Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

by Anne Lamott

A step-by-step guide to writing and managing the writer's life covers each portion of a written project, addresses such concerns as writer's block and getting published, and offers awareness and survival tips. Reprint. Tour. K. NYT.

The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories

The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories

by Christopher Booker

This remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of 'basic stories' in the world. Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, it shows that there are seven archetypal themes which recur throughout every kind of... (more)

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

by Natalie Goldberg

A splendid combination of Zen wisdom and down-to-earth advice about writing.

Writing for the Soul: Instruction And Advice from an Extraordinary Writing Life

Writing for the Soul: Instruction And Advice from an Extraordinary Writing Life

by Jerry B. Jenkins

In Writing for the Soul, best-selling author Jerry B. Jenkins takes you on a personal and inspiring journey, imparting experience and wisdom gained from his impressive writing career. Unknown in his early days, Jenkins persisted in his passion to write, and his story reveals the rewards that can come to writers who put in the hard work and keep their priorities straight. Jenkins shares the honest and... (more)

The I Ching for Writers: Finding the Page Inside You

The I Ching for Writers: Finding the Page Inside You

by Sarah Sloane

The ancient oracle system of I Ching has provided guidance to wisdom seekers for 5,000 years. Now writers seeking ideas and motivation can take advantage of these ancient predictions, recast by Sarah Jane Sloane into relevant suggestions for contemporary writers. Each of the I Ching's 64 hexagrams, interpreted by Sloane from years of study as well as from comparisons of over fifty translations, offers commentary... (more)

The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books

The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books

What if you asked 125 top writers to pick their favorite books? Which titles would come out on top? You'll find the answer in The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books : the ultimate guide to the world's greatest books. As writers such as Norman Mailer, Annie Proulx, Stephen King, Jonathan Franzen, Claire Messud, Margaret Drabble, Michael Chabon and Peter Carey name the ten books that have meant the... (more)

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print

by Renni Browne

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. In this completely revised and updated second edition, Renni Browne and Dave King teach you, the writer, how to apply the editing techniques they have developed to your own work.... (more)

The New New Journalism: Conversations with America's Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft

The New New Journalism: Conversations with America's Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft

by Robert Boynton

Forty years after Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, and Gay Talese launched the New Journalism movement, Robert S. Boynton sits down with nineteen practitioners of what he calls the New New Journalism to discuss their methods, writings and careers. The New New Journalists are first and foremost brilliant reporters who immerse themselves completely in their subjects. Jon Krakauer accompanies a mountaineering... (more)

Your Novel Proposal: From Creation to Contract : The Complete Guide to Writing Query Letters, Synopses and Proposals for Agents and Editors

Your Novel Proposal: From Creation to Contract : The Complete Guide to Writing Query Letters, Synopses and Proposals for Agents and Editors

by Blythe Camenson

The only guide of its kind created just for fiction writers. Drawing upon the insights of experienced authors, editors and agents, it provides writers with crucial information needed to get published in today's rapidly-changing fiction industry. Using examples from real novel proposals, this guide illustrates all the do's and don't of pitching a manuscript, including how to: -target the right... (more)

Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors

Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors

by Bill Bryson

From one of America's most beloved and bestselling authors, a wonderfully useful and readable guide to the problems of the English language most commonly encountered by editors and writers. What is the difference between “immanent” and “imminent”? What is the singular form of graffiti? What is the difference between “acute” and “chronic”? What is the former name of “Moldova”? What is the difference between a... (more)

Smart Words: Vocabulary for the Erudite

by Mim Harrison

How and where to use 500 of the words that make you sound more cultured, worldly, and downright smart. Whoever said sounding smart had to be painful? It’s all in how you acquire the “ten-dollar words” of English. Smart Words makes fast and smooth learning of words such as prelapsarian , sedulous , sybaritic and draconian . How? By sticking to ultra-simple definitions, then offering a memorable—and often... (more)

A Working Writer's Daily Planner 2010: Your Year in Writing

A Working Writer's Daily Planner 2010: Your Year in Writing

“I am ticking off the days until I can get my Working Writer's Daily Planner . All work is at a complete stop until its arrival.”—Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club Are you a writer? Is someone you know a writer? Then you’re familiar with how challenging it is to keep up with all the daily tasks (besides making tea, playing solitaire, doing dishes, checking e-mail, making more tea, and—oh... (more)

The Elements of Style

by William Strunk, Jr., E. B. White

The Virginia house-wife

by Mary Randolph

First published in 1825, The Virginia House-Wife was the most influential cookbook in nineteenth-century America. Considered the ultimate how-to cookbook, it rivals some of the currently popular cookbooks with its commonsense knowledge and advice which remains practical to this day.

Anguished English : an anthology of accidental assaults upon the English language

Anguished English : an anthology of accidental assaults upon the English language

by Richard Lederer

Anguished English is the impossibly funny anthology of accidental assaults upon our common language. From bloopers and blunders to Signs of the Times to Mixed-Up Metaphors . . . from Two-Headed Headlines to Mangling Modifiers . . . it's a collection that will leave you roaring with delight and laughter.

The Daily Writer: 366 Meditations to Cultivate a Productive and Meaningful Writing Life

The Daily Writer: 366 Meditations to Cultivate a Productive and Meaningful Writing Life

by Fred D. White

This devotional for all writers emphasizes the importance of deep thinking in the context of writing and cultivating a meaningful writing life. Action-oriented entries prompt writers to integrate practice into their daily life and dedicate meaningful thought to their writing pursuits. From getting in a creative frame of mind to maintaining good writing habits to breaking through writer's block, this helpful guide... (more)

The Big Book of Irony

by Jon Winokur

Jon Winokur defines and classifies irony and contrasts it with coincidence and cynicism, and other oft-confused concepts that many think are ironic. He looks at the different forms irony can take, from an irony deficiency to visual irony to an understatement, using photographs and relate-able examples from pop culture. * "Irony in Action" looks at irony in language, both verbal and visual, while "Bastions... (more)

So You Want Write a Novel

by Lou Willett Stanek

You know there is a novel locked inside of you -- chock-fullof conflict, humor, irony, enthralling events and fascinatingcharacters. What you don't know is how to set it free.Practical Advice, Hands-On HelpRespected author and professional writing instructorLou Willett Stanek's New York workshops have enabledscores of aspiring novelists to realize their dreams ofcompleting credible and compelling manuscripts.... (more)

The Diaries of Dawn Powell: 1931-1965

by Dawn Powell

"The struggle chronicled in The Diaries of Dawn Powell is as brave and feisty a story as any to be found in the novels that made her Ernest Hemingway’s ‘favorite living writer."--James Wilcox, Elle Magazine WHEN DAWN POWELL'S unpublished Diaries first appeared three years ago, the book was proclaimed on the front cover of the New York Times Book Review as "one of the outstanding literary finds of the last... (more)

The Writer's I Ching: Wisdom for the Creative Life

The Writer's I Ching: Wisdom for the Creative Life

by Jessica Page Morrell

The writing life is solitary and challenging, and it takes far more than creativity to become a commercial success. The Writer's I Ching uses the ancient Chinese divination system to provide writers with help mastering the business of writing and choosing the most propitious times to take action. Because writing educators created the book, it also teaches the storyteller and non-fiction craft with lessons... (more)

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