The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes and Heroines reveals the sixteen literary archetypes that have starred in fiction for millennia. This resource offers the building blocks for the creation of memorable characters who will reach out and grab the hearts of readers. Review An invaluable resource for writers working in any genre.... -- Prof. Richard Walter, Screenwriting Chairman, UCLA Dept. of Film and Television, letter to author, 5/4/00 Finally Fiction Archetypes made easy. . . . Stuffed with examples and cleverly organized, this book] earned a spot on my crowded bookshelf. -- Debra Dixon, author GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict, 1996; and Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes, 2000; email to authors 4/00 The Complete Writers Guide to Heroes and Heroines takes the mystery out of creating compelling and memorable characters. Every writer should own a copy. -- Deb Stover, award winning author of nine time travel and historical romances, email to authors. 4/00 The authors have developed a clear and usable system for creating memorable characters. -- Kevin J. Anderson, best-selling co-author of Dune: House Atreides, email to author, 5/25/00.

Whether you are writing wedding vows or wedding toasts and speeches, this workbook leads you through a step-by-step creative process that is easy to follow and will produce inspired results. Written for couples who want to express their love for each other openly, honestly, and beautifully in their wedding vows, for the best man or maid of honor who doesn't often speak in public and is not sure how to write and deliver those all-important toasts, and for the father or mother of the bride, close friends, and relatives who will be speaking at the many events surrounding a wedding, it also provides a step-by-step rehearsal process, techniques for dealing with "stage fright" or anyone's bad case of nerves, and quotations to add elegance and spice to your own words.

Crafting likable, interesting characters is a balancing act, and finding that perfect mix of strengths and weaknesses can be difficult. But the task has become easier thanks to The Negative Trait Thesaurus. Through its flaw-centric exploration of character arc, motivation, emotional wounds, and basic needs, writers will learn which flaws make the most sense for their heroes, villains, and other members of the story's cast. This book's vast collection of flaws will help writers to explore the possible causes, attitudes, behaviors, thoughts, and related emotions behind their characters' weaknesses so they can be written effectively and realistically. Common characterization pitfalls and methods to avoid them are also included, along with invaluable downloadable tools to aid in character creation. Written in list format and fully indexed, this brainstorming resource is perfect for creating deep, flawed characters that readers will relate to.

This volume is an essential reading for all who love literature, especially for those who would like to familiar themselves with the essence of the Armenian literature. Readers familiar with the Armenian literature will also benefit from this. The dramatic works such as the "The Woe of Araxes" epic poetry, or "David of Sassoun" (Sasountsi David) heroic tail will bring back the nostalgic feelings associated with revisiting the Armenian classic literature. The especial introduction of Robert Arnot, an expert in Armenian Literature, is a valuable part of this volume that the reader will most probably find it informative and intriguing in terms of adequately depicting the state and the nature of the Armenian literature.

DO YOU HAVE A BOOK IDEA but just don't what to do next to get those ideas into a book format? Are you are a Blogger desiring to turn your blog into a book? Maybe you are a Speaker, Pastor, or Teacher and desire to turn your recorded presentations into books. This 2nd edition contains additional valuable information on writing fiction and developing your fictional characters, as well as writing in the areas of non-fiction, romance/relationship and vacation/travel. Also included is information on the business of being an author, presenting better media interviews and much more. "Write Your First Book" is written to assist anyone who is interested in writing a book, either for fun or for money. It provides both practical and insightful information. "Write Your First Book, by Peter Biadasz is an excellent book for aspiring authors. The book is filled with informative, reader friendly information presented clearly and enthusiastically." L.R. - Author

Most scientists live in a "publish or perish" environment, but few would describe themselves as brilliant (or enthusiastic) writers. Coming to the aid of all those wishing to improve the quality of their scientific writing -- established researchers and aspiring students alike -- three experienced authors/scientists from differing backgrounds and cultures have compiled this classic guide.
This new edition has been completely revised to reflect dramatic changes in communication over the past 15 years. The primary emphasis is on writing techniques, accurate expression, adherence to accepted standards, and above all clarity, but the authors also venture into communication technology and organizational as well as ethical aspects of science. Numerous appendices and a particularly comprehensive index complete this highly useful book.
"The authors have a passion, not only for clarity and economy of style, but also for precision and consistency."
(Nature)
"A wealth of information contained in a single book of manageable proportions. Students reporting on a simple laboratory experiment and their teachers preparing a paper or lecture will both find this book a constant companion."
(European Science Editing)
"The book under review claims, 'we know of no book as broad in its coverage, as critical in its analysis of existing trends, and as international in its scope'. This claim is immodest but accurate."
(Trends in Pharmacological Sciences)

"Buy it, study it, enjoy it. It is as timeless as a book can be in our age of volubility." - "The New York Times"
Improve your writing with this well-organized and very readable new edition of Professor Strunk's 18 essential rules of grammar, punctuation and composition. Concise and helpful, these rules can transform your writing. A timeless reference.

