29 Best Books on Creative Writing
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Writing Magic
- By: Gail Carson Levine
- Narrator: Gail Carson Levine
- Length: 3 hours 21 minutes
- Publisher: HarperCollins
- Publish date: September 24, 2013
- Language: English
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4.15(2734 ratings)
4.15(2734 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.99 USDFairy-tale master Gail Carson, the bestselling author of Ella Enchanted, guides writers of all ages on how to develop their craft, with practical advice and heartfelt encouragement. In Writing Magic, Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine sharesFairy-tale master Gail Carson, the bestselling author of Ella Enchanted, guides writers of all ages on how to develop their craft, with practical advice and heartfelt encouragement.
In Writing Magic, Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine shares her tricks of the trade. She shows how you can get terrific ideas for stories, invent great beginnings and endings, write sparkling dialogue, develop memorable characters–and much, much more.
She advises you about what to do when you feel stuck–and how to use helpful criticism. Best of all, she offers writing exercises that will set your imagination on fire.
With humor, honesty, and wisdom, Gail Carson Levine shows you that you, too, can make magic with your writing.
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The Best American Essays 2022
- By: Alexander Chee
- Narrator: Ewan Chung
- Length: 12 hours 54 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: November 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.1(133 ratings)
4.1(133 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDA collection of the year’s best essays, selected by award-winning writer Alexander Chee. Alexander Chee, an essayist of “virtuosity and power” (Washington Post), selects twenty essays out of thousands that represent the bestA collection of the year’s best essays, selected by award-winning writer Alexander Chee.
Alexander Chee, an essayist of “virtuosity and power” (Washington Post), selects twenty essays out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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Several Short Sentences about Writing
- By: Verlyn Klinkenborg
- Narrator: Verlyn Klinkenborg
- Length: 4 hours 26 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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4.13(2028 ratings)
4.13(2028 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.95 USDMost of what you think you know about writing is useless. It’s the harmful debris of your education–a mixture of half-truths, myths, and false assumptions that prevents you from writing well. Drawing on years of experience as a writerMost of what you think you know about writing is useless. It’s the harmful debris of your education–a mixture of half-truths, myths, and false assumptions that prevents you from writing well. Drawing on years of experience as a writer and teacher of writing, Verlyn Klinkenborg offers an approach to writing that will change the way you work and think. There is no gospel, no orthodoxy, no dogma in this book. What you’ll find here isn’t the way to write. Instead, you’ll find a way to clear your mind of illusions about writing and discover how you write.
Several Short Sentences about Writing is a book of first steps and experiments. They will revolutionize the way you think and perceive, and they will change forever the sense of your own authority as a writer. This is a book full of learning, but it’s also a book full of unlearning–a way to recover the vivid, rhythmic, poetic sense of language you once possessed.
An indispensable and unique book that will give you a clear understanding of how to think about what you do when you write and how to improve the quality of your writing.
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The Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Clean Up Your Writing
- By: Mignon Fogarty
- Narrator: Mignon Fogarty
- Length: 1 hours 5 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: March 20, 2007
- Language: English
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4.17(86 ratings)
4.17(86 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDMignon Fogarty can’t remember whether it was a misused semicolon, a chronic case of comma splicing, or an “affect” when an “effect” was called for, but at some point she had seen one mangled sentence too many.Mignon Fogarty can’t remember whether it was a misused semicolon, a chronic case of comma splicing, or an “affect” when an “effect” was called for, but at some point she had seen one mangled sentence too many. Determined to counter the slipping standards of good writing in daily discourse, Mignon created a weekly podcast called Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing to reach all offenders–from the intimidated to the apathetic. In less than a year, more than five million Grammar Girl podcast episodes have been downloaded, and Mignon has appeared in the pages of The New York Times and dispensed grammar tips on Oprah. In Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Clean Up Your Writing, Mignon tackles some of the most common mistakes people make while communicating. From “lay vs. lie” and “affect vs. effect” to split infinitives and run-on sentences, Grammar Girl offers clear explanations and effective memory tricks to help listeners write (and say) it right.
