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On Writing
by Charles Bukowski
Sharp and moving reflections and ruminations on the artistry and craft of writing from one of our most iconoclastic, riveting, and celebrated masters. Charles Bukowski's stories, poems, and novels have left an enduring mark on our culture. In this collection of correspondence--letters to publishers, editors, friends, and fellow writers--the writer shares his insights on the art of creation.
On Writing reveals an artist brutally frank about the drudgery of work and canny and uncompromising about the absurdities of life--and of art. It illuminates the hard-edged, complex humanity of a true American legend and counterculture icon--the "laureate of American lowlife" (Time)--who stoically recorded society's downtrodden and depraved. It exposes an artist grounded in the visceral, whose work reverberates with his central ideal: "Don't try."
Piercing, poignant, and often hilarious, On Writing is filled not only with memorable lines but also with Bukowski's trademark toughness, leavened with moments of grace, pathos, and intimacy.
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Elements of Style: A Summation of the Case for Cleanliness, Accuracy, and Brevity in the Use of English
by William Strunk
The elements of style is the ultimate guide to writing in American English, written by Cornell University Professor William Strunk, Jr. This edition presents the original 1918 edition, still used by college students as a guide to succinct and clear writing. Stunk's rules on active voice, sentence structure, using commas and semi colons and more allow readers to avoid common pitfalls and keep their writing concise and impactful. These rules are accompanied by clear 'before' and 'after' examples showing how making these simple changes can transform your writing.
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Still Writing: The Pleasures and Perils of a Creative Life
by Dani Shapiro
This national bestseller from celebrated novelist and memoirist Dani Shapiro is an intimate and eloquent companion to living a creative life. Through a blend of memoir, meditation on the artistic process, and advice on craft, Shapiro offers her gift to writers everywhere: a guide of hard-won wisdom and advice for staying the course. In the ten years since the first edition, Still Writing has become a mainstay of creative writing classes as well as a lodestar for writers just starting out, and above all, an indispensable almanac for modern writers.
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Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need
by Blake Snyder
One of Hollywood's most successful spec screenwriters tells all in this fast, funny, and candid look inside the movie business. "Save the Cat" is just one of many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying - and saleable. This ultimate insider's guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a show biz veteran who's proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat.
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Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting
by Robert McKee
Robert McKee's screenwriting workshops have earned him an international reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress and putting major screenwriting careers back on track. Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton, Gloria Steinem, Julia Roberts, John Cleese and David Bowie are just a few of his celebrity alumni. Writers, producers, development executives and agents all flock to his lecture series, praising it as a mesmerizing and intense learning experience.
In Story, McKee expands on the concepts he teaches in his $450 seminars (considered a must by industry insiders), providing readers with the most comprehensive, integrated explanation of the craft of writing for the screen. No one better understands how all the elements of a screenplay fit together, and no one is better qualified to explain the "magic" of story construction and the relationship between structure and character than Robert McKee.
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Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin lays out ten chapters that address the most fundamental components of narrative, from the sound of language to sentence construction to point of view. Each chapter combines illustrative examples from the global canon with Le Guin's own witty commentary and an exercise that the writer can do solo or in a group. She also offers a comprehensive guide to working in writing groups, both actual and online
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The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle
by Steven Pressfield
A succinct, engaging, and practical guide for succeeding in any creative sphere, "The War of Art is nothing less than Sun-Tzu for the soul. What keeps so many of us from doing what we long to do? Why is there a naysayer within? How can we avoid the roadblocks of any creative endeavor-be it starting up a dream business venture, writing a novel, or painting a masterpiece? Bestselling novelist Steven Pressfield identifies the enemy that every one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer this internal foe, then pinpoints just how to achieve the greatest success. "The War of Art emphasizes the resolve needed to recognize and overcome the obstacles of ambition and then effectively shows how to reach the highest level of creative discipline. Think of it as tough love . . . for yourself. Whether an artist, writer or business person, this simple, personal, and no-nonsense book will inspire you to seize the potential of your life.
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On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
by William Zinsser
On Writing Well, which grew out of a course that William Zinsser taught at Yale, has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity, and for the warmth of its style. It is a book for anybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts, or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you both fundamental principles as well as the insights of a distinguished practitioner. With over a million copies in print, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valued resource for writers and would-be writers.
