A fifty percent revision of a popular Complete Idiot's Guide that now, more than ever, offers readers a thorough, creative writing class in a book, with Dr. Laurie Rozakis as their teacher. The book is refocused to more of an academic approach. Readers can begin to unlock their creativity from the first page, with fabulous exercises that help them explore their talents and experiment with different genres and forms of writing, including: • •Short stories •Narrative nonfiction •Memoirs •Magazine articles •Poetry •Drama •Blogging and freewriting

Unlock your creativity and choose the genre of writing that suits you best Do you have an idea that you’re burning to get down on paper? Do you want to document your travels to far-flung places, or write a few stanzas of poetry? Whether you dream of being a novelist, a travel writer, a poet, a playwright or a columnist, Creative Writing For Dummies shows you how to unlock your creativity and choose the genre of writing that suits you best. Walking you through characterisation, setting, dialogue and plot, as well as giving expert insights into both fiction and non-fiction, it’s the ideal launching pad to the world of creative writing. Creative Writing For Dummies covers: Part I: Getting started Chapter 1: Can Everyone Write? Chapter 2: Getting into the Write Mind Chapter 3: Finding the Material to work with Part II: The Elements of Creative Writing Chapter 4: Creating Characters Chapter 5: Discovering Dialogue Chapter 6: Who is telling the story? Chapter 7: Creating your own world Chapter 8: Plotting your way Chapter 9: Creating a Structure Chapter 10: Rewriting and editing Part III: Different Kinds of Fiction Writing Chapter 11: Short stories Chapter 12: Novels Chapter 13: Writing for children Chapter 14: Plays Chapter 15: Screenplays Chapter 16: Poetry Part IV: Different kinds of Non-fiction writing Chapter 17: Breaking into journalism - Writing articles/ magazine writing Chapter 18: Writing from life and autobiography Chapter 19: Embroidering the facts: Narrative non-fiction Chapter 20: Exploring the world from your armchair - Travel writing Chapter 21: Blogging – the new big thing Part V: Finding an audience Chapter 22: Finding editors/ publishers/ agents Chapter 23: Becoming a professional Part VI: Part of Tens Chapter 24: Ten top tips for writers Chapter 25: Ten ways to get noticed

If you're reading this, you're probably a writer, or you aspire to be one. So where do you start? How do you navigate this craft and find your place in it? What's the best way to turn your thoughts and ideas into words, paragraphs, and pages? Ready, Set, Write will show you what you can write and how you can write it. You'll explore various forms of creative writing, answer questions that deepen your understanding of the craft, and stretch your author muscles as you create and polish new and original works. You'll learn how to stay motivated and inspired, and you'll put together your own writer's tool kit packed with everything you need to do your work. Plus, you'll get tons of writing tips to help you write more and write better. Created for hobbyists and aspiring professionals alike, Ready, Set, Write is structured to be used by individuals or in the classroom. Ideal for young and new writers, it also works as a refresher for seasoned scribes. Are you ready to start your writing adventure? Ready, Set, Write: A Guide to Creative Writing will show you the way.

A provocative scholar delivers the first book on the new science of storytelling: the latest thinking on why we tell stories and what stories reveal about human nature.

A guide to writing fiction.

'Into The Woods' is a revelation of the fundamental structure and meaning of all stories from the man responsible for more hours of drama on British television than anyone else, John Yorke. We all love stories. Many of us love to tell them, and even dream of making a living from them. But what is a story? Hundreds of books about screenwriting and storytelling have been written, but none of them ask 'Why?' Why do we tell stories? And why do all stories function in an eerily similar way?

Now expanded: The definitive visual guide to writing science fiction and fantasy—with exercises, diagrams, essays by superstar authors, and more. From the New York Times-bestselling, Nebula Award-winning author, 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 embraces 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, it features sidebars and essays—most original to the book—from some of the biggest names working in the field today, among them George R. R. Martin, Lev Grossman, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, Charles Yu, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Karen Joy Fowler. For the fifth anniversary of the original publication, Jeff VanderMeer has added fifty more pages of diagrams, illustrations, and writing exercises, creating the ultimate volume of inspiring advice. “One book that every speculative fiction writer should read to learn about proper worldbuilding.” —Bustle “A treat . . . gorgeous to page through.” —Space.com