Combing anecdotes and hard-won lessons from decades of teaching and writing--and invoking everyone from Hemingway to your third-grade teacher--retired professor Thomas C. Foster guides you through the basics of writing. With How to Write Like a Writer you'll learn how to organize your thoughts, construct first drafts, and (not incidentally) keep you in your chair so that inspiration can come to visit.

Have you ever looked closely at a pinecone, a leaf, or a flower? If you have, you might have noticed patterns. A haiku is a form of poetry based on patterns. Haiku are often inspired by nature. Featuring TIME For Kids content, this nonfiction reader introduces students to haiku, explores its cultural importance and history, and invites students to write their own haiku. This high-interest title includes detailed images, stimulating facts, and clear,...

A group of successful authors offer encouragement and guidance to aspiring writers by explaining why and how they work at writing, featuring contributions from Jennifer Egan, Sue Grafton, David Baldacci, and Jodi Picoult.

From the Publisher: Everyone has a story to tell. Fearless Confessions is a guidebook for people who want to take possession of their lives by putting their experiences down on paper-or in a Web site or e-book. Enhanced with illustrative examples from many different writers as well as writing exercises, this guide helps writers navigate a range of issues from craft to ethics to marketing and will be useful to both beginners and more accomplished...

"In Writing Poetry from the Inside Out, poet and national poetry workshop leader, Sandford Lyne, offers the writing exercises, guidance, and encouragement you need to find the poet inside you"--P. [4] of cover.

From the work of the New Journalists in the 1960s, to the New Yorker essays of John McPhee, Susan Orlean, Atul Gawande, and a host of others, to narratives such as Mary Roach's Stiff, narrative nonfiction has come into its own. Yet writers looking for guidance on reporting and writing true stories have had few places to turn for advice. Now in Storycraft, Jack Hart, a former managing editor of the Oregonian who guided several Pulitzer Prize-winning...

You know you're a writer when ... You'll never forgive your parents for your happy childhood. ... The doctor tells you that you have terminal cancer and you think, "I can use this." ... You accidentally sign a check with your pen name. ... You know more than ten synonyms for "blue." ... You write your Christmas letter as if it were War and Peace. Many readers will recognize themselves in this collection of observations about the eccentric, quirky,...

"Authoritative as it is amusing, this book distills everything Benjamin Dreyer has learned from the hundreds of books he has copyedited, including works by Elizabeth Strout, E. L. Doctorow, and Frank Rich, into a useful guide not just for writers but for everyone who wants to put their best foot forward in writing prose. Dreyer offers lessons on the ins and outs of punctuation and grammar, including how to navigate the words he calls 'the confusables,'...

This essay collection from the National Book Award--winning writer examines how historical facts inspire fiction, exploring the craft of transforming history into narrative through reflections on renowned authors and the writer's own process.