If you are a writer of fiction, this practical handbook will teach you how to acquire your own writer's tool-box. Here you will learn all about developing your craft. The wide-ranging exploration of fiction-writing skills contains many unique features, such as the focus on reflective learning and tuition on advanced skills including foreshadowing, transitions and producing short story cycles. Throughout, the approach is centred on 3 kinds of activity: - Examining the theory of particular fiction writing skills. - Analysing the practice of these skills in examples of published work. - Practising the use of skills in fiction-writing exercises. What makes this guide so distinctive, though, is the way it consistently asks you to reflect on your work, and stresses the importance of being able to articulate the processes of writing. Packed with wisdom about the art of fiction and filled with writing exercises, How to Write Fiction (and Think about It) examines the work of today's finest authors to teach you everything you need to know about writing short stories or longer fiction. Whether you are a student, a would-be professional author, or a general reader who simply likes to write for pleasure, this guide will equip you with a portfolio of key fiction-writing skills.

Author and former literary agent Nathan Bransford shares his secrets for creating killer plots, fleshing out your first ideas, crafting compelling characters, and staying sane in the process. Read the guide that New York Times bestselling author Ransom Riggs called "The best how-to-write-a-novel book I've read."

This fiction-editing guide shows authors and editors how to recognize shown and told prose, and avoid unnecessary exposition. Louise Harnby, a fiction editor, writer and course developer, teaches you how to identify stylistic problems and craft solutions that weave showing and telling together, and understand why there's no place for 'don't tell' in strong writing. Topics include: Shown and told prose in different scenarios; the relevance of viewpoint; when exposition serves story and deepens character; and tools that help writers add texture.

WHAT IS THE STORY GRID? The Story Grid is a tool developed by editor Shawn Coyne to analyze stories and provide helpful editorial comments. It's like a CT Scan that takes a photo of the global story and tells the editor or writer what is working, what is not, and what must be done to make what works better and fix what's not. The Story Grid breaks down the component parts of stories to identify the problems. And finding the problems in a story is almost as difficult as the writing of the story itself (maybe even more difficult). The Story Grid is a tool with many applications: 1. It will tell a writer if a Story ?works? or ?doesn't work. 2. It pinpoints story problems but does not emotionally abuse the writer, revealing exactly where a Story (not the person creating the Story'the Story) has failed. 3. It will tell the writer the specific work necessary to fix that Story's problems. 4. It is a tool to re-envision and resuscitate a seemingly irredeemable pile of paper stuck in an attic drawer. 5. It is a tool that can inspire an original creation.

Writing Fiction offers the novice writer engaging and creative activities, making use of insightful, relevant readings from well-known authors to illustrate the techniques presented. This volume makes use of new versions of key chapters from the recent Routledge/Open University textbook Creative Writing: A Workbook with Readings for writers who are specializing in fiction. Using their experience and expertise as teachers as well as authors, Linda Anderson and Derek Neale guide aspiring writers through such key aspects of writing as: how to stimulate creativity keeping a writer’s notebook character creation setting point of view structure showing and telling. The volume is further updated to include never-before published interviews with successful fiction writers Andrew Cowan, Stevie Davies, Maggie Gee, Andrew Greig, and Hanif Kureishi. Concise and practical, Writing Fiction offers an inspirational guide to the methods and techniques of authorship and is a must-read for aspiring writers.

Noveller. A collection of thirteen short stories which explores themes of art, the supernatural, madness, and the extremes of sexuality

The most widely used and respected book on writing fiction, Writing Fiction guides the writer from first inspiration to final revision. Supported by an abundance exercises, this guide/anthology explores and integrates the elements of fiction while offering practical techniques and concrete examples. A focus on the writing process in its entirety provides a comprehensive guide to writing fiction, approaching distinct elements in separate chapters while building on what has been covered earlier. Topics include free-writing to revision, plot, style, characterization, dialogue, atmosphere, imagery, and point of view. An anthology of diverse and contemporary short stories followed by suggestions for discussion and writing exercises, illustrates concepts while offering variety in pacing and exposure to this increasingly popular form. The book also discusses key issues including writing workshops, using autobiography as a basis for fiction, using action in stories, using dialogue, and maintaining point of view. The sixth edition also features more short short stories than any previous edition and includes quotation boxes that offer advice and inspirational words from established writers on a wide range of topics--such as writing from experience, story structure, openings and endings, and revision. For those interested in developing their creative writing skills.

Craft your fiction with scene-by-scene flow, logic and readability. An imprisoned man receives an unexpected caller, after which "everything changed..." And the reader is hooked. But whether or not readers will stay on for the entire wild ride will depend on how well the writer structures the story, scene by scene. This book is your game plan for success. Using dozens of examples from his own work - including Dropshot,Tiebreaker and other popular novels - Jack M. Bickham will guide you in building a sturdy framework for your novel, whatever its form or length. You'll learn how to: • "worry" your readers into following your story to the end • prolong your main character's struggle while moving the story ahead • juggle cause and effect to serve your story action As you work on crafting compelling scenes that move the reader, moment by moment, toward the story's resolution, you'll see why... • believable fiction must make more sense than real life • every scene should end in disaster • some scenes should be condensed, and others built big Whatever your story, this book can help you arrive at a happy ending in the company of satisfied readers.

What makes a good story or a screenplay great? The vast majority of writers begin the storytelling process with only a partial understanding where to begin. Some labor their entire lives without ever learning that successful stories are as dependent upon good engineering as they are artistry. But the truth is, unless you are master of the form, function and criteria of successful storytelling, sitting down and pounding out a first draft without planning is an ineffective way to begin. Story Engineering starts with the criteria and the architecture of storytelling, the engineering and design of a story--and uses it as the basis for narrative. The greatest potential of any story is found in the way six specific aspects of storytelling combine and empower each other on the page. When rendered artfully, they become a sum in excess of their parts. You'll learn to wrap your head around the big pictures of storytelling at a professional level through a new approach that shows how to combine these six core competencies which include: • Four elemental competencies of concept, character, theme, and story structure (plot) • Two executional competencies of scene construction and writing voice The true magic of storytelling happens when these six core competencies work together in perfect harmony. And the best part? Anyone can do it!

Presents, in graphic novel format, the story of Alissa Torres, whose husband was killed in the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, and her legal and psychological battles over his death.