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Lust & Wonder
- By: Augusten Burroughs
- Narrator: Augusten Burroughs
- Length: 8 hours 43 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: March 29, 2016
- Language: English
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3.84(7959 ratings)
3.84(7959 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USD“Burroughs has lived this story, so his delivery perfectly matches the tone and pacing needed. Focusing on a series of failed relationships, Burroughs lets his voice rise in both tension and tenor as he analyzes the reasons, with help from“Burroughs has lived this story, so his delivery perfectly matches the tone and pacing needed. Focusing on a series of failed relationships, Burroughs lets his voice rise in both tension and tenor as he analyzes the reasons, with help from analysis, that some relationships work and others are doomed by the personal quirks of both people.” — AudioFile Magazine
The instant New York Times bestseller from renowned author Augusten Burroughs.
Lust: 1. intense sexual desire or appetite
2.a passionate or overmastering desire or craving
3.ardent enthusiasm; zest; relish.Wonder: 1. something strange and surprising; a cause of surprise, astonishment,or admiration
2. the emotion excited by what is strange and surprising; a feeling of surprised or puzzled interest, sometimes tinged with admiration
3. a miraculous deed or event; remarkable phenomenonFrom the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author comes an intimate look at the driving forces in one man’s life.
With Augusten’s unique and singular observations and his own unabashed way of detailing both the horrific and the humorous, Lust and Wonder is a hilariously frank audiobook memoir that his legions of fans have been waiting for. His story began in Running with Scissors, endured through Dry, and continues with this memoir, the capstone to the life of Augusten Burroughs.
Funny, sweet, alarming, and ultimately, moving and tender, Lust & Wonder is an experience of a audiobook that will resonate with anyone who has loved and lost and loved again.
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Pep Talks for Writers
- By: Grant Faulkner
- Narrator: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 5 hours 38 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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4.1(465 ratings)
4.1(465 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDEvery writer knows that as rewarding as the creative process is, it can often be a bumpy road. Have hope and keep at it! Designed to kick-start creativity, this handbook from the executive director of National Novel Writing Month gathers a wideEvery writer knows that as rewarding as the creative process is, it can often be a bumpy road. Have hope and keep at it! Designed to kick-start creativity, this handbook from the executive director of National Novel Writing Month gathers a wide range of insights and advice for writers at any stage of their career. From tips about how to finally start that story to helpful ideas about what to do when the words just aren’t quite coming out right, Pep Talks for Writers provides motivation, encouragement, and helpful exercises for writers of all stripes.
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Start More Than You Can Finish
- By: Becky Blades
- Narrator: Susan Bennett
- Length: 5 hours 32 minutes
- Publisher: Chronicle Books
- Publish date: November 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.2(18 ratings)
4.2(18 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.98 USDMaster the art of the start with this new way of thinking, with exercises to help you unleash your ideas and create more.In Start More Than You Can Finish, writer, artist, and entrepreneur Becky Blades offers a powerful new mindset for our modernMaster the art of the start with this new way of thinking, with exercises to help you unleash your ideas and create more.
In Start More Than You Can Finish, writer, artist, and entrepreneur Becky Blades offers a powerful new mindset for our modern world: acting on more ideas makes us happier – and reveals our highest creativity. She empowers readers to become “stARTists”– initiators with a bias for action and the courage to ignite ideas–and introduces the concept of “stARTistry,” spotlighting the 4-step changemaking process we all use to subconsciously start:- Imagine
- Think
- Decide
- Act
Using digestible data, humorous and honest personal experience, interviews with artists and entrepreneurs, and assignments to help you get started, Start More Than You Can Finish challenges the tropes our dads, moms, and third-grade teachers told us about finishing. In today’s world, we must, in fact, start more than we can finish.
FOR READERS OF: Start, Do Work That Matters, Show Your Work!, Do It For Yourself, and The Creative Curve
A BOOK FOR RISING CREATORS: A guilt-free guide for procrastinators to know it’s okay to start and not finish their projects. With unlimited outlets for creativity, everyone today can be a creator. A plucky non-fiction creative muse, Start More Than You Can Finish is Austin Kleon meets Elizabeth Gilbert and Julia Cameron meets Daniel Pink.
AN INTRODUCTION TO stARTistry: Get familiar with the 4-step changemaking process that moves creators towards starting. Reminiscent of NaNoWriMo (No Plot, No Problem) and Listography.
ESTABLISHED AUTHOR: Becky Blades speaks regularly on the topic of creativity as a speaker and consultant and she has written articles for Oprah.com, Scary Mommy, and others.
