Seeking writing success? Start at the beginning...

Whether you're looking to get published or just hoping to hook your reader, first impressions are vital. Compelling opening scenes are the key to catching an agent or editor's attention, and are crucial for keeping your reader engaged.

As a writer, what you do in your opening pages, and how you do it, is a matter that cannot be left to chance. "The First 50 Pages" is here to help you craft a strong beginning right from the start. You'll learn how to:

• introduce your main character
• establish your story world
• set up the plot's conflict
• begin your hero's inner journey
• write an amazing opening line and terrific first page
• and more

This helpful guide walks you through the tasks your first 50 pages must accomplish in order to avoid leaving readers disoriented, frustrated, or bored. Don't let your reader put your book down before ever seeing its beauty. Let "The First 50 Pages" show you how to begin your novel with the skill and intentionality that will land you a book deal, and keep readers' eyes glued to the page.

About the Author

Jeff Gerke is an editor and author of fiction and nonfiction including such books as the "Operation: Firebrand" novels and "Plot Versus Character: A Balanced Approach to Writing Great Fiction." He is the founder of Marcher Lord Press, an indie publishing company dedicated to producing Christian science fiction and fantasy.

With emphasis on practical classroom application, this up-to-date and refreshingly honest collection of essays is a wonderful resource for teaching creative writing. "Dispatches from the Classroom" is a collection of pedagogical essays written by graduate students, with an emphasis on practical classroom application. Divided into four sections - "Laying the Ground Rules", "What is 'Appropriate' for the Workshop?", "Teaching 'Technique'", and "The Hybrid TA", it explores issues of daily concern to creative writing instructors from many viewpoints. Although these essays draw on recent theoretical scholarship, the emphasis remains on ways in which theory can be applied to course structure, student interaction, and other practical concerns. Also examined is the unusual blend of teaching assignments that Teaching Assistants face, addressing ways that the creative writer can apply her skills to composition instruction and even writing center tutoring. These essays have been selected from the work of current graduate students in creative writing, all of whom have very recent experience of dealing with these specific issues in the classroom. This anthology will not only provide Teaching Assistants with an introduction to current issues in creative writing pedagogy, but also with a much-needed teaching resource for their introductory courses.

Everything but the Script: Professional Writing in the Entertainment Industry introduces readers to the lesser known yet critically important forms of writing within the industry. The book offers insight into how these "hidden" but potentially lucrative writing practices determine the way in which creative work is understood, discussed, and "processed" as a potential sale or green light, as well as the role it plays in the development and marketing of a project. The book is divided into two main sections that mirror the filmmaking process. The first section covers acquisition, development, and preproduction; the second is devoted to production, distribution, and exhibition. Readers learn how to create an effective synopses, draft productive critical comments for script coverage, develop and refine story notes to help writers progress from draft to draft, write effective pitch letters to potential collaborators, and generate dynamic written materials to support a successful publicity campaign. Drawing from the author's extensive experience within the entertainment industry, Everything but the Script is an excellent resource for courses and programs in film and media studies.

RIVERS OF WOMEN, THE PLAY by poet and oral performer Shirley Bradley LeFlore is a stage-play of poems accompanied with photographs by award-winning, Chicago-based photographer Michael J. Bracey. Bracey matches his images with LeFlore's poetry, adding a visual dimension that succeeds in endowing every poem with an added sense of depth and emotionality through his unique mode of multilayered conceptualization. RIVERS OF WOMEN is LeFlore's most prolific work of poetry rooted in the stories and voices of womanhood. Readers will hear the music and see the dance as they flip through the pages.

