The Lie That Tells a Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction

The Lie That Tells a Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction PDF Author: John Dufresne
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393078353
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"This is the most practical, hard-nosed, generous, direct, and useful guide to writing fiction." —Brad Watson Finally, a truly creative—and hilarious—guide to creative writing, full of encouragement and sound advice. Provocative and reassuring, nurturing and wise, The Lie That Tells a Truth is essential to writers in general, fiction writers in particular, beginning writers, serious writers, and anyone facing a blank page. John Dufresne, teacher and the acclaimed author of Love Warps the Mind a Little and Deep in the Shade of Paradise, demystifies the writing process. Drawing upon the wisdom of literature's great craftsmen, Dufresne's lucid essays and diverse exercises initiate the reader into the tools, processes, and techniques of writing: inventing compelling characters, developing a voice, creating a sense of place, editing your own words. Where do great ideas come from? How do we recognize them? How can language capture them? In his signature comic voice, Dufresne answers these questions and more in chapters such as "Writing Around the Block," "Plottery," and "The Art of Abbreviation." Dufresne demystifies the writing process, showing that while the idea of writing may be overwhelming, the act of writing is simplicity itself.

The Lie That Tells a Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction

The Lie That Tells a Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction PDF Author: John Dufresne
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393078353
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book

Book Description
"This is the most practical, hard-nosed, generous, direct, and useful guide to writing fiction." —Brad Watson Finally, a truly creative—and hilarious—guide to creative writing, full of encouragement and sound advice. Provocative and reassuring, nurturing and wise, The Lie That Tells a Truth is essential to writers in general, fiction writers in particular, beginning writers, serious writers, and anyone facing a blank page. John Dufresne, teacher and the acclaimed author of Love Warps the Mind a Little and Deep in the Shade of Paradise, demystifies the writing process. Drawing upon the wisdom of literature's great craftsmen, Dufresne's lucid essays and diverse exercises initiate the reader into the tools, processes, and techniques of writing: inventing compelling characters, developing a voice, creating a sense of place, editing your own words. Where do great ideas come from? How do we recognize them? How can language capture them? In his signature comic voice, Dufresne answers these questions and more in chapters such as "Writing Around the Block," "Plottery," and "The Art of Abbreviation." Dufresne demystifies the writing process, showing that while the idea of writing may be overwhelming, the act of writing is simplicity itself.

Storyville!: An Illustrated Guide to Writing Fiction

Storyville!: An Illustrated Guide to Writing Fiction PDF Author: John Dufresne
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393608417
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
A smart and funny guide to writing fiction, with engaging infographics that bring storytelling techniques to life. Whether you are daunted by a blinking cursor or frustrated trying to get the people in your head onto the page, writing stories can be intimidating. It takes passion, tenacity, patience, and a knowledge of?and faith in?the often-digressive writing process. A do-it-yourself manual for the apprentice fiction writer, Storyville! demystifies that process; its bold graphics take you inside the writer’s comfortingly chaotic mind and show you how stories are made. In Storyville!, seasoned guide John Dufresne?whose approach “will anchor the newbie and entertain the veteran” (San Francisco Chronicle)?provides practical insight into the building blocks of fiction, including how to make the reader see your characters, create a suspenseful plot, and revise, revise, revise. Storyville! is a combination handbook and notebook, with original prompts and exercises crafted with Dufresne’s singular dry wit and Evan Wondolowski’s playful and illuminating graphics on every page.

Is Life Like This?

Is Life Like This? PDF Author: John Dufresne
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393338835
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
The author presents a six-month program, arranged by week, to complete a first draft of a novel.

Louisiana Power and Light

Louisiana Power and Light PDF Author: John Dufresne
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0393330524
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A favorite novel by “a generous and lyric storyteller” (San Francisco Chronicle) known for his tragicomic voice and unforgettable characters. Billy Wayne is the sole survivor of his oddball line of marginal folk. When he acquires a priestly vocation it seems likely he will be the last Fontana, until hearing a young woman’s confession propels him into an impulsive marriage.

Is Life Like This?: A Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months

Is Life Like This?: A Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months PDF Author: John Dufresne
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393076998
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
“[Dufresne’s] generous, wise, cajoling, stern, and compassionate voice will get you working right away.”—Brad Watson “Writing a novel,” says John Dufresne, “is not as easy as you may have thought before you tried. But it’s also not as difficult as you imagined.” Dufresne’s smart, practical, hard-nosed guide is for the person who has always wanted to write a novel but has been daunted by the sometimes chaotic, always challenging writing process. A patient teacher and experienced writer, Dufresne focuses his expertise and good humor on helping aspiring novelists take their first tentative steps. His six-month program variously calls attention to the key elements of good fiction writing and offers exercises that are designed to sharpen writers’ command of novel-length storytelling. After six months of guided writing, the users of this book will finish what might have once seemed impossible—a rich and compelling first draft of a novel. Is Life Like This? may well be the most important addition to the aspiring writer’s library.

Love Warps the Mind a Little

Love Warps the Mind a Little PDF Author: John Dufresne
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393040135
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
A 40-year-old man who always wanted to be a writer finally takes the plunge. He leaves his wife and home, and moves in with his mistress, taking only his typewriter. Unfortunately, she is not much of a muse, the rejection letters pile up, on top of which she develops cancer. A tragicomedy. By the author of Louisiana Power & Light.

The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults

The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults PDF Author: Cheryl Klein
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393292258
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
This master class in writing children’s and young adult novels will teach you everything you need to know to write and publish a great book. The best children’s and young adult novels take readers on wonderful outward adventures and stirring inward journeys. In The Magic Words, editor Cheryl B. Klein guides writers on an enjoyable and practical-minded voyage of their own, from developing a saleable premise for a novel to finding a dream agent. She delves deep into the major elements of fiction—intention, character, plot, and voice—while addressing important topics like diversity, world-building, and the differences between middle-grade and YA novels. In addition, the book’s exercises, questions, and straightforward rules of thumb help writers apply these insights to their own creative works. With its generous tone and useful tools for story analysis and revision, The Magic Words is an essential handbook for writers of children’s and young adult fiction.

Truth, Reference and Realism

Truth, Reference and Realism PDF Author: Zsolt Novák
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 9639776920
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
The volume presents the material of the first Oxford-Budapest Conference on Truth, Reference and Realism held at CEU in 2005. The problem addressed by the conference, famously formulated by Paul Benacerraf in a paper on Mathematical Truth, was how to understand truth in the semantics of discourses about abstract domains whose objects and properties cannot be observed by sense perception. The papers of the volume focus on this semantic issue in four major fields: logic, mathematics, ethics and the metaphysics of properties in general. Beyond marking an important event, the collected papers are also substantial contributions to the above topic, from the most distinguished authors in these areas.

Telling Lies for Fun & Profit

Telling Lies for Fun & Profit PDF Author: Lawrence Block
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780688132286
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Characters refusing to talk? Plot plodding along? Where do good ideas come from anyway? In this wonderfully practical volume, two-time Edgar Award-winning novelist Lawrence Block takes an inside look at writing as a craft and as a career. From studying the market, to mastering self-discipline and "creative procrastination," through coping with rejections, Telling Lies for Fun & Profit is an invaluable sourcebook of information. It is a must read for anyone serious about writing or understanding how the process works.

Why I Write

Why I Write PDF Author: George Orwell
Publisher: Renard Press Ltd
ISBN: 1913724263
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 15

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Book Description
George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times