Writing

Story Engineering starts with the criteria and the architecture of storytelling, the engineering and design of a story--and uses it as the basis for narrative. The greatest potential of any story is found in the way six specific aspects of storytelling combine and empower each other on the page. When rendered artfully, they become a sum in excess of their parts.

Point of view (POV) is one of the most powerful tools in a writer’s kit, but it’s also one of the hardest to understand and master. Sandra Gerth explains the different types of POV found within fiction, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each. She also explains common issues encountered when working with the different types of POV.

This book is only available in digital format only.

Structure is Character. Characters are what they do. Story events impact the characters and the characters impact events. Actions and reactions create revelation and insight, opening the door to a meaningful emotional experience for the audience. Story is what elevates a film, a novel, a play, or teleplay, transforming a good work into a great one.

This book is for developmental editing, but it is NOT an early craft book. This book assumes that you have some basic knowledge of storytelling. While it does define the terms, the way it is structured and presents ideas does require the more advanced writing knowledge. This book is for intermediate to advanced writers.

There is a lot more to the Save the Cat! model than was ever published in that first book by Blake Snyder. In fact, Blake share more of his ideas on his blog that spanned 4 years of materials. This book contains some of his more important blog post, including some of the information that was missing from the original book.

This book is your game plan for success. Using dozens of examples from his own work - including Dropshot, Tiebreaker and other popular novels - Jack M. Bickham will guide you in building a sturdy framework for your novel, whatever its form or length.

Super Structure represents over two decades of research on what makes a novel or screenplay entertaining, commercial, original, and irresistible. Contrary to what some may think, structure is not a nasty inhibitor of creativity. Quite the opposite. Properly understood and utilized, structure is what translates story into a form readers are wired to receive it.

And it is only when readers truly connect with your story that they turn from casual readers into fans.

This book delves into the story structure model that James Scott Bell uses himself to write his novels... and it's slightly different to the traditional three-act structure.

When you choose a character’s job with care you gain a way to show-not-tell their personality, skills, interests, priorities, beliefs, and more. Plus, you can use it to generate conflict, provide a route to goals and dreams, and showcase key relationships. If you need a guide to finding and describing the perfect job for your character that will further the story, this is it!

What's the best way to write a "next level" novel? Some writers start at the beginning and let the story unfold without a plan. They are called "pantsers," because they write by the "seat of the pants." Other writers plan and outline and know the ending before they start. These are the "plotters." The two sides never seem to agree with each other on the best approach. But what if it's not the beginning or the end that is the key to a successful book? What if, amazing as it may seem, the place to begin writing your novel is in the very middle of the story? According to #1 bestselling writing teacher James Scott Bell, that's exactly where you'll find your story's heart and heat. Bell's "Mirror Moment" is the secret, and its power is available to any writer, at any stage of the writing process.

Take advantage of the six most common transformational character arcs found in story. Use these beats to craft engaging stories.

Don't sabotage your chances of selling your work to readers or publishers because the dialogue is unexceptional. Dazzle them with what the characters say. How to Write Dazzling Dialogue will give you the tools to do it.

This book takes you through examples from published works and shows you how dialogue works—and how you can make it better.

What makes a person commit a white-collar crime? Who is a likely candidate to join a cult? Why do children have imaginary friends? How does birth order affect whether or not a person gets married? When does mind over matter become a crippling problem?

Writer's Guide to Character Traits, 2nd edition answers all of these questions and many others. With more than 400 easy-to-reference lists of traits blended from a variety of behaviors and influences, you'll gain the knowledge you need to create distinctive characters whose personalities correspond to their thoughts and actions - no matter how normal or psychotic they might be.

Deep POV takes the reader and places them inside of our characters—hearing their thoughts, feeling their emotions, and living the story through them. Compared to other writing styles, it builds a stronger emotional connection between the reader and our characters, creates the feeling of a faster pace, and helps avoid point-of-view errors and telling rather than showing.

This book provides a general overview of the concepts needed to develop the skills to write deep POV.

Writers know that their characters and stories should be multi-layered and believable. Now here’s a simple workbook that uses the same knowledge that gives therapists insight into human behaviour to create fiction that hits the mark.

Crafting good fiction isn't an impossible feat. You just need a dose of fiction magic.

Hundreds of books have been written on the art of writing. Here at last is a book by two professional editors to teach writers the techniques of the editing trade that turn promising manuscripts into published novels and short stories.

This book contains exercises for editing, along with worked examples, so you can compare how you would edit something against how the professional editors would do the same edits. It's a handy resource for one just learning how the editing process works.

In 2012, fiction author Monica Leonelle made a life-changing decision to learn to write faster. Through months of trial-and-error, hundreds of hours of experimentation, and dozens of manuscripts, she tweaked and honed until she could easily write 10,000 words in a day, at speeds over 3500+ words per hour!Write Better, Faster: How To Triple Your Writing Speed and Write More Every Day will help you kick your excuses and get more writing done. As part of the Growth Hacking For Storytellers series, it explores how to hack your writing routine to be more efficient, more productive, and have a ton of fun in the process!

Every story starts with a character motivated by a need and a goal that can resolve it. Physical obstacles, adversaries, moral dilemmas, deep-seated doubts and personal struggles…conflict keeps the plot fresh, challenges characters as they traverse their arc, builds tension and high stakes, and most importantly, keeps readers emotionally invested from beginning to end.

Feeling overwhelmed? Panicked?
Frustrated by trying to juggle life, writing and the business of being an author?

Don’t worry, you are not alone. Author Overwhelm is a common and not unsurprising side-effect of being an author today.

Beat Author Overwhelm with this informative, honest and
practical guide that’s full of tips and techniques to become more focused and less stressed. Together, we’ll help you form an action plan that’ll help you manage your time, social media, marketing and actually getting those words written.

The SPA Girls (SPA = Self Publishing Authors) are Cheryl Phipps, Wendy Vella, Trudi Jaye and Shar Barratt. Together, they host a popular weekly podcast, The SPA Girls Podcast, that features an honest, raw and often hilarious take on their own self-publishing adventures. Their mission is to deliver advice, resources, interviews and self-publishing best practices to help fellow authors succeed in this exciting new world.

For inspiration, advice and full podcast episodes, visit us at SpaGirlsPodcast.

While writers might disagree over showing versus telling or plotting versus pantsing, none would argue this: If you want to write strong fiction, you must make your readers feel. The reader's experience must be an emotional journey of its own, one as involving as your characters' struggles, discoveries, and triumphs are for you.

This book takes writers through a series of exercises designed to encourage you to go deeper into your stories and creating emotionally engaging writing.

The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Volume 2) explores more ways to activate story conflict and tension and serves up 115 more scenarios that lead to power struggles, lost advantages, dangers, threats, ego-related conflicts, and more. Use this guide to plot fresh challenges and story problems that will trip your characters up and force them to strive harder to win.