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Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
by Natalie Goldberg
For more than thirty years Natalie Goldberg has been challenging and cheering on writers with her books and workshops. In her groundbreaking first book, she brings together Zen meditation and writing in a new way. Writing practice, as she calls it, is no different from other forms of Zen practice--"it is backed by two thousand years of studying the mind." This thirtieth-anniversary edition includes new forewords by Julia Cameron and Bill Addison. It also includes a new preface in which Goldberg reflects on the enduring quality of the teachings here. She writes, "What have I learned about writing over these thirty years? I've written fourteen books, and it's the practice here in Bones that is the foundation, sustaining and building my writing voice, that keeps me honest, teaches me how to endure the hard times, and how to drop below discursive thinking, to taste the real meat of our minds and the life around us.
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On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
by Stephen King
"Long live the King" hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Stephen King's On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999--and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it--fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.
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Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
by Anne Lamott
A step-by-step guide to writing and managing the writer's life covers each portion of a written project, addresses such concerns as writer's block and getting published, and offers awareness and survival tips.
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The Hero with a Thousand Faces
by Joseph Campbell
A new expanded edition of the classic work on comparative mythology amasses the characteristics exemplified by mythological heroes and religious leaders of all centuries and cultures into a unified whole as it outlines the Hero's Journey as a universal motif of adventure running through all of the world's mythic traditions.
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Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer
by Roy Peter Clark
Introduces a collection of fifty universal tools and strategies that writers of all kinds can use every day, accompanied by hundreds of examples from journalism and literature, ranging from "Watch those adverbs" to "Turn Your Notebook into a camera."
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Letters to a Young Poet: With the Letters from the "Young Poet"
by Rainer Maria Rilke
Nearly a century after the publication of Rilke's inspirational work, the missing letters of the young poet himself finally appear in this canonical edition. For more than ninety years, eager writers and young poets, even those simply looking for a purpose in life, have embraced the wisdom of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, first published in 1929. Most readers and scholars assumed that the letters from young poet were forever lost to posterity. Yet, shockingly, the letters were recently discovered by Erich Unglaub, a Rilke scholar, and published in German in 2019. The acclaimed translator Damion Searls has now not only retranslated Rilke's original letters but also translated the letters by Franz Xaver Kappus, an Austrian military cadet and, yes, aspiring poet. This timeless edition, in addition to joining the two sets of letters together for the first time in English, provides a new window into the workings of Rilke's visionary poetic and philosophical mind, allowing us to reexperience the literary genius of one of the most inspiring works of twentieth-century literature.
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Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction
by Jack Hart
A former managing editor of the "Oregonian" who guided several Pulitzer Prize-winning narratives to publication shares guidelines for writers of nonfiction that encompass such topics as story theory, scene establishment, and preparing work for submission
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The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life
by Noah Lukeman
A fiction-writing "workshop" analyzes the elements of classic storytelling, from characterization and journey to suspense, conflict, and context, advising writers of any skill level on how to combine them to produce transcendent work.
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From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction
by Robert Olen Butler
A direct view into the mind and craft of a literary master is offered in a collection of edited transcripts of the author's thought-provoking lectures that reimagine the process of writing as emotional rather than intellectual.
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Write Away: One Novelist's Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life
by Elizabeth George
A guide to writing fiction and understanding the creative process by the best-selling author of I, Richard and A Traitor to Memory presents dozens of literary and commercial examples that demonstrate how to construct a novel, in a reference complemented by personal anecdotes from the writer's life.
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Wonderbook: An Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
by Jeff VanderMeer
Wonderbook has become the definitive guide to writing science fiction and fantasy by offering an accessible, example-rich approach that emphasizes the importance of playfulness as well as pragmatism. It also exploits the visual nature of genre culture and employs bold, full-color drawings, maps, renderings, and visualizations to stimulate creative thinking. On top of all that, the book features sidebars and essays from some of the biggest names working in the field today, including George R. R. Martin, Lev Grossman, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, and Karen Joy Fowler. For the fifth anniversary of the original publication, Jeff VanderMeer has added an additional 50 pages of diagrams, illustrations, and writing exercises creating the ultimate volume of inspiring advice that is also a stunning and inspiring object.
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The Anatomy of Story : 22 Steps to becoming a Master Storyteller
by John Truby
A respected story consultant to the film industry shares his secrets for writing a compelling script and offers fresh techniques and insightful anecdotes, alongside a unique approach to building an effective, multifaceted narrative that emphasizes the need for writers to draw on their own values, ideas, and worldviews to create an effective story.
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