GIFT + SELF PURCHASE: A great gift for a friend or family member who’s stuck thinking they don’t have time to start . . . including yourself. Discover your start to a new project or idea.
Perfect for:- Fans of Austin Kleon, Elizabeth Gilbert, Julia Cameron, Daniel Pink
- Creators struggling to begin a new project
- Artists and entrepreneurs looking for creative inspiration
- Adults searching for a creative spark
- People with passion projects in mind who might not know how to start
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Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
- By: Balli Kaur Jaswal
- Narrator: Meera Syal
- Length: 10 hours 34 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: June 13, 2017
- Language: English
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3.93(66821 ratings)
3.93(66821 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDA lively, sexy, and thought-provoking East-meets-West story about community, friendship, and women’s lives at all ages–a spicy and alluring mix of Together Tea and Calendar Girls. Every woman has a secret life . . . Nikki lives inA lively, sexy, and thought-provoking East-meets-West story about community, friendship, and women’s lives at all ages–a spicy and alluring mix of Together Tea and Calendar Girls.
Every woman has a secret life . . .
Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she’s spent most of her twenty-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father’s death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a “creative writing” course at the community center in the beating heart of London’s close-knit Punjabi community.
Because of a miscommunication, the proper Sikh widows who show up are expecting to learn basic English literacy, not the art of short-story writing. When one of the widows finds a book of sexy stories in English and shares it with the class, Nikki realizes that beneath their white dupattas, her students have a wealth of fantasies and memories. Eager to liberate these modest women, she teaches them how to express their untold stories, unleashing creativity of the most unexpected–and exciting–kind.
As more women are drawn to the class, Nikki warns her students to keep their work secret from the Brotherhood, a group of highly conservative young men who have appointed themselves the community’s “moral police.” But when the widows’ gossip offers shocking insights into the death of a young wife–a modern woman like Nikki–and some of the class erotica is shared among friends, it sparks a scandal that threatens them all.
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One Writer’s Beginnings
- By: Eudora Welty
- Narrator: Eudora Welty
- Length: 3 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.06(3062 ratings)
4.06(3062 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.99 USDThe Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner’s timeless lectures that became a New York Times bestselling classic regarded as a “profound and priceless as guidance for anyone who aspires to write” (Los Angeles Times).Born inThe Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner’s timeless lectures that became a New York Times bestselling classic regarded as a “profound and priceless as guidance for anyone who aspires to write” (Los Angeles Times).
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Born in 1909 in Jackson, Mississippi, Eudora Welty shares details of her upbringing that show us how her family and her surroundings contributed to the shaping not only of her personality but of her writing as well. Everyday sights, sounds, and objects resonate with the emotions of recollection: the striking clocks, the Victrola, her orphaned father’s coverless little book saved since boyhood, the tall mountains of the West Virginia backcountry that became a metaphor for her mother’s sturdy independence, Eudora’s earliest box camera that suspended a moment forever and taught her that every feeling awaits a gesture.
In her vivid descriptions of growing up in the South–of the interplay between black and white, between town and countryside, between dedicated schoolteachers and the children they taught–she recreates the vanished world of her youth with the same subtlety and insight that mark her fiction, capturing “the mysterious transfiguring gift by which dream, memory, and experience become art” (Los Angeles Times Book Review).
Part memoir, part exploration of the seeds of creativity, these lectures recorded at Harvard in 1983 offer a rare glimpse into the Mississippi childhood that made Eudora Welty the acclaimed and important writer she would become. -
Emergency Contact
- By: Mary H. K. Choi
- Narrator: Joy Osmanski
- Length: 9 hours 7 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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3.66(34395 ratings)
3.66(34395 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USD“Smart and funny, with characters so real and vulnerable, you want to send them care packages. I loved this book.” –Rainbow Rowell From debut author Mary H.K. Choi comes a compulsively readable novel that shows young love in all“Smart and funny, with characters so real and vulnerable, you want to send them care packages. I loved this book.” –Rainbow Rowell
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From debut author Mary H.K. Choi comes a compulsively readable novel that shows young love in all its awkward glory–perfect for fans of Eleanor & Park and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
For Penny Lee, high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she’d somehow landed a boyfriend, they never managed to know much about each other. Now Penny is heading to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer. It’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.
Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a cafe and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.
When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch–via text–and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to, you know, see each other. -
How Fiction Works
- By: James Wood
- Narrator: James Adams
- Length: 5 hours 47 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2009
- Language: English
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4(4915 ratings)
4(4915 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0013.95 USDWhat makes a story a story? What is style? What’s the connection between realism and real life? These are some of the questions James Wood answers in How Fiction Works, the first book-length essay by the preeminent critic of hisWhat makes a story a story? What is style? What’s the connection between realism and real life? These are some of the questions James Wood answers in How Fiction Works, the first book-length essay by the preeminent critic of his generation.
Raging widely from Homer to David Foster Wallace, from What Maisie Knew to Make Way for Ducklings, Woods takes the reader through the basic elements of the art of fiction, step-by-step. He sums up two decades of insight with wit and concision, resulting in nothing less than a philosophy of the novel, which has won critical acclaim nationwide, from the San Francisco Chronicle to the New York Times Book Review.
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I Came All This Way to Meet You
- By: Jami Attenberg
- Narrator: Xe Sands
- Length: 6 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: January 11, 2022
- Language: English
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3.76(1457 ratings)
3.76(1457 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDNamed a Best Book of the Year by: Time * New Yorker * Sunday Times (UK) From New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg comes a dazzling memoir about unlocking and embracing her creativity–and how it saved her life. In this brilliant,Named a Best Book of the Year by: Time * New Yorker * Sunday Times (UK)
From New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg comes a dazzling memoir about unlocking and embracing her creativity–and how it saved her life.
In this brilliant, fierce, and funny memoir of transformation, Jami Attenberg–described as a “master of modern fiction” (Entertainment Weekly) and the “poet laureate of difficult families” (Kirkus Reviews)–reveals the defining moments that pushed her to create a life, and voice, she could claim for herself. What does it take to devote oneself to art? What does it mean to own one’s ideas? What does the world look like for a woman moving solo through it?
As the daughter of a traveling salesman in the Midwest, Attenberg was drawn to a life on the road. Frustrated by quotidian jobs and hungry for inspiration and fresh experiences, her wanderlust led her across the country and eventually on travels around the globe. Through it all she grapples with questions of mortality, otherworldliness, and what we leave behind.
It is during these adventures that she begins to reflect on the experiences of her youth–the trauma, the challenges, the risks she has taken. Driving across America on self-funded book tours, sometimes crashing on couches when she was broke, she keeps writing: in researching articles for magazines, jotting down ideas for novels, and refining her craft, she grows as an artist and increasingly learns to trust her gut and, ultimately, herself.
Exploring themes of friendship, independence, class, and drive, I Came All This Way to Meet You is an inspiring story of finding one’s way home–emotionally, artistically, and physically–and an examination of art and individuality that will resonate with anyone determined to listen to their own creative calling.
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Zen in the Art of Writing
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrator: Ray Bradbury
- Length: 3 hours 55 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: January 15, 2018
- Language: English
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4.09(13129 ratings)
4.09(13129 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0010.99 USD“Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a land mine. The land mine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces back together. Now, it’s your turn. Jump!” Zest. Gusto. Curiosity. These are the“Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a land mine. The land mine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces back together. Now, it’s your turn. Jump!” Zest. Gusto. Curiosity. These are the qualities every writer must have, as well as a spirit of adventure. In this exuberant book, the incomparable Ray Bradbury shares the wisdom, experience, and excitement of a lifetime of writing. Here are practical tips on the art of writing from a master of the craft-everything from finding original ideas to developing your own voice and style-as well as the inside story of Bradbury’s own remarkable career as a prolific author of novels, stories, poems, films, and plays. Zen In The Art Of Writing is more than just a how-to manual for the would-be writer: it is a celebration of the act of writing itself that will delight, impassion, and inspire the writer in you. In it, Bradbury encourages us to follow the unique path of our instincts and enthusiasms to the place where our inner genius dwells, and he shows that success as a writer depends on how well you know one subject: your own life.