SCREENWRITING INTO FILM is a dynamic new book that gives the reader five necessary steps to follow in preparing to write a screenplay that can increase their chances of success. This is a book of ideas that uses many classic, controversial and contemporary films to illustrate those ideas to the reader. In SCREENWRITING INTO FILM you will find illuminating insight on: how to build a character, how to establish solid motives for villainous or heroic characters, how to build conflict, how to find and demonstrate theme(s)and most importantly how to arrive at a great ending. A rewarding discussion of all of the elements that are indispensable in developing a good story and writing a great screenplay are within the pages of this book. Theres even a chapter on Book Adaptations that specifically tackles the three important aspects every screenwriter/filmmaker must know to prepare a successful adaptation of a novel or short story. ANYONE WHO WANTS TO FIND HIS OR HER OWN PERSONAL VOICE IN THE CINEMA SHOULD READ THIS BOOK; it was intentionally created for those who want to write and direct their own films, but it also has a general relevance for all film lovers and writers seeking deeper insight about the structure and meaning of this art. Informative, passionate and intelligent, SCREENWRITING INTO FILM was written by multiple award winning independent digital filmmaker, Andre Seewood.

Explore the world with your students and discover its wonders - all while developing the English skills they need to become successful global citizens. Through spectacular National Geographic video and inspiring photography students will travel the globe, learning about different countries, cultures, people, and their customs. With clearly structured methodology and explicit grammar instruction, this six-level primary series is packed with fascinating facts that spark curiosity, personalisation activities that get your students talking and new online resources that make it even easier to bring the world to the classroom and the classroom to life.

The material is right there in front of you. You've known yourself for, well, a lifetime--and you finally feel ready to share your story with the world. Yet when it actually comes time to put pen to paper, you find that you're stumped.
Enter Adair Lara: award-winning author, seasoned columnist, beloved writing coach, and the answer to all of your autobiographical quandaries.
"Naked, Drunk, and Writing" is the culmination of Lara's vast experience as a writer, editor, and teacher. It is packed with insights and advice both practical ("writing workshops you pay for are the best--it's too easy to quit when you've made no investment") and irreverent ("apply Part A butt] to Part B chair]"), answering such important questions as:
- How do I know where to start my piece and where to end it?
- How do I make myself write when I'm too scared or lazy or busy?
- What makes a good pitch letter, and how do I get mine noticed?
- I'm ready to publish--now where do I find an agent?
- If I show my manuscript to my mother, will I ever be invited to a family gathering again?
As thorough and instructive as a personal writing coach (and cheaper, too), "Naked, Drunk, and Writing" is a must-have if you are an aspiring columnist, essayist, or memoirist--or just a writer who needs a bit of help in getting your story told.

Teaching Poetry Writing: A Five Canon Approach is a comprehensive alternative to the full-class workshop approach to poetry writing instruction. In the five canon approach, peer critique of student poems takes place in online environments, freeing up class time for writing exercises and lessons based on the five canons of classical rhetoric: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.

"Contemporizing the Classics: Poe, Shakespeare, Doyle" is a how-to on the art and craft of transforming a classic into a feature-film screenplay with a modern storyline.

The introduction probes an issue that weaves throughout: role of artistic license in balancing fidelity to the original versus dramatic needs of the script.

Contemporization of a classic being the most flagrant form of dramatic license, the introduction presents three guidelines for a considered exercise thereof.

Each part debuts a feature-film script that resets a classic work(s) in the present.

Part One offers a contemporary visualization of Macbeth, in the process turning an Elizabethan tragedy into a dramatic comedy.

Part Two applies the guidelines to several renowned works by Edgar Allan Poe.

Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" having frequently screened as a period piece, Part Three gives the hound a twenty-first century twist.

Patricia Highsmith, author of Strangers On a Train, The Talented Mr.Ripley, Found In The Street, and many other books, is known as one of the finest suspense novelists. In this book, she analyzes the key elements of suspense fiction, drawing upon her own experience in four decades as a working writer. She talks about, among other topics; how to develop a complete story from an idea; what makes a plot gripping; the use (and abuse) of coincidence; characterization and the "likeable criminal"; going from first draft to final draft; and writing the suspense short story.
Throughout the book, Highsmith illustrates her points with plentiful examples from her own work, and by discussing her own inspirations, false starts, dead ends, successes, and failures, she presents a lively and highly readable picture of the novelist at work.

Anyone who wishes to write crime and suspense fiction, or who enjoys reading it, will find this book an insightful guide to the craft and art of a modern master.