Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint

Author: Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Writer's Digest Books
ISBN: 9780898799279
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Book Description
Vivid and memorable characters aren't born: they have to be made. &break;&break;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 memory, your imagination and your soul. &break;&break;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. &break;&break;You'll learn how to: &break; draw the characters from a variety of sources, including a story's basic idea, real life–even a character's social circumstances&break; make characters show who they are by the things they do and say, and by their individual "style"&break; develop characters readers will love–or love to hate&break; distinguish among major characters, minor characters and walk-ons, and develop each one appropriately&break; choose the most effective viewpoint to reveal the characters and move the storytelling&break; decide how deeply you should explore your characters' thoughts, emotions and attitudes

How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method

Author: Randy Ingermanson
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781500574055
Category : Creative writing
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
The Snowflake Method-ten battle-tested steps that jump-start your creativity and help you quickly map out your story.

Parting Shot

Author: Linwood Barclay
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
ISBN: 0385687176
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Book Description
From New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Linwood Barclay comes a new, standalone blockbuster thriller that spins off from the events of the explosive Promise Falls trilogy. If you made a mistake that took someone's life, you'd remember it . . . wouldn't you? After a tragedy rocks the community of Promise Falls, Cal Weaver is asked to investigate the threats being made to the accused's family. He's heard all about it on the news: the young man who drank too much, stole a Porsche and killed a girl, and who claimed afterwards not to remember a single thing. The whole town is outraged that he got off lightly, but for reasons Cal can't explain, he accepts the job. Then Cal finds himself caught up in a vicious revenge plot, chasing someone set on delivering retribution. In Cal's experience, it's only ever a matter of time before threats turn into action. . . . A gripping thriller packed with scandal, from the master of the twist you never saw coming.

How to Write a Novel

Author: Nathan Bransford
Publisher: Nathan Bransford
ISBN: 173414940X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 183

Book Description
Author and former literary agent Nathan Bransford shares his secrets for creating killer plots, fleshing out your first ideas, crafting compelling characters, and staying sane in the process. Read the guide that New York Times bestselling author Ransom Riggs called "The best how-to-write-a-novel book I've read."

Saul and Patsy

Author: Charles Baxter
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307427617
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
From the winner of the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence and “one of our most gifted writers” (Chicago Tribune), Saul and Patsy is "stunning, never predictable, glimmering fiction, full of mischief and insight" (The Los Angeles Times). Five Oaks, Michigan is not exactly where Saul and Patsy meant to end up. Both from the East Coast, they met in college, fell in love, and settled down to married life in the Midwest. Saul is Jewish and a compulsively inventive worrier; Patsy is gentile and cheerfully pragmatic. On Saul’s initiative (and to his continual dismay) they have moved to this small town–a place so devoid of irony as to be virtually “a museum of earlier American feelings”–where he has taken a job teaching high school. Soon this brainy and guiltily happy couple will find children have become a part of their lives, first their own baby daughter and then an unloved, unlovable boy named Gordy Himmelman. It is Gordy who will throw Saul and Patsy’s lives into disarray with an inscrutable act of violence. As timely as a news flash yet informed by an immemorial understanding of human character, Saul and Patsy is a genuine miracle.

Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint

Author: Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1599632691
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Book Description
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 memory, your imagination and your soul. 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 the characters from a variety of sources, including a story's basic idea, real life–even a character's social circumstances • 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 one 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

How to Write a Dynamite Scene Using the Snowflake Method

Author: Randy Ingermanson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781937031183
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy

Author: Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 158297103X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 145

Book Description
Learn to write science fiction and fantasy from a master You've always dreamed of writing science fiction and fantasy tales that pull readers into extraordinary new worlds and fantastic conflicts. Best-selling author Orson Scott Card shows you how it's done, distilling years of writing experience and publishing success into concise, no-nonsense advice. You'll learn how to: • utilize story elements that define the science fiction and fantasy genres • build, populate, and dramatize a credible, inviting world your readers will want to explore • develop the "rules" of time, space and magic that affect your world and its inhabitants • construct a compelling story by developing ideas, characters, and events that keep readers turning pages • find the markets for speculative fiction, reach them, and get published • submit queries, write cover letters, find an agent, and live the life of a writer The boundaries of your imagination are infinite. Explore them with Orson Scott Card and create fiction that casts a spell over agents, publishers, and readers from every world.

After the Plague

Author: T.C. Boyle
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110157383X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
Few authors in America write with such sheer love of story, language, and imagination as T.C. Boyle, and nowhere is that passion more evident than in his inventive, wickedly funny, and widely praised short stories. In After the Plague, Boyle speaks of contemporary social issues in a range of emotional keys. The sixteen stories gathered here address everything from air rage to abortion doctors to first love and its consequences. The collection ends with the brilliant title story, a whimsical and imaginative vision of a disease-ravaged Earth. Presented with characteristic wit and intelligence, these stories will delight readers in search of the latest news of the chaotic, disturbing, and achingly beautiful world in which we live. "Boyle's imagination and zeal for storytelling are in top form here."—Publishers Weekly

Dynamic Characters

Author: Nancy Kress
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1582976961
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
A truly unforgettable story is defined by its characters. Their motivations, their changes, their actions compel us to read on, anxiously trying to discern what will happen next. In Dynamic Characters, award-winning author and Writer's Digest columnist Nancy Kress explores the fundamental relationship between characterization and plot, illustrating how vibrant, well-constructed characters act as the driving force behind an exceptional story. Kress balances her writing instruction with hands-on checklists to help you build strong characters from the outside in. Blending physical, emotional and mental characterization, you'll learn to create characters that initiate exciting action, react to tense situations, make physical and emotional transformations, and power the plot from beginning to end.