The Most Comprehensive writing resource a teacher can own! 300 "Quickwrites"; a calendar of 25 topics each month for short, daily practice; 209 story starters and titles for longer, more formal writings; 151 reproducible writing forms. 12 monthly sections.

As major universities and professional organizations like the Poynter Institute have begun to examine graphic nonfiction from a critical perspective, new courses are emerging that give student writers and artists the tools to tell their own nonfiction stories in comics form. Nonfiction Comics is the first textbook to bring these tools and techniques together in a single volume. Most novices who first attempt the form arrive at it from a background of journalism or art, meaning they arrive with at least one deficit in the required skill set. Journalists, for example, typically have had little training in illustration. Artists and designers may not know how to conduct interviews or to avoid the potential legal pitfalls of telling the personal stories of real people. This book aims to fill in the gaps providing student journalists, artists, designers, creative writers, web producers and others the tools they need to tell stories visually and graphically.

Based on the authors' popular team-taught nonfiction comics course, Nonfiction Comics teaches readers how to create a graphic nonfiction story from start to finish, providing guidance on:

• how to find the story and how to find and utilize appropriate facts and visuals;
• nonfiction narrative techniques
• artist's tools and techniques
• print, digital, and multimedia production
• legal and ethical considerations

Interviews with well-known nonfiction comics creators--showcased in the book and on the book's companion website--will discuss best practice and offer readers inspiration to begin creating their own work.

Vivid and memorable characters aren't "born" they have to be "made"

This book is a set of tools: literary crowbars, chisels, mallets, pliers and tongs. Use them to pry, chip, yank and sift good characters out of the place where they live in your imagination.

Award-winning author Orson Scott Card explains in depth the techniques of inventing, developing and presenting characters, plus handling viewpoint in novels and short stories. With specific examples, he spells out your narrative options--the choices you'll make in creating fictional people so "real" that readers will feel they know them like members of their own families.

You'll learn how to:

• Draw characters from a variety of sources
• Make characters show who they are by the things they do and say, and by their individual "style"
• Develop characters readers will love--or love to hate
• Distinguish among major characters, minor characters and walk-ons, and develop each appropriately
• Choose the most effective viewpoint to reveal the characters and move the storytelling
• Decide how deeply you should explore your characters' thoughts, emotions, and attitudes

The lives of two brothers, working in a European zoo, are dramatically altered when their wives are killed in a car crash. One brother, unable to accept what has happened, is given over to the strange habit of photographing the decay of animal corpses. The other brother carries out his wife's wishes, and sets free a succession of animals. A bizarre and unexpected story emerges.

In this learned but practical book, Jen Webb shows how 'research practices can invigorate writing; creative practices can invigorate research; and - if properly organised and managed - creative writing can operate as a mode of knowledge generation, a way of exploring problems and answering questions that matter in our current context'. Researching creative writing enables writer-researchers to craft a toolkit that will help them produce better creative work and more rigorous research work.

In The Screenwriters Taxonomy, award-winning screenwriter and educator Eric R. Williams offers a new collaborative approach for creative storytellers to recognize, discuss and reinvent storytelling paradigms. Williams presents seven different aspects of storytelling that can be applied to any fictional narrative film-from super genre, macrogenre and microgenre to voice and point of view-allowing writers to analyze existing films and innovate on these structures in their own stories. Moving beyond film theory, Williams describes how this roadmap for creative decision making can relate to classics like Sunset Boulevard, The Wizard of Oz and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as well as such diverse modern favorites like 12 Years a Slave, Anomalisa and Shrek.

Named by The Times as the all-time number one crime writer, Patricia Highsmith was an author who broke new ground and defied genre cliches with novels such as The Talented Mr Ripley and Strangers on a Train. In the classic creative writing guide Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction, Highsmith reveals her secrets for producing world-class crime and thrillers, from imaginative tips for generating ideas to useful ways of turning them into stunning stories.

