Show, Don't Tell

Show, Don't Tell PDF Author: Sandra Gerth
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783955337506
Category : Authorship
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
"Show, don't tell is probably the single most-important piece of advice given to writers. But many writers struggle to understand this powerful principle or have difficulty applying it to their own work. Even experienced authors sometimes don't grasp the finer nuances of showing and telling. In this book, Sandra Gerth draws on her experience as an editor and best-selling author to show you how to show and tell you when to tell. Each chapter includes concrete examples and exercises that will hone your writing skills." - Back Cover

Show, Don't Tell

Show, Don't Tell PDF Author: Sandra Gerth
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783955337506
Category : Authorship
Languages : en
Pages : 112

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Show, don't tell is probably the single most-important piece of advice given to writers. But many writers struggle to understand this powerful principle or have difficulty applying it to their own work. Even experienced authors sometimes don't grasp the finer nuances of showing and telling. In this book, Sandra Gerth draws on her experience as an editor and best-selling author to show you how to show and tell you when to tell. Each chapter includes concrete examples and exercises that will hone your writing skills." - Back Cover

Understanding Show, Don't Tell: And Really Getting It

Understanding Show, Don't Tell: And Really Getting It PDF Author: Janice Hardy
Publisher: Fiction University Press
ISBN: 9780991536436
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
This book looks at what affects told prose and when telling is the right thing to do. It also explores aspects of writing that aren't technically telling, but are connected to told prose and can make prose feel told, such as infodumps, description, and backstory.

Show Don’t Tell

Show Don’t Tell PDF Author: William Noble
Publisher: The Write Thought, Inc
ISBN: 0981890857
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
If one hears one thing from every single writing instructor it’s, “Show, don’t tell.” “Don’t tell us he’s afraid of losing her, show us!” “Don’t tell us it’s a richly decorated room, show us!” “Don’t tell us the Russian tundra is cold, show us!” Easier said than done, and no one ever wrote a book on how to do it, that is until William Noble wrote this classic work a decade ago. From the use of dialogue to employing melodrama to developing incidents and anecdotes, Show Don’t Tell explains how to entertain your readers instead of lecturing to them. Written in Noble’s absorbing voice, Show Don’t Tell illustrates how to develop a dramatic framework using similes and metaphors, a focused point of view, steady pacing, increasing tension, and an appeal to the senses to create solid dramatic impact. In other words, how to show, not tell! Perfect for novelists, short story writers, and those interested in writing creative nonfiction.

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression (2nd Edition)

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression (2nd Edition) PDF Author: Becca Puglisi
Publisher: JADD Publishing
ISBN: 0999296353
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 541

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Book Description
The bestselling Emotion Thesaurus, often hailed as “the gold standard for writers” and credited with transforming how writers craft emotion, has now been expanded to include 56 new entries! One of the biggest struggles for writers is how to convey emotion to readers in a unique and compelling way. When showing our characters’ feelings, we often use the first idea that comes to mind, and they end up smiling, nodding, and frowning too much. If you need inspiration for creating characters’ emotional responses that are personalized and evocative, this ultimate show-don’t-tell guide for emotion can help. It includes: • Body language cues, thoughts, and visceral responses for over 130 emotions that cover a range of intensity from mild to severe, providing innumerable options for individualizing a character’s reactions • A breakdown of the biggest emotion-related writing problems and how to overcome them • Advice on what should be done before drafting to make sure your characters’ emotions will be realistic and consistent • Instruction for how to show hidden feelings and emotional subtext through dialogue and nonverbal cues • And much more! The Emotion Thesaurus, in its easy-to-navigate list format, will inspire you to create stronger, fresher character expressions and engage readers from your first page to your last.

Workshops of Empire

Workshops of Empire PDF Author: Eric Bennett
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609383729
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
During and just after World War II, an influential group of American writers and intellectuals projected a vision for literature that would save the free world. Novels, stories, plays, and poems, they believed, could inoculate weak minds against simplistic totalitarian ideologies, heal the spiritual wounds of global catastrophe, and just maybe prevent the like from happening again. As the Cold War began, high-minded and well-intentioned scholars, critics, and writers from across the political spectrum argued that human values remained crucial to civilization and that such values stood in dire need of formulation and affirmation. They believed that the complexity of literature—of ideas bound to concrete images, of ideologies leavened with experiences—enshrined such values as no other medium could. Creative writing emerged as a graduate discipline in the United States amid this astonishing swirl of grand conceptions. The early workshops were formed not only at the time of, but in the image of, and under the tremendous urgency of, the postwar imperatives for the humanities. Vivid renderings of personal experience would preserve the liberal democratic soul—a soul menaced by the gathering leftwing totalitarianism of the USSR and the memory of fascism in Italy and Germany. Workshops of Empire explores this history via the careers of Paul Engle at the University of Iowa and Wallace Stegner at Stanford. In the story of these founding fathers of the discipline, Eric Bennett discovers the cultural, political, literary, intellectual, and institutional underpinnings of creative writing programs within the university. He shows how the model of literary technique championed by the first writing programs—a model that values the interior and private life of the individual, whose experiences are not determined by any community, ideology, or political system—was born out of this Cold War context and continues to influence the way creative writing is taught, studied, read, and written into the twenty-first century.