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American Melancholy
- By: Joyce Carol Oates
- Narrator: Cheryl Smith
- Length: 1 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: February 09, 2021
- Language: English
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3.52(523 ratings)
3.52(523 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0013.99 USDA new collection of poetry from an American literary legend, her first in twenty-five years Joyce Carol Oates is one of our most insightful observers of the human heart and mind, and, with her acute social consciousness, one of the most insistentA new collection of poetry from an American literary legend, her first in twenty-five years
Joyce Carol Oates is one of our most insightful observers of the human heart and mind, and, with her acute social consciousness, one of the most insistent and inspired witnesses of a shared American history.
Oates is perhaps best known for her prodigious output of novels and short stories, many of which have become contemporary classics. However, Oates has also always been a faithful writer of poetry. American Melancholy showcases some of her finest work of the last few decades.
Covering subjects big and small, and written in an immediate and engaging style, this collection touches on both the personal and political. Loss, love, and memory are investigated, along with the upheavals of our modern age, the reality of our current predicaments, and the ravages of poverty, racism, and social unrest. Oates skillfully writes characters ranging from a former doctor at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army hospital to Little Albert, a six-month-old infant who took part in a famous study that revealed evidence of classical conditioning in human beings.
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Reading Like a Writer
- By: Francine Prose
- Narrator: Nanette Savard
- Length: 9 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: April 10, 2007
- Language: English
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3.77(9119 ratings)
3.77(9119 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDIn her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters and discover why their work has endured. Written withIn her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters and discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart–to take pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; to look to John Le Carre for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue, and to Flannery O’Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail. And, most importantly, she cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which all literature is crafted.
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100 Ways to Improve Your Writing
- By: Gary Provost
- Narrator: Pat Grimes
- Length: 3 hours 19 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: June 18, 2019
- Language: English
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4.04(819 ratings)
4.04(819 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThis is the one guide that anyone who writes–whether student, business person, or professional writer–should keep with them whenever they begin to write. Filled with professional tips and a wealth of instructive examples and prompts,This is the one guide that anyone who writes–whether student, business person, or professional writer–should keep with them whenever they begin to write. Filled with professional tips and a wealth of instructive examples and prompts, this valuable, easy-to-use handbook can help solve any and all writing problems.
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Draft No. 4
- By: John McPhee
- Narrator: John McPhee
- Length: 13 hours 40 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: September 05, 2017
- Language: English
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4.1(2485 ratings)
4.1(2485 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDThe long-awaited guide to writing long-form nonfiction by the legendary author and teacher Draft No. 4 is an elucidation of the writer’s craft by a master practitioner. In a series of playful but expertly wrought essays, John McPhee sharesThe long-awaited guide to writing long-form nonfiction by the legendary author and teacher Draft No. 4 is an elucidation of the writer’s craft by a master practitioner. In a series of playful but expertly wrought essays, John McPhee shares insights he’s gathered over his career and refined during his long-running course at Princeton University, where he has launched some of the most esteemed writers of several generations. McPhee offers a definitive guide to the crucial decisions regarding structure, diction, and tone that shape nonfiction pieces, and presents extracts from some of his best-loved work, subjecting them to wry scrutiny. The result is a vivid depiction of the writing process, from reporting to drafting to revising-and revising, and revising. More than a compendium of advice, Draft No. 4 is enriched by personal detail and charming reflections on the life of a writer. McPhee describes his enduring relationships with The New Yorker and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and recalls his early years at Time magazine. Enlivened by his keen sense of writing as a way of being in the world, Draft No. 4 is the long-awaited master class given by America’s most renowned writing instructor.
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Stein on Writing
- By: Sol Stein
- Narrator: Christopher Lane
- Length: 11 hours 19 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2005
- Language: English
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4.27(3945 ratings)
4.27(3945 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.95 USDStein on Writing provides immediately useful advice for writers of fiction and nonfiction, whether newcomers or accomplished professionals. As Sol Stein, renowned editor, author, and instructor, explains, “This is not a book of theory. It is aStein on Writing provides immediately useful advice for writers of fiction and nonfiction, whether newcomers or accomplished professionals. As Sol Stein, renowned editor, author, and instructor, explains, “This is not a book of theory. It is a book of usable solutions–how to fix writing that is flawed, how to improve writing that is good, how to create interesting writing in the first place.”
With examples from his bestsellers as well as aspiring students’ writing, Stein offers detailed sections on characterization, dialogue, pacing, flashbacks, liposuctioning flab, the “triage” method of revision, using the techniques of fiction to enliven nonfiction, and more. This is an essential guide for writers at every level.
