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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.
Narrative nonfiction, also known as creative nonfiction or literary nonfiction, is true stories told using literary techniques and creativity. Narrative nonfiction essays are often featured in magazines such as Esquire, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Harper's. Book-length narrative nonfiction works have grown in popularity since Truman Capote published In Cold Blood in 1965. Nonfiction works such as Into Thin Air, The Orchid Thief, The Perfect Storm, and Seabiscuit have smashed sales records and brought the genre into focus for the mainstream. With the rise of self-publishing and blogs comes a new generation of writers who want to tell their stories to a wider audience. The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Writing Nonfiction gives narrative nonfiction writers the instruction and tools they need to elevate their storytelling to an art form that appeals to more readers. In this book readers learn: What narrative nonfiction is. The literary building blocks of narrative nonfiction. How to research nonfiction subjects. Tricks for remembering details of events from one's own life story. How to conduct interviews for a book or article. How to find inspiration when writing nonfiction stories. Word choice and grammar help. How to overcome roadblocks such as stalled motivation and inhibitions when writing about real, living people. How to craft several types of narrative nonfiction by example. How to find markets for their work and get published. In addition, author Christina Boufis interviews successful narrative nonfiction writers in many subgenres and gets their insights on what inspires them and how they overcome their own obstacles.
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.’”
This comprehensive guide introduces aspiring storytellers to the ins and outs of writing fiction and nonfiction for young adults. Information includes an overview of writing, from dialogue and point of view to plot, setting, and character construction; choosing an agent and publisher; marketing the finished work, and more. Written by an experienced author who has written, edited, and published books for young adults. Features writing exercises, anecdotes, and insider information. According to a 1998 survey report of the National Center for Education Statistics, young adults between the ages of 12 and 18 represent 25% of all public library patrons. YA is a popular and lucrative genre for aspiring and seasoned authors alike, both in fiction and nonfiction.
“Why are most plants green?” Why doesn’t stomach acid dissolve the stomach itself? Why are there more tornados in the Midwest than on the coast? This volume answers these questions and over 200 more, shedding light on the science behind them. As informative as it is entertaining, it addresses every major branch of science, including physics, chemistry, biology, geology, meteorology, astronomy, and cosmology. It highlights some of the big ideas that helped shape science as we know it, and discusses the future of science with regards to nanotechnology, genetic modification, molecular medicine, and string theory. • Complete Idiot’s Guides® have a proven track record of simplifying science with great success, as with volumes on physics and chemistry. •Entertaining scientific overviews of this kind also successful, including such titles as The Pocket Idiot’s Guide™ to Not-So-Useless Facts and The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Understanding Einstein.
Covers the field of technical writing, providing information on such topics as building a portfolio, writing an effective resume, finding well-paying jobs, passing a writing exam, and creating a document online.
The essential guide to looking at literature with your own two eyes. What students know about Shakespeare, Orwell, Dickens, and Twain is primarily what their instructors tell them. Here’s a book that teaches the students how to move on to the next level—evaluate and read critically on their own, trust their own opinions, develop original ideas, analyze characters, and find a deeper appreciation for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and more. • Ideal companion for college students and accessible for the casual reader as well. • Covers fiction, poetry, narrative nonfiction, biographies and memoirs, essays and editorials, and newspapers, magazines, and journals. • Features examples from published writing. • Includes a reading list and a glossary of literary terms.
Covers all elements of effective and grammatically-correct writing, including electronic formats, for any type of situation from research papers to business memos.
This guide gives new and experienced authors tips, advice and practical step-by-step instructions for writing book proposals and query letters, pitching ideas to agents and editors and writing outlines and sample chapters.
