Storycraft, Second Edition

Storycraft, Second Edition
Author: Jack Hart
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2021-04-08
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 022673708X

Jack Hart, master writing coach and former managing editor of the Oregonian, has guided several Pulitzer Prize–winning narratives to publication. Since its publication in 2011, his book Storycraft has become the definitive guide to crafting narrative nonfiction. This is the book to read to learn the art of storytelling as embodied in the work of writers such as David Grann, Mary Roach, Tracy Kidder, and John McPhee. In this new edition, Hart has expanded the book’s range to delve into podcasting and has incorporated new insights from recent research into storytelling and the brain. He has also added dozens of new examples that illustrate effective narrative nonfiction. This edition of Storycraft is also paired with Wordcraft, a new incarnation of Hart’s earlier book A Writer’s Coach, now also available from Chicago.

Writing Creative Nonfiction

Writing Creative Nonfiction
Author: Philip Gerard
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2001-05-10
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1884910505

Experience the power and the promise of working in today' most exciting literary form: Creative Nonfiction Writing Creative Nonfiction presents more than thirty essays examining every key element of the craft, from researching ideas and structuring the story, to reportage and personal reflection. You'll learn from some of today's top creative nonfiction writers, including: • Terry Tempest Williams - Analyze your motivation for writing, its value, and its strength. • Alan Cheuse - Discover how interesting, compelling essays can be drawn from every corner of your life and the world in which you live. • Phillip Lopate - Build your narrator–yourself–into a fully fleshed-out character, giving your readers a clearer, more compelling idea of who is speaking and why they should listen. • Robin Hemley - Develop a narrative strategy for structuring your story and making it cohesive. • Carolyn Forche - Master the journalistic ethics of creative nonfiction. • Dinty W. Moore - Use satire, exaggeration, juxtaposition, and other forms of humor in creative nonfiction. • Philip Gerard - Understand the narrative stance–why and how an author should, or should not, enter into the story. Through insightful prompts and exercises, these contributors help make the challenge of writing creative nonfiction–whether biography, true-life adventure, memoir, or narrative history–a welcome, rewarding endeavor. You'll also find an exciting, creative nonfiction "reader" comprising the final third of the book, featuring pieces from Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard, Beverly Lowry, Phillip Lopate, and more–selections so extraordinary, they will teach, delight, inspire, and entertain you for years to come!

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

You Can't Make This Stuff Up
Author: Lee Gutkind
Publisher: Hachette+ORM
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2012-07-03
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0738215864

From "the godfather behind creative nonfiction" (Vanity Fair) comes this indispensable how-to for nonfiction writers of all levels and genres, "reminiscent of Stephen King's fiction handbook On Writing" (Kirkus). Whether you're writing a rags-to-riches tell-all memoir or literary journalism, telling true stories well is hard work. In You Can't Make This Stuff Up, Lee Gutkind, the go-to expert for all things creative nonfiction, offers his unvarnished wisdom to help you craft the best writing possible. Frank, to-the-point, and always entertaining, Gutkind describes and illustrates every aspect of the genre. Invaluable tools and exercises illuminate key steps, from defining a concept and establishing a writing process to the final product. Offering new ways of understanding the genre, this practical guidebook will help you thoroughly expand and stylize your work.

Voice and Vision

Voice and Vision
Author: Stephen J. Pyne
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2009-05-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0674054458

It has become commonplace these days to speak of “unpacking” texts. Voice and Vision is a book about packing that prose in the first place. While history is scholarship, it is also art—that is, literature. And while it has no need to emulate fiction, slump into memoir, or become self-referential text, its composition does need to be conscious and informed. Voice and Vision is for those who wish to understand the ways in which literary considerations can enhance nonfiction writing. At issue is not whether writing is scholarly or popular, narrative or analytical, but whether it is good. Fiction has guidebooks galore; journalism has shelves stocked with manuals; certain hybrids such as creative nonfiction and the new journalism have evolved standards, esthetics, and justifications for how to transfer the dominant modes of fiction to topics in nonfiction. But history and other serious or scholarly nonfiction have nothing comparable. Now this curious omission is addressed by Stephen Pyne as he analyzes and teaches the craft that undergirds whole realms of nonfiction and book-based academic disciplines. With eminent good sense concerning the unique problems posed by research-based writing and with a wealth of examples from accomplished writers, Pyne, an experienced and skilled writer himself, explores the many ways to understand what makes good nonfiction, and explains how to achieve it. His counsel and guidance will be invaluable to experts as well as novices in the art of writing serious and scholarly nonfiction.

On Writing Well

On Writing Well
Author: William Knowlton Zinsser
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1985
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

On Writing Well, which grew out of a course that William Zinsser taught at Yale, has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity, and for the warmth of its style. It is a book for anybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts, or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you both fundamental principles as well as the insights of a distinguished practitioner. How to Write a Memoir tells you how to write the story of your life. Everyone has a story - whether you're a professional writer or just want to validate your personal and family reminiscences, William Zinsser explains how to do it, and do it well.

Writing the Nonfiction Book

Writing the Nonfiction Book
Author: Eva Shaw
Publisher: Rodgers & Nelsen Publishing Company
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1999
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

Methods outlined in this book are easy-to-follow steps for formatting, completing, and marketing a nonfiction book. The most popular subjects for nonfiction books are covered, along with writing instructions and painless tips for self-publishing. Included is information on finding an agent and book publisher.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Nonfiction

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Nonfiction
Author: Christina Boufis
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2014-05-14
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 110159828X

Get all the tools you need to craft compelling creative nonfiction prose. This helpful guide gives you everything you need to write real-life characters, compelling plots, natural dialogue, and captivating details.

How To Write Non-Fiction

How To Write Non-Fiction
Author: Joanna Penn
Publisher:
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2018-11-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781912105021

" ... includes the business models of writing non-fiction, the details of how to research, write and edit your book, as well as publishing, product creation and marketing."--Cover.

The African American Guide to Writing & Publishing Non Fiction

The African American Guide to Writing & Publishing Non Fiction
Author: Jewell Parker Rhodes
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2002-02-05
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0767910850

In college and graduate school, Jewell Parker Rhodes never encountered a single reading assignment or exercise that featured a person of color. Now she has made it her mission to rectify the situation, gathering advice and inspiring tips tailored for African Americans seeking to express their life experiences. Comprehensive and totally energizing, the African American Guide to Writing and Publishing Nonfiction bursts with supportive topics such as: ·Finding your voice ·Getting to know your literary ancestors ·Overcoming a bruised ego and finding the determination to pursue your dreams ·Gathering material and conducting research ·Tapping sweet, bittersweet, and joyful memories ·Knowing when to keep revising, and when to let go The guide also features unforgettable excerpts from luminaries such as Maya Angelou, Brent Staples, Houston Baker, and pointers from bestselling African American authors Patrice Gaines, E. Lynn Harris, James McBride, John Hope Franklin, Pearl Cleage, Edwidge Danticat, and many others. It is a uniquely nurturing and informative touchstone for affirming, bearing witness, leaving a legacy, and celebrating the remarkable journey of the self.

Bird by Bird

Bird by Bird
Author: Anne Lamott
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2007-12-18
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0307424987

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. Anne Lamott is "a warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps" (Los Angeles Times). “Superb writing advice…. Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.” —The New York Times Book Review For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title: “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”