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The Finishing School
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrator: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 3 hours 14 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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3.08(1133 ratings)
3.08(1133 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0011.95 USDCollege Sunrise is a vaguely disreputable finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland. Rowland Mahler and his wife, Nina, run the school as a way to support themselves while he works, somewhat falteringly, on his novel. Into his creative writing classCollege Sunrise is a vaguely disreputable finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland. Rowland Mahler and his wife, Nina, run the school as a way to support themselves while he works, somewhat falteringly, on his novel. Into his creative writing class comes seventeen-year-old Chris Wiley, a literary prodigy whose historical novel-in-progress on Mary Queen of Scots and the murder of her husband Lord Darnley has already excited the interest of publishers. The inevitable results are keen envy and a game of cat and mouse not free of sexual jealousy and attraction.
Nobody writing has a keener instinct than Muriel Spark for hypocrisy, self-delusion, and moral ambiguity, or a more deliciously satirical eye. The Finishing School is certain to be another Spark landmark.
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On Writing (and Writers)
- By: C. S. Lewis
- Narrator: John Lee
- Length: 3 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: November 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.28(50 ratings)
4.28(50 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.99 USDA definitive collection of wisdom on every style of writing and a celebration of the transformative power of the written word from one of the most influential writers and thinkers of the modern age, C. S. Lewis, the beloved author of the ChroniclesA definitive collection of wisdom on every style of writing and a celebration of the transformative power of the written word from one of the most influential writers and thinkers of the modern age, C. S. Lewis, the beloved author of the Chronicles of Narnia series, Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and other revered classics.
Featuring over one hundred excerpts–some short and some essay length–drawn from his wide body of letters, books, and essays, On Writing (and Writers) brings together C. S. Lewis’s reflections on the power, importance, and joy of a life dedicated to writing.
Writers and devoted readers will be enriched and inspired by Lewis’s commentary on a range of genres, including:
- On Good Writing
- On Writing Fiction
- On Writing Poetry
- On Writing for Children
- On Writing Science Fiction
- On Christian Writing
- On Writing Persuasively
- On Other Writers
Wise and practical, On Writing (and Writers) reveals Lewis’s thoughts on both mechanics and style, including choosing adjectives, the art of expression, how to connect with readers, and the core principles of clear, impactful writing.
A window into the mind of one of the greatest public intellectuals of the twentieth century–a gifted writer whose influence and insights remain relevant six decades after his death–this engaging collection reveals not only why Lewis loved the written word, but what it means to “gladly teach” the art of writing, so that wise readers can “gladly learn.”
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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Writing the TV Drama Series
- By: Pamela Douglas
- Narrator: Charon Normand-Widmer
- Length: 13 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: September 07, 2021
- Language: English
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4.06(294 ratings)
4.06(294 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThis revised and updated edition is a complete resource for anyone who wants to write and produce a television drama series or create an original series, as well as for teachers in screenwriting classes and workshops. It leads listeners step-by-stepThis revised and updated edition is a complete resource for anyone who wants to write and produce a television drama series or create an original series, as well as for teachers in screenwriting classes and workshops. It leads listeners step-by-step through each stage of the development and writing process, offering practical industry information and artistic inspiration. This edition also takes listeners into the future, engaging provocative issues about the interface between traditional TV and emerging technologies. And it’s the single most comprehensive source on what is happening in original television drama around the world, with surveys of fifteen countries.
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Do I Make Myself Clear?
- By: Harold Evans
- Narrator: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 7 hours 57 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: May 16, 2017
- Language: English
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3.62(701 ratings)
3.62(701 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDA wise and entertaining guide to writing English the proper way by one of the greatest newspaper editors of our time. Harry Evans has edited everything from the urgent files of battlefield reporters to the complex thought processes of HenryA wise and entertaining guide to writing English the proper way by one of the greatest newspaper editors of our time.... Read moreHarry Evans has edited everything from the urgent files of battlefield reporters to the complex thought processes of Henry Kissinger. He’s even been knighted for his services to journalism. In Do I Make Myself Clear?, he brings his indispensable insight to us all in his definite guide to writing well.
The right words are oxygen to our ideas, but the digital era, with all of its TTYL, LMK, and WTF, has been cutting off that oxygen flow. The compulsion to be precise has vanished from our culture, and in writing of every kind we see a trend towards more — more speed and more information but far less clarity.