Write to Shoot teaches budding screenwriters and screenwriting filmmakers how to write a short script with production in mind. Beker instructs them how to showcase their strengths, tailor projects to shoestring budgets, resources, and practical production parameters without sacrificing the quality and punch of their screenplays, whether they're creating a sizzle short for an unproduced feature script, an independent creative work, or a soapbox to promote a cause. Write to Shoot: Writing Short Films for Production is a must-have guide for anyone who wants to be sure there will be no surprises on set that come from a script that's not ready for production.

This volume analyzes the Serial podcast, situating it in the trajectory of other popular crime narratives and contemporary cultural theory. Contributors focus on topics such as the ethics of the use of fiction techniques in investigative journalism, the epistemological overlay of postmodern indeterminacy, and the audience's prolific activity in social media, examining the competing narrative strategies of the narrators, characters, and the audience. Other topics considered include the multiplication of narratives and the longing for closure, how our minds work as we experience true crime narratives, and what critical race theory can teach us about the program's strategies.

An indispensable source of advice and inspiration for aspiring writers, this compilation features literary luminaries -- both classic and contemporary -- discussing the craft of creating fiction. Includes essays by Mark Twain, Henry James, Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, Sinclair Lewis, Jack London, Raymond Chandler, Raymond Carver, Eudora Welty, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

This books helps teachers apply the research on growth mindset and goal setting, whether using a writing program or a workshop model. It uses tone, trust and language to quicken students' discovery of their writing identities and take risks when they are stuck. The author also shows how to use student work to deliver clear, just-in-time feedback during planning, drafting, revising, and editing. The book ultimately helps writers reflect so they are better able to apply what they learned about content, craft, and style to their future writing.

Make Your Novel Stand Out from the Crowd

Noted literary agent and author Donald Maass has done it again His previous book, "Writing the Breakout Novel," offered novelists of all skill levels and genres insider advice on how to make their books rise above the competition and succeed in a crowded marketplace.

Now, building on the success of its predecessor, "Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook" calls that advice into action This powerful book presents the patented techniques and writing exercises from Maass's popular writing workshops to offer novelists first-class instruction and practical guidance. You'll learn to develop and strengthen aspects of your prose with sections on:

• Building plot layers
• Creating inner conflict
• Strengthening voice and point of view
• Discovering and heightening larger-than-life character qualities
• Strengthening theme
• And much more

Maass also carefully dissects examples from real-life breakout novels so you'll lean how to read and analyze fiction like a writer. With authoritative instruction and hands-on workbook exercises, "Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook" is one of the most accessible novel-writing guides available.

Set your work-in progress apart from the competition and write your own breakout novel today

Master writing paragraphs and short essays with WRITING PARAGRAPHS AND ESSAYS, 6e. Successfully class-tested by thousands of students, this new edition shows you how to create effective introductions, support paragraphs, and strong conclusions. Learn smart strategies for organizing and presenting your ideas and use real examples from students and professional writers to help guide your work. Take your skills to the next level with exercises designed to reinforce key concepts and boost your confidence as you apply them to your writing.

A sharp, funny book about comedy screenwriting from a successful screenwriter that uses recent - as in this century - movies you've actually seen as examples. Greg DePaul (Screenwriter, Bride Wars, Saving Silverman) has sold scripts to Miramax, Fox, Disney, New Line, Sony, MGM and Village Roadshow. He's worked with comedy stars like Jack Black, Kate Hudson, Jason Biggs and Amanda Peet. Now Greg takes everything he knows about writing comedy and breaking into the biz, tosses it into a blender and serves up this tasty, fat-free smoothie of a book that's easy to read, brutally honest, and straight from the heart ... of Hollywood. Bring the Funny is chock full o' tricks, strategies and insider terms used by successful comedy screenwriters, including: Comic Justice Wrylies Genre-Bending Shadow Characters The BDR's The Two-Hander The Conceit Comedic Escalation Gapping A.I.C. Fish Outta Water The Idea Factory Really Important Comedy Screenwriting Rules Number 99 and 100 If you're looking to write funnier and better screenplays, you want this book. But if you're ready to pack up your car, drive out to L.A., and dive into a career as a comedy screenwriter, you need this book. Now. Buy it, jam it into your pocket, and hit the gas. Greg's got your back.

