"In this day-by-day guide through the process of outlining and writing the first draft of your novel in 90 days, [the author] will show you: How to structure your novel without losing connection to your voice; Why you are uniquely qualified to write your story; The dilemma at the heart of your story; How your fears are a portal into your characters; The connection between your life themes and story themes; Why you kept getting stuck, and how to break through."--Back cover.

Alan Watt wrote the first draft of his novel, Diamond Dogs in just under 90 days, and six months later sold the North American rights to Little, Brown for half a million dollars in a bidding war. In this day-by-day guide through the process of outlining and writing the first draft of your novel in 90 days, he will show you: How to structure you novel without losing connection to your voice Why you are uniquely qualified to write your story The dilemma at the heart of your story How your fears are a portal into your characters The connection between your life themes and story themes Why you kept getting stuck, and how to break through

The 90-Day Screenplay is a day-by-day guide through the process of outlining, writing, and polishing a screenplay in three months.

Neil Garvin is a seventeen year old living in a small town outside Las Vegas. Abandoned by his mother when he was three, he blames his abusive father - the local sheriff - for driving her away. Neil is good-looking, popular, the quarterback of the high school football team and as cruel to his peers as his father is to him. He plans to get out of town on his "million dollar arm," until the night he accidentally commits a terrible crime and his father, unasked, covers up for him. As the FBI arrives and begins to narrow in, Neil and his father become locked in a confrontation that will break them apart and set them free

Ruth and Peter have been married more than fifty years. He is the headmaster of the Derry School, a boys’ boarding school in Maine; she has spent the four decades of her husband's tenure helping out wherever she is needed. But Peter’s retirement is approaching, and Ruth wonders what will become of them when it finally arrives. How will they survive separated from the school into which they have poured everything, including their savings? As the story takes us back through the years, revealing the explosive spark and joy that brought Ruth and Peter together in their youth, The Last First Day becomes a deeply felt portrait of a woman from a generation that quietly put individual dreams aside for the good of the partnership, and of the ongoing gift of loving and being loved in return.

Chris Baty, motivator extraordinaire and instigator of a wildly successful writing revolution, spells out the secrets of writing—and finishing—a novel. Every fall, thousands of people sign up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which Baty founded, determined to (a) write that novel or (b) finish that novel in—kid you not—30 days. Now Baty puts pen to paper himself to share the secrets of success. With week-specific overviews, pep "talks," and essential survival tips for today's word warriors, this results-oriented, quick-fix strategy is perfect for people who want to nurture their inner artist and then hit print! Anecdotes and success stories from NaNoWriMo winners will inspire writers from the heralding you-can-do-it trumpet blasts of day one to the champagne toasts of day thirty. Whether it's a resource for those taking part in the official NaNo WriMo event, or a stand-alone handbook for writing to come, No Plot? No Problem! is the ultimate guide for would-be writers (or those with writer's block) to cultivate their creative selves.

This concise guide tells you how to write a novel by using a systematic approach to writing. This guide is written by an author not a 'guru'. A simple step by step breakdown of how to plan each day. No fillers and no theory, just the hard facts in a concise guide. There are many guides about writing novels on the market but how many of them are written by prolific published authors? The answer is ‘not many'. How can anyone write a guide unless they have been through the writing process many times before? The simple answer to this question is they can't because they cannot feed on their own actual experiences to help another writer to avoid the mistakes and pitfalls. Most guides regurgitate information which they have picked up from creative writing books or sites. How can they give you advice when they have never sat down and focused on creating a novel which will sell, many times over? Writing a novel is the same as any other task we undertake as individuals. We have to learn how to do it in order to do it well. When you first learn to drive, you need lessons. No one walks into the kitchen and creates a gourmet dish on their first attempt. If you want a system to apply to writing a book, then you need to take advice from an ‘author’ who has taken years to develop the process via experience.