Evans provides practical examples of how editing and rewriting can make for better communication, even in the digital age. Do I Make Myself Clear? is an essential text, and one that will provide every writer an editor at his shoulder.
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Put Your Heart on the Page (Part 1)
- By: Anne Perry
- Narrator: Anne Perry
- Length: 1 hours 3 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: September 09, 2014
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDAnne Perry started out as a good writer, but has won greatness inch by inch by reading other authors, listening to editors and agents, and adapting techniques from other creators. Now you, too, can have a lesson from an author who The New York TimesAnne Perry started out as a good writer, but has won greatness inch by inch by reading other authors, listening to editors and agents, and adapting techniques from other creators. Now you, too, can have a lesson from an author who The New York Times has called ‘First Rate,’ and who’s included in the 100 Masters of the crime genre; who’s sold 25 million copies worldwide to continuing critical acclaim. In this instructional video, Anne references her quintet of novels about World War One to demonstrate the various themes which need to be considered when you first pick up that pen. Although writing a book can be like climbing Everest, the advice you find here will save some troublesome extra drafts, and give you a head start towards an enjoyable writing experience and a successful novel.
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Put Your Heart on the Page (Part 2)
- By: Anne Perry
- Length: 59 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: September 01, 2015
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDAnne Perry stands tall not only for earning her place among the world’s most widely read mystery writers, but as the author of the longest sustained crime series by a living author. When it comes to literary fiction in the mystery genre, noAnne Perry stands tall not only for earning her place among the world’s most widely read mystery writers, but as the author of the longest sustained crime series by a living author. When it comes to literary fiction in the mystery genre, no one does it better than Anne Perry. The New York Times called her writing First rate, and the London Times named her one of the 100 Masters of Crime. With nearly twenty-eight million books in print, she has more than earned these honors. Her expertise and warmth come through strongly in this, her second Master Class of writing: Plotting to Enrich Your Back Story. Her first instructional film, An Introduction to Writing, succeeded because Anne used her Master Class to guide aspiring writers through the all-important basics of fiction writing. In this, her second film, the writing journey continues with a comprehensive discussion of what constitutes the heart of fiction: back story and plot. In this film, Anne will explain the importance of both, giving many examples of how
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Semicolon
- By: Cecelia Watson
- Narrator: Pam Ward
- Length: 3 hours 47 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: July 30, 2019
- Language: English
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3.66(915 ratings)
3.66(915 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.002.99 USDA page-turning, existential romp through the life and times of the world’s most polarizing punctuation mark The semicolon. Stephen King, Hemingway, Vonnegut, and Orwell detest it. Herman Melville, Henry James, and Rebecca Solnit love it. ButA page-turning, existential romp through the life and times of the world’s most polarizing punctuation mark
The semicolon. Stephen King, Hemingway, Vonnegut, and Orwell detest it. Herman Melville, Henry James, and Rebecca Solnit love it. But why? When is it effective? Have we been misusing it? Should we even care?
In Semicolon, Cecelia Watson charts the rise and fall of this infamous punctuation mark, which for years was the trendiest one in the world of letters. But in the nineteenth century, as grammar books became all the rage, the rules of how we use language became both stricter and more confusing, with the semicolon a prime victim. Taking us on a breezy journey through a range of examples–from Milton’s manuscripts to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letters from Birmingham Jail” to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep–Watson reveals how traditional grammar rules make us less successful at communicating with each other than we’d think. Even the most die-hard grammar fanatics would be better served by tossing the rule books and learning a better way to engage with language.
Through her rollicking biography of the semicolon, Watson writes a guide to grammar that explains why we don’t need guides at all, and refocuses our attention on the deepest, most primary value of language: true communication.
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Devotion
- By: Nicole Edwards
- Narrator: Houston Fullbright
- Length: 8 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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4.44(4504 ratings)
4.44(4504 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDFrom New York Times bestselling author Nicole Edwards comes the tantalizing follow-up to Temptation. Ever wonder what life is like after the happily ever after? For two very complex, very alpha men, life after love isn’t necessarily an easyFrom New York Times bestselling author Nicole Edwards comes the tantalizing follow-up to Temptation.
Ever wonder what life is like after the happily ever after?
