And for those who think 30 days is a bit too steam cooker-esque, there’s always Alan Watt’s more laid-back option. From inventive language and world-building, to crafting unforgettable characters, you'll learn all the tools you need to become a maestro of the written word. World-renowned Irish author Frank O’Connor takes on the short story in this favorite book on writing. We’ll start by taking your writing back to basics, and exploring some of the tools at your fingertips. Session Topics: Story DNA, Scene Versus Summary, Revealing Information, Flashbacks, Mystery and Surprise.

Although Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style is a time-honored classic, its prescriptive approach to language isn’t for everyone. Part memoir, part guidebook, this Stephen King classic will appeal even to those who avoid his renowned horror-packed tales. Often a struggle between giving and taking, poetry is, according to Ruefle, a unique art form that reveals the innermost workings of the human heart.As one of the leading American voices in flash-fiction and short-form writing, Davis traces her literary roots and inspirations in essays on everything, ranging from the mastodonic work of Proust to minimalism.

Each weekday, you’ll get access to a new video lesson on a specific writing topic, along with optional reading and exercises. The first part provides assistance in developing your story’s premise, the second part helps you work through obstacles to execute it, and the third part is full of writing exercises to unlock the “primal forces” of your story — aka the energy that will invigorate your work and incite readers to devour it like popcorn at the movies. In this first week of plot skills, we’ll focus in on some of the principles of plotting to help you tell your story. Dreyer delivers this and then some, but not without its due dosage of humor and informative examples.

Word Work” is packed with practical advice to help you navigate core elements of the writing process. Giving you advice on how to think, use your senses, and practice your writing, Wooldrige will have you putting down rhyme schemes before you know it. Marketing is one of the most important factors to getting your work out to the right audience — so it’s important for all authors (indie and otherwise) to master this task. Suggest different genres such as mystery or science fiction and discuss how the item might be used in this kind of story.

S. Eliot, Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison and more penned their esteemed works, check out this book to learn from their revelations. From punctuation to tricky homophones, passive voice, and commas, the goal of these tools should be to facilitate effective communication of ideas and thoughts. When you’re reading non-fiction, talk about the features that make it easy to read such as headings, a glossary or diagrams. With more than 70 exercises to help you evaluate your writing and lessons from Maass’ 30+ years in publishing, you’re sure to walk away with knowledge and strategies to become an author with a successful career. As Kleon notes in the first section of Steal Like an Artist, this title obviously doesn’t refer to plagiarism.For example, did you know a jumping flea can accelerate faster than a space rocket taking off into orbit? Even if you’ve already self-published a book, you can still learn a lot from this guide by Craig Martelle, who has dozens of indie books — “over two and a half million words,” as he puts it — under his belt.