Josephine Nobisso's Show, Don't Tell!

Josephine Nobisso's Show, Don't Tell! PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 0940112132
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
For ages 9-12. Presents creative writing exercises that focus on the use of adjectives and nouns. Features scratch and sniff pages, electronic sounds, comic book spreads, and Greek chorus characters.

Wired for Story

Wired for Story PDF Author: Lisa Cron
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
ISBN: 1607742454
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
This guide reveals how writers can utilize cognitive storytelling strategies to craft stories that ignite readers’ brains and captivate them through each plot element. Imagine knowing what the brain craves from every tale it encounters, what fuels the success of any great story, and what keeps readers transfixed. Wired for Story reveals these cognitive secrets—and it’s a game-changer for anyone who has ever set pen to paper. The vast majority of writing advice focuses on “writing well” as if it were the same as telling a great story. This is exactly where many aspiring writers fail—they strive for beautiful metaphors, authentic dialogue, and interesting characters, losing sight of the one thing that every engaging story must do: ignite the brain’s hardwired desire to learn what happens next. When writers tap into the evolutionary purpose of story and electrify our curiosity, it triggers a delicious dopamine rush that tells us to pay attention. Without it, even the most perfect prose won’t hold anyone’s interest. Backed by recent breakthroughs in neuroscience as well as examples from novels, screenplays, and short stories, Wired for Story offers a revolutionary look at story as the brain experiences it. Each chapter zeroes in on an aspect of the brain, its corresponding revelation about story, and the way to apply it to your storytelling right now.

The Memory String

The Memory String PDF Author: Eve Bunting
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547350066
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 43

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Book Description
Each button on Laura’s memory string represents a piece of her family history. The buttons Laura cherishes the most belonged to her mother—a button from her prom dress, a white one off her wedding dress, and a single small button from the nightgown she was wearing on the day she died. When the string breaks, Laura’s new stepmother, Jane, is there to comfort Laura and search for a missing button, just as Laura’s mother would have done. But it’s not the same—Jane isn’t Mom. In Eve Bunting’s moving story, beautifully illustrated by Ted Rand, Laura discovers that a memory string is not just for remembering the past: it’s also for recording new memories.

Writing Irresistible Kidlit

Writing Irresistible Kidlit PDF Author: Mary Kole
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1599635763
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Captivate the hearts and minds of young adult readers! Writing for young adult (YA) and middle grade (MG) audiences isn't just "kid's stuff" anymore--it's kidlit! The YA and MG book markets are healthier and more robust than ever, and that means the competition is fiercer, too. In Writing Irresistible Kidlit, literary agent Mary Kole shares her expertise on writing novels for young adult and middle grade readers and teaches you how to: • Recognize the differences between middle grade and young adult audiences and how it impacts your writing. • Tailor your manuscript's tone, length, and content to your readership. • Avoid common mistakes and cliches that are prevalent in YA and MG fiction, in respect to characters, story ideas, plot structure and more. • Develop themes and ideas in your novel that will strike emotional chords. Mary Kole's candid commentary and insightful observations, as well as a collection of book excerpts and personal insights from bestselling authors and editors who specialize in the children's book market, are invaluable tools for your kidlit career. If you want the skills, techniques, and know-how you need to craft memorable stories for teens and tweens, Writing Irresistible Kidlit can give them to you.

Anatomy of a Premise Line

Anatomy of a Premise Line PDF Author: Jeff Lyons
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1317558952
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
If a story is going to fail, it will do so first at the premise level. Anatomy of a Premise Line: How to Master Premise and Story Development for Writing Success is the only book of its kind to identify a seven-step development process that can be repeated and applied to any story idea. This process will save you time, money, and potentially months of wasted writing. So whether you are trying to write a feature screenplay, develop a television pilot, or just trying to figure out your next story move as a writer, this book gives you the tools you need to know which ideas are worth pursuing. In addition to the 7-step premise development tool, Anatomy of a Premise Line also presents a premise and idea testing methodology that can be used to test any developed premise line. Customized exercises and worksheets are included to facilitate knowledge transfer, so that by the end of the book, you will have a fully developed premise line, log line, tagline, and a completed premise-testing checklist. Here is some of what you will learn inside: Ways to determine whether or not your story is a good fit for print or screen Case studies and hands-on worksheets to help you learn by participating in the process Tips on how to effectively work through writer’s block A companion website (www.routledge.com/cw/lyons) with additional worksheets, videos, and interactive tools to help you learn the basics of perfecting a killer premise line