Want to write more powerfully? You've come to the right book. "Word Up "--an eclectic collection of essays, more inspiration guide than style guide--serves up tips and insights for anyone who wants to write with more umph. "Word Up "does what too few writing books do: it practices while preaching, shows while telling, uses powerful writing to talk about powerful writing. "Word Up " explores the perplexities and celebrates the pleasures of the English language. It leaves you smiling--and ready to conquer your next blank (or blah) page.

"INTO THE STORY "is the first collection of the work of David Maraniss, one of the most honored and versatile writers of his generation. The thirty-two stories here cover a rich array of topics, ranging from seminal moments in modern history to intimate personal reflections, each piece illuminated by the author's deep reporting and singular sensibility.

This is a famous little book - invaluable for writers and one of the most influential books written since 1923, according to the Times. In The Elements of Style, William Strunk concentrated on specific questions of word usage and the cultivation of good writing. He recommends that one should "Make every word tell"

Free Verse Editions Series Editor: Jon Thompson The poems of THE FOREVER NOTES are canny and lyrical and never a word too long. Many are song-like, repeating the things that are most important to them over and over to make them stay: "You and the trees/ Trees and the night around you." Others tell small stories, utterly clear line by line but elusive, almost elegiac, in their slides of feeling and shifts of thought. They feel like a life you must have lived but can't quite remember, like a dream you try to tell even as it fades behind you. Ethel Rackin's wistful and whimsical "Notes" and "Pictures" and "Songs" are brief glances and glancing blows, each so understated and tantalizing that it seems to call for another and another, until without quite realizing it you've read the book straight through. -JAMES RICHARDSON Plato wrote in the Timaeus of time as the moving image of eternity. In Ethel Rackin's THE FOREVER NOTES each of these terms finds resonance: the fleeting objects of the world are moving, and persons moved; her lyric syntax builds pictures that dissolve into song and then turn back to image again; the eternal endures in its endless transformations. "Leaves are for changing" she observes-an insight just as true of the leaves of her book. -SUSAN STEWART Ethel Rackin's lyrical sound bites have a mysterious hold. In them, the visual and the aural are inextricably linked. "Adrift in internal music," is how she puts it. Her notes are notations that produce pictures of the real world, but those notes also create songs. "Each object has a title," says Rackin; her poems demonstrate that each object has musical depth, too. The result is beautiful: "A song that reaches as far as an eye can see." -DAVID TRINIDAD Everyone should read this book because it is so effective and unique. The book will make you ache, whether or not you're an artist. It will intrigue you. Its objects-trees, chocolate, wheelbarrows, a ship on the sea, nightgowns, rug samples, a garden, a femur bone, cookies, a blind bird, curbs, scotch - have a relationship with the speaker and with us that is personal, moving, isolated, lonely, and longing. In a shattered world we recognize as very close to ours and also see as an exotic destination, there is a song overall as if we were hearing it in a woods, or on the ocean, or in a city, hearing it from somewhere and compelled to find it. It's this new, essential poet. -ARTHUR VOGELSANG ETHEL RACKIN was born in Philadelphia. Her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, Court Green, Evergreen Review, Poetry East, Volt, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA from Bard College and her PhD in English Literature from Princeton University. She has taught at Penn State Brandywine, Haverford College, and Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania, where she is currently an assistant professor.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( 30 December 1865 - 18 January 1936)was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his tales and poems ofBritish soldiers in India, and his tales for children. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. He was born in Bombay, in the Bombay Presidency of British India, and was taken by his family to England when he was five years old. Kipling is best known for his works of fiction, including The Jungle Book (a collection of stories which includes "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"), Just So Stories (1902) (1894), Kim (1901) (a tale of adventure), many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888); and his poems, including "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The White Man's Burden" (1899) and "If-" (1910). He is regarded as a major "innovator in the art of the short story"; his children's books are enduring classics of children's literature; and his best works are said to exhibit "a versatile and luminous narrative gift." -wikipedia

For young writers, a beautiful blank book with lined pages, perfect for keeping a journal or jotting down story and poem ideas