For two very complex, very alpha men, life after love isn’t necessarily an easy thing to embrace. Although Sierra Sellers is, and will always be, the lifeline between Luke McCoy and Cole Ackerley, everyday life proves to be the true test of the bond the three of them have forged. No one ever said life was going to be rainbows and butterflies after the three of them admitted their love for one another. Between their own personal insecurities, a relationship that falls well outside what most people consider traditional, and a baby on the way, the three of them find that there are still going to be a few ups and downs. With insecurities comes doubt, and no matter what obstacles fall into their paths, the one thing the three of them aren’t willing to sacrifice is their devotion to one another.
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The Patch
- By: John McPhee
- Length: 8 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: November 13, 2018
- Language: English
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4.03(426 ratings)
4.03(426 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDAn “album quilt,” an artful assortment of nonfiction writings by John McPhee that have not previously appeared in any book. The Patch is the seventh collection of essays by the nonfiction master, all published by Farrar, Straus andAn “album quilt,” an artful assortment of nonfiction writings by John McPhee that have not previously appeared in any book. The Patch is the seventh collection of essays by the nonfiction master, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It is divided into two parts. Part 1, “The Sporting Scene,” consists of pieces on fishing, football, golf, and lacrosse-from fly casting for chain pickerel in fall in New Hampshire to walking the links land of St. Andrews at an Open Championship. Part 2, called “An Album Quilt,” is a montage of fragments of varying length from pieces done across the years that have never appeared in book form-occasional pieces, memorial pieces, reflections, reminiscences, and short items in various magazines including The New Yorker. They range from a visit to the Hershey chocolate factory to encounters with Oscar Hammerstein, Joan Baez, and Mount Denali. Emphatically, the author’s purpose was not merely to preserve things but to choose passages that might entertain contemporary readers. Starting with 250,000 words, he gradually threw out seventy-five per cent of them, and randomly assembled the remaining fragments as “An Album Quilt.” Among other things, it is a covert memoir.
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The Science of Storytelling
- By: Will Storr
- Narrator: James Clamp
- Length: 6 hours 51 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: February 18, 2020
- Language: English
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4.07(2855 ratings)
4.07(2855 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDHow do master storytellers compel us? There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story, but few have used a scientific approach. In The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edgeHow do master storytellers compel us? There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story, but few have used a scientific approach. In The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can tell better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers–and also our brains–create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.
Storr’s superbly chosen examples range from Harry Potter to Jane Austen to Alice Walker, Greek drama to Russian novels to Native American folk tales, King Lear to Breaking Bad to children’s stories. With chapters such as “The Dramatic Question” and “Plot, Endings, and Meaning” and a practical, step-by-step appendix dedicated to “The Sacred Flaw Approach,” The Science of Storytelling is destined to become an invaluable resource for writers of all stripes, whether novelist, screenwriter, playwright, or writer of creative or traditional nonfiction.
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The Song of the Dodo
- By: David Quammen
- Narrator: Jacques Roy
- Length: 49 hours 13 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.28(7695 ratings)
4.28(7695 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0034.99 USD“Compulsively readable–a masterpiece, maybe the masterpiece of science journalism.” –Bill McKibben, AudubonA brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope and far-reaching in its message, The Song of the Dodo is a“Compulsively readable–a masterpiece, maybe the masterpiece of science journalism.” –Bill McKibben, Audubon
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A brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope and far-reaching in its message, The Song of the Dodo is a crucial book in precarious times. Through personal observation, scientific theory, and history, David Quammen examines the mysteries of evolution and extinction and radically alters our understanding of the natural world and our place within it.
In this landmark of science writing, we learn how the isolation of islands makes them natural laboratories of evolutionary extravagance, as seen in the dragons of Komodo, the elephant birds of Madagascar, the giant tortoises of the Galapagos. But the dark message of island studies is that isolated ecosystems, whether natural or human-made, are also hotbeds of extinction. And as the world’s landscapes, from Tasmania to the Amazon to Yellowstone, are carved into pieces by human activity, the implications of this knowledge are more urgent than ever.
An unforgettable scientific adventure, a fascinating account of an eight-year journey of discovery, and a wake-up call for our time, David Quammen’s The Song of the Dodo is an exquisitely written book that takes the reader on a globe-circling tour of wild places and extraordinary ideas.
Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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