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Learn how to write your memoir—and get published—with the help of two well-known publishing professionals   Everyone has a story to tell. Your Life is a Book guides budding writers though the transformative process of memoir writing to publication. In addition to exploring the unique elements of crafting a memoir—story arc, point of view, dialogue, where to start (not the beginning!)—Your Life is a Book also focuses on the self-exploration, awareness, and understanding that this emotional litera...

An indispensable combination of 200 best loved hymns, poems and readings for every occasion, and ideal for personal reflection. Complete with a brief introduction to each piece and its author, this book is a wonderful personal reference and devotional guide. From Away in a Manger to God Save the Queen, and the famous Bible passage on love, 1 Corinthians 13, to Tennyson's Crossing the Bar, it has passages suitable for every occasion, and has all you need to plan a baptism, a wedding or,...

"The Bedford Handbook "carries on the Hacker tradition by responding to student writers needs and to the way students need their handbook to work. Still a full-size handbook that doubles as a reference, the "Handbook "features clear, straightforward advice, hand-edited sentences, a user-friendly index, and a handy format. The eighth edition combines classic Hacker usability with a next-generation focus on academic writing and research and new navigation that helps students pull together advice a...

Wallace Stegner founded the acclaimed Stanford Writing Program-a program whose alumni include such literary luminaries as Larry McMurtry, Robert Stone, and Raymond Carver. Here Lynn Stegner brings together eight of Stegner's previously uncollected essays-including four never-before-published pieces -on writing fiction and teaching creative writing. In this unique collection he addresses every aspect of fiction writing-from the writer's vision to his or her audience, from the use of symbolism to...

This new edition of Writing Television Sitcoms features the essential information every would-be teleplay writer needs to know to break into the business, including: - Updated examples from contemporary shows such as 30 Rock, The Office and South Park - Shifts in how modern stories are structured - How to recognize changes in taste and censorship - The reality of reality television - How the Internet has created series development opportunities - A refined strategy for approaching agents a...

One of the English language's most skilled and beloved writers guides us all towards precise, mistake-free usage. In the middle 1980s Bill Bryson was a copy editor for the London Times with the brash idea that he could fill a hole in the British book market for a concise, accessible, handy guide to proper usage. A complete unknown, he nonetheless sold Penguin Books on the idea, and the result was The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words, which sold decently enough on both sides of the Atlant...

Every Writer Needs One Book that Jump-Starts a Writing Career. This Book Is It. In this one-stop writing resources, Sally Stuart will tell you how to: •Find the publisher you want •Write a professional query letter or book proposal •Approach and work with editors •Decipher copyright and tax laws •Negotiate contracts •Manage the writing life •Set up a home office •Develop your book and article ideas With practical tips and anecdotes, technical details and legal helps, this essential compendium...

  These days fact-checking can seem like a lost art.  The Fact Checker's Bible arrives not a moment too soon: it is the first—and essential—guide to the important but increasingly neglected task of checking facts, whatever their source.We are all overwhelmed with information that claims to be factual, but even the most punctilious researcher, writer, and journalist can sometimes get it wrong, so checking facts has become a more pressing task.  Now Sarah Harrison Smith, former New Yorker fact che...

In this brilliantly imagined book, author Danell Jones mines the diaries, essays, correspondence, and fiction of a literary legend to create an unforgettable master class in the art of writing. Using Virginia Woolf’s own words, this inspiring, instructive, and entertaining guide will delight fans, students, and teachers alike—and at last give Woolf a classroom of her own. Imagine what it might be like if Virginia Woolf were teaching a writers’ workshop. What would she say? What elements of her...

For decades, Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434 class at UCLA has been the premier screenwriting course, launching a generation of the industry's most frequently produced writers. Here, he shares the secrets of his course on the screenwriting process by actually writing an original script, step by step, that appears in the book.

This all-new guide to english is designed to be user-friendly.  Its innovative A-to-Z dictionary format lets you find the answers to your questions about grammar, punctuation, and preferred usage quickly and easily.  Simply look up the problem areas as you would look up a word in the dictionary.  It's just that simple and time-saving.  A glossary of terms and plentiful cross-references offer even more help when you need it.  Created by a leading expert in linguistics and lexicography.  Covers al...

From Rosalie Maggio, author of the bestselling How to Say It, comes a quick guide to composing perfect prose. This ideal writer’s companion provides succinct solutions to the most common writing problems, and gives you all the information you need to write powerful and persuasive prose.   The How to Say It Style Guide begins with a brief introduction to the eighteen rules every writer must know. It moves quickly on to an A-to-Z guide that offers clear, easy-to-find answers to all your writing...

Learn how to persuade cats—the world’s most skeptical and cautious negotiators—with this primer on rhetoric and argument from the New York Times bestselling author of Thank You for Arguing! Cats are skilled manipulators who can talk you into just about anything without a single word (or maybe a meow or two). They can get you to drop whatever you’re doing and play with them. They can make you serve their dinner way ahead of schedule. They can get you to sit down right this instant and provide a...

We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? A look at most neighborhood signage tells a different story. Through sloppy usage and low standards on the internet, in email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a...

Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy, I have a hot crush on the em dash. What does my need to stuff—while simultaneously fracturing—my sentences—with the meandering, the explanatory, the discursive, the perhaps not-entirely-necessary—say about me?   —Cheryl Strayed Have you ever wished there were an advice columnist for writers, but one who didn’t take things so damned seriously? This unique writing guide pairs questions sent in by top contemporary essayists with hilariously witty answers and essays fr...

In a fast-paced workplace, where emails fly at lightning speed, precision and brevity are essential for good communication. But all too often we let spell-checkers do the dirty work—because many of us have forgotten the simple grammar rules we learned in school.   In How Not to Write, Terence Denman, instructor with the U.K.-based Plain English Campaign, sets out the top 10 grammar myths and the 10 grammar rules to live and work by. Readers will learn to:        •  Position prepositions    ...

From the BAFTA-winning team the Brothers McLeod, this is an interactive book full of activities you can fill in, from drawings of peculiar creatures and names for new inventions to maps of imaginary places and designs for impossible buildings. Each page contains a challenge, suggestion or idea, often accompanied by Greg's and Myles's initial attempts at the same activity. Give your imagination a workout by matching your wits against theirs or simply try to outdo yourself in creativity and inven...

While most screenwriting books focus on format and structure, Kate Wright explains how to put story at the center of a screenplay. A compelling story, complete with intriguing characters and situations created with these screenwriting tricks of the trade can become a box office blockbuster film. Screenwriters will learn: - Developing themes within the plot - Using structure to define the story - Creating memorable characters - Establishing moral dilemmas and conflicts - Achieving classic elem...