Think about your writing from a new perspective and learn to tell a story in the most effective way possible with this flash fiction workbook. Popular with creative writers around the world, flash fiction is an ultra-short story format (usually 1,000 words or less) that distills a narrative into its most economic and impactful form. In this lay-flat paperback workbook you'll find 101 flash fiction writing prompts, each crafted to inspire an incredible variety of very short stories. Some prompts instruct you to focus on setting or developing a specific character. Other prompts ask you to play with story structure, to begin at the end or jump right into the middle of the action. You are also encouraged to bring the journal to different locations (a coffee shop or a museum) and take story cues from your surroundings. With helpful writing tips and just the right amount of space to write, this journal is the perfect tool to jump-start a flash fiction writing practice.

This guidebook offers a rhetorical framework for writing and analyzing content for social media and the web. In the age of disinformation and hyper-targeted digital advertising, writers and teachers of writing must be prepared to delve into the digital world with a critical and strategic perspective. This book offers an interdisciplinary approach to writing scenarios with insights from classical and contemporary rhetoric, the philosophy of technology, and digital media theory. Special emphases are also placed on preparing for writing, marketing, and communications careers in the digital space, and on ethical issues related to digital and social media.

Writing About Screen Media presents strategies for writing about a broad range of media objects - including film, television, social media, advertising, video games, mobile media, music videos, and digital media - in an equally broad range of formats. The book's case studies showcase media studies' geographical and industrial breadth, with essays covering topics as varied as: Brazilian telenovelas, K-pop music videos, Bombay cinema credit sequences, global streaming services, film festivals, archives, and more. With the expertise of over forty esteemed media scholars, the collection combines personal reflections about writing with practical advice. Writing About Screen Media reflects the diversity of screen media criticism and encourages both beginning and established writers to experiment with content and form. Through its unprecedented scope, this volume will engage not only those who may be writing about film and other screen media for the first time but also accomplished writers who are interested in exploring new screen media objects, new approaches to writing about media, and new formats for critical expression.

"The creative process is just that," maintains Kim Addonizio. "Not a means to an end, but an ongoing participation." A widely acclaimed poet and finalist for the National Book Award, Addonizio meditates on her own process as she encourages writers to explore both their personal and political worlds, to seek inspiration from poets new and old, and to discover the rich poetic resources of the Internet. Lively, accessible, and informative, Ordinary Genius?provides wisdom gleaned through personal experience and offers a heady variety of writing exercises. Chapters on gender, addiction, race and class, metaphor and line invite each individual writer to find and to hone his or her unique voice. This is the perfect book for both experienced writers and beginners eager to glimpse the angel of poetry.

If a story is going to fail, it will do so first at the premise level. Anatomy of a Premise Line: How to Master Premise and Story Development for Writing Success is the only book of its kind to identify a seven-step development process that can be repeated and applied to any story idea. This process will save you time, money, and potentially months of wasted writing. So whether you are trying to write a feature screenplay, develop a television pilot, or just trying to figure out your next story move as a writer, this book gives you the tools you need to know which ideas are worth pursuing. In addition to the 7-step premise development tool, Anatomy of a Premise Line also presents a premise and idea testing methodology that can be used to test any developed premise line. Customized exercises and worksheets are included to facilitate knowledge transfer, so that by the end of the book, you will have a fully developed premise line, log line, tagline, and a completed premise-testing checklist. Here is some of what you will learn inside: Ways to determine whether or not your story is a good fit for print or screen Case studies and hands-on worksheets to help you learn by participating in the process Tips on how to effectively work through writer's block A companion website (www.routledge.com/cw/lyons) with additional worksheets, videos, and interactive tools to help you learn the basics of perfecting a killer premise line

Creativity and Feature Writing explores how to generate ideas in feature writing. Using clear explanations, examples and exercises, experienced feature writer and teacher Ellie Levenson highlights how feature writers, editors and bloggers can generate ideas and how to turn these into published, paid for articles. A variety of approaches to idea generation are explored including getting feature ideas from: objects, your own life and the lives of others the news and non-news articles, including books, leaflets, the internet and any other printed matter press releases, and from direct contact with charities and press officers new people, new places and new experiences. The book draws on a range of tips from practicing journalists and editors and displays case studies of example features to chart ideas from conception to publication.