A powerful example of a sincere effort to practice what you live and what you preach. Making Gumbo helps us feel the discomfort that naturally occurs when an institution pursues diversity. It places the responsibility for diversity at all levels of the university, but emphasizes the critical role of leadership in this effort. Such leadership must at minimum be unwavering in its commitment to diversity and willing to take risks for change.
Craig C. Brookins, Director, Africana Studies, NC State University
The truths that come out here show what diversity really means. Particularly interesting were the challenges that Nacoste faced while trying to change the diversity culture at a major university in the South from one of entitlement to one of engagement. The struggles that Nacoste faced leading the diversity effort at North Carolina State University put him in the middle between a conservative, old-school black community both on campus and off, and an administration that was determined to not have race issues be front page news.
I know about this first hand because I was there and I was part of this story.
Stuart L. Cooper, former Provost at North Carolina State University
Dr. Nacoste convincingly establishes an unsettling truth: conflict is not only a necessary consequence of true diversity, it is the essence of diversity. . . I am reminded of the countless times I witnessed him address a rapt audience. He is a force of nature. With his booming voice, confident stride and dramatic presence, he demands attention. Often, his message was one of elegant simplicity: that people have profound effects on one another. Our attempts to navigate these effects comprise the central narrative of humanity. In Making Gumbo, Dr. Nacoste lends his distinct and assured voice to a nation confronted anew with perplexing questions of diversity.
Brandon Buskey, NCSU Graduate, Staff Attorney, Equal Justice Initiative
Nacoste chooses the tantalizing metaphor of a gumbo to paint a picture of the powerful and intellectually stimulating life of a research university campus alive with diversity. He understands and communicates the value of a fundamental and clearly understood mission as the roux on which this delightful dish is built. He illustrates the essential importance of each ingredient in this gumbo-human beings with their history, their prejudices, their desire to learn. He celebrates the intellectual joy that comes with conflicts of ideas.
Nacoste writes a prescription for taking learning organizations of all kinds to high levels of true productivity, through the very practical implementation of ways to capitalize on the conflict of ideas with which a truly diverse community seethes.
C. Frank Abrams, Professor emeritus, Former Senior Vice Provost and Chief of Staff, North Carolina State University

"What It Takes: Academic Writing in College "prepares the reader for the most common college writing assignments: the summary, the critique, the synthesis, and the analysis.

This book is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS series. The creators of this series are united by passion for literature and driven by the intention of making all public domain books available in printed format again - worldwide. At tredition we believe that a great book never goes out of style. Several mostly non-profit literature projects provide content to tredition. To support their good work, tredition donates a portion of the proceeds from each sold copy. As a reader of a TREDITION CLASSICS book, you support our mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion.

In Write Your Own Business Case Studies, Paula guides you through topic and customer selection, interviewing, structuring the case study, and in-depth writing and editing instruction. You'll learn how something so well known as the story structure from books and movies can bring your business case studies to life and give your company the edge in a highly competitive world. You'll learn the importance of WIIFM (What's in it forme) and why you must understand and provide for the needs of your reader if you want to succeed. When the case study is done, you'll hold onto your notes to re-use for five more marketing pieces. In part two of the book you'll use this information to write handouts, media releases, articles, blog posts, and eblasts.

Full time writers need a constant supply of fresh ideas so that their stories and articles will catch an editor's eye. But how easy are ideas to catch? The truth is that ideas rain down on us, mostly when we aren't expecting them. But most people have very big umbrellas, which ideas bounce off without being noticed. Ideas are tricky things. They're ephemeral. You can't see them, or take hold of them. They're also invisible, but like radio waves, they're everywhere. So if you need to capture them, then this book is for you. Linda's book will show you not only how to catch the ideas, but how to turn those ideas into stories and articles, how to deal with writer's block and how to make your twist endings work. If you yearn for easy-to-read no-nonsense advice, then The Writer's Treasury of Ideas is for you!

Writing and selling nonfiction magazine articles for children and teenagers can be rewarding and lucrative. The tools of the trade I discuss in this book will enable you to snare article assignments and sell articles whether or not you have been published. If you are not a published writer, writing nonfiction for children and teens is an accessible and ideal method of breaking into print. It also provides a reliable, ongoing source of assignments and markets for experienced, widely published authors. Children and teen magazine editors are hungry for well-researched, well-written nonfiction, and the chances of selling magazine nonfiction are far greater than those of selling fiction. Selling nonfiction magazine articles is also far easier than selling nonfiction or fiction books. The fact that most magazines are published monthly gives magazine editors a greater ongoing need for new material. The need for children's magazine nonfiction one of the best kept secrets in the trade. At the risk of divulging well-kept secrets and tips for succeeding in this market, I've written this book to provide a comprehensive guide to planning, researching, writing, and marketing magazine nonfiction for children and teens. There are books out there on writing nonfiction in general and on magazine nonfiction in general, but they offer limited insight into the specifics of writing and selling articles for children and teens. This book will give you the specifics you need to get started in a richly fulfilling and financially rewarding full- or part-time career. Welcome to the exciting world of children's nonfiction articles, and enjoy the journey towards success as you explore this Treasure Trove of Opportunity.

De Profundis (Latin: "from the depths") is a 50,000 word letter written by Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol, to Lord Alfred Douglas, his lover. Wilde wrote the letter between January and March 1897; he was not allowed to send it, but took it with him upon release. In it he repudiates Lord Alfred for what Wilde finally sees as his arrogance and vanity; he had not forgotten Douglas's remark, when he was ill, "When you are not on your pedestal you are not interesting." He also felt redemption and fulfillment in his ordeal, realizing that his hardship had filled the soul with the fruit of experience, however bitter it tasted at the time.