The world’s most trusted guide for leaders in transition Transitions are a critical time for leaders. In fact, most agree that moving into a new role is the biggest challenge a manager will face. While transitions offer a chance to start fresh and make needed changes in an organization, they also place leaders in a position of acute vulnerability. Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize or even derail your success. In this updated and expanded version of the international bestseller The First 90 Days, Michael D. Watkins offers proven strategies for conquering the challenges of transitions—no matter where you are in your career. Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions and adviser to senior leaders in all types of organizations, also addresses today’s increasingly demanding professional landscape, where managers face not only more frequent transitions but also steeper expectations once they step into their new jobs. By walking you through every aspect of the transition scenario, Watkins identifies the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter and provides the tools and strategies you need to avoid them. You’ll learn how to secure critical early wins, an important first step in establishing yourself in your new role. Each chapter also includes checklists, practical tools, and self-assessments to help you assimilate key lessons and apply them to your own situation. Whether you’re starting a new job, being promoted from within, embarking on an overseas assignment, or being tapped as CEO, how you manage your transition will determine whether you succeed or fail. Use this book as your trusted guide.

You already have the power to transform your life. Within the pages of this book is a proven system for making it happen. No more wishing, dreaming, trying and failing at real transformation. Learn and apply the strategies that have helped thousands achieve life, business, and relationship transformations that have them operating at a higher level than they ever dreamed! Stop letting your life unfold before you. Create the life you really want! Achieve the measurable and dramatic increases in performance and profits that have been achieved by the likes of the US Army and Marine Corps, Amgen, AT&T, Microsoft, Intel, Allianz, and Capital One who all applied the strategies you’ll find here. This book distills complex philosophical and linguistic concepts into easy-to-use practices that produce transformational change rapidly and effectively. Move from “knowing” to “competence” through specific thoughts and actions Think more clearly, listen more deeply, speak more powerfully, and act purposefully Face down the most daunting challenges and make consistently powerful choices Develop a simple practice that helps you maintain calm in the midst of any storm life delivers Feel more alive than you have ever felt before. Whether you’re a student just starting out in life or a high-powered executive (or anyone in between), you’ll be amazed by the awakening that occurs with the practice of simple, yet powerful strategies for total transformation. You’ll see things you’ve never seen before. You’ll feel more awake and alive. You’ll be able to focus your energy to release past limitations and enjoy the benefits of being accountable and helping others in your work and life do the same. Warning: Achieving transformation will require you to step outside your comfort zone, but nothing worthwhile happens in that zone anyway. When your commitment to learning trumps your commitment to being afraid, you will learn…and enjoy the benefits that greater learning brings you.

Now a major motion picture streaming on Hulu, starring Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize “Eileen is a remarkable piece of writing, always dark and surprising, sometimes ugly and occasionally hilarious. Its first-person narrator is one of the strangest, most messed-up, most pathetic—and yet, in her own inimitable way, endearing—misfits I’ve encountered in fiction. Trust me, you have never read anything remotely like Eileen.” —Washington Post So here we are. My name was Eileen Dunlop. Now you know me. I was twenty-four years old then, and had a job that paid fifty-seven dollars a week as a kind of secretary at a private juvenile correctional facility for teenage boys. I think of it now as what it really was for all intents and purposes—a prison for boys. I will call it Moorehead. Delvin Moorehead was a terrible landlord I had years later, and so to use his name for such a place feels appropriate. In a week, I would run away from home and never go back. This is the story of how I disappeared. The Christmas season offers little cheer for Eileen Dunlop, an unassuming yet disturbed young woman trapped between her role as her alcoholic father’s caretaker in a home whose squalor is the talk of the neighborhood and a day job as a secretary at the boys’ prison, filled with its own quotidian horrors. Consumed by resentment and self-loathing, Eileen tempers her dreary days with perverse fantasies and dreams of escaping to the big city. In the meantime, she fills her nights and weekends with shoplifting, stalking a buff prison guard named Randy, and cleaning up her increasingly deranged father’s messes. When the bright, beautiful, and cheery Rebecca Saint John arrives on the scene as the new counselor at Moorehead, Eileen is enchanted and proves unable to resist what appears at first to be a miraculously budding friendship. In a Hitchcockian twist, her affection for Rebecca ultimately pulls her into complicity in a crime that surpasses her wildest imaginings. Played out against the snowy landscape of coastal New England in the days leading up to Christmas, young Eileen’s story is told from the gimlet-eyed perspective of the now much older narrator. Creepy, mesmerizing, and sublimely funny, in the tradition of Shirley Jackson and early Vladimir Nabokov, this powerful debut novel enthralls and shocks, and introduces one of the most original new voices in contemporary literature. Ottessa Moshfegh is also the author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Homesick for Another World: Stories, and McGlue.