differentiated is part of the natural way humans cope with pressure. Now people can use available knowledge to build an emotional backbone, by thoughtfully altering their part in the relationship system. No one knows how far one can go by making an effort to be more of a self-defined individual in relationships to others. Through increasing emotional maturity, we can find greater individual freedom at the same time that we increase our ability to cooperate and to be close to others.