Creativity and Feature Writing explores how to generate ideas in feature writing. Using clear explanations, examples and exercises, experienced feature writer and teacher Ellie Levenson highlights how feature writers, editors and bloggers can generate ideas and how to turn these into published, paid for articles. A variety of approaches to idea generation are explored including getting feature ideas from: objects, your own life and the lives of others the news and non-news articles, including books, leaflets, the internet and any other printed matter press releases, and from direct contact with charities and press officers new people, new places and new experiences. The book draws on a range of tips from practicing journalists and editors and displays case studies of example features to chart ideas from conception to publication.

Tailor your screenplay to sell. Find out what Hollywood script readers, producers, and studio executives want in a screenplay (and why) from someone who's been there. Discover what it takes to begin a lasting career as a screenwriter. Peppered with interviews from established professionals, Writing for the Green Light: How to Make Your Script the One Hollywood Notices gives you a sharp competitive edge by showcasing dozens of everyday events that go on at the studios but are rarely if ever discussed in most screenwriting books. With his behind-the-scenes perspective, Scott Kirkpatrick shows you why the system works the way it does and how you can use its unwritten rules to your advantage. He answers such questions as: Who actually reads your script? How do you pique the interest of studios and decision makers? What do agents, producers, and production companies need in a script? How much is a script worth? What are the best genres for new writers and why? What are real steps you can take to 'break in' to television writing? How do you best present or pitch a project without looking desparate? How do you negotiate a contract without an agent? How do you exude confidence and seal your first deal? These and other insights are sure to give you and your screenplay a leg-up for success in this competitive landscape!

Set in Calcutta in the immediate aftermath of the Partition, Ritwik Ghatak's Nagarik (released in 1977 after Ghatak's death in 1976) chronicles the struggles of a refugee family from East Bengal as they desperately strive to survive in a metropolis which is unable to address the necessities of thousands of people pouring in from across the border. The protagonist, Ramu, like hundreds of other young men, struggles to find that elusive job; unemployment, starvation, incessant dislocation, and the yearning for stability and a home mark the lives of the refugee families in this film. Ghatak was to return to the theme in three other films that have been known as the Partition Trilogy-Meghe Dhaka Tara, Komal Gandhar, and Subarnarekha. With this translation of the screenplay of Nagarik, it will be clear that Ghatak's Partition films, those that deal directly with the lives of refugees in Calcutta, form a quartet and not a trilogy. Nagarik also represents an enticing historiographical idea, the 'what if' of Indian film history: perhaps if it had been released in 1952 when it was made, and before Pather Panchali, the accounts of Indian art cinema that have privileged the Ray film would have been different, and Ghatak may have been accepted as an important Indian auteur in his lifetime.

Plot must be as much about the emotions of the characters as it is about the events of the story. That's the message in "The Art of Plotting", which teaches screenwriters how to integrate plot, characterisation and exposition to make stories compelling. Using examples from recent and classic movies, author Linda J. Cowgill demonstrates how the plot springs naturally from the characters - and how that technique makes audiences connect with the story on a more intimate level. Easy exercises reveal common plot problems and help writers overcome them.

Quickly established as an essential and enduring companion for aspiring writers when it was first published, Betsy Lerner's sharp, funny, and insightful guide has been meticulously updated and revised to address the dramatic changes that have reshaped the publishing industry in the decade since. From blank page to first glowing (or gutting) review, Betsy Lerner is a knowing and sympathetic coach who helps writers discover how they can be more productive in the creative process and how they can better their odds of not only getting published, but getting published well. This is an essential trove of advice for writers and an indispensable user's manual to both the inner life of the writer and the increasingly anxious place where art and commerce meet: the boardrooms and cubicles of the publishing house.