How To Write Amazing Stories

When 16-year-old poetry blogger Tessa Dickinson is involved in a car accident and loses her eyesight for 100 days, she feels like her whole world has been turned upside-down. Terrified that her vision might never return, Tessa feels like she has nothing left to be happy about. But when her grandparents place an ad in the local newspaper looking for a typist to help Tessa continue writing and blogging, an unlikely answer knocks at their door: Weston Ludovico, a boy her age with bright eyes, an optimistic smile...and no legs. Knowing how angry and afraid Tessa is feeling, Weston thinks he can help her. But he has one condition -- no one can tell Tessa about his disability. And because she can't see him, she treats him with contempt: screaming at him to get out of her house and never come back. But for Weston, it's the most amazing feeling: to be treated like a normal person, not just a sob story. So he comes back. Again and again and again. Tessa spurns Weston's "obnoxious optimism", convinced that he has no idea what she's going through. But Weston knows exactly how she feels and reaches into her darkness to show her that there is more than one way to experience the world. As Tessa grows closer to Weston, she finds it harder and harder to imagine life without him -- and Weston can't imagine life without her. But he still hasn't told her the truth, and when Tessa's sight returns he'll have to make the hardest decision of his life: vanish from Tessa's world...or overcome his fear of being seen. 100 Days of Sunlight is a poignant and heartfelt novel by author Abbie Emmons. If you like sweet contemporary romance and strong family themes then you'll love this touching story of hope, healing, and getting back up when life knocks you down.

One of the most common questions new writers ask professionals is how they wrote their book—what was their process for storytelling? Did they use an outline to plan the book, or write it from the seat of their pants? But really the question should be about the general principles and nature of storycraft—does every part of a story have what it needs to keep readers turning the pages? Bestselling author and creator of StoryFix.com Larry Brooks changes the sound of the writing conversation by introducing a series of detailed criteria for novelists of every level and genre to refer to while writing, regardless of their preferred writing method. Beginning with the broadest part of the story, the early checklists help writers to ensure that their novel is based on a premise rather than an idea, and gradually hones in on other elements to keep the story moving forward including: · dramatic tension · narrative strategy · scene construction Readers won't know or care about the process. But what Brooks offers here is a chance for readers to make the most of whichever process they choose, and in doing so cut years off their learning curve.

Mr Gum's back But what's he up to this time? Oh, dreadful things my friends, dreadful things indeed. It seems he's found himself a brand new treat--rancid kebabs just dripping with dirty grey sauce. And he just can't get enough of them. He's gotta have more More Less I mean, More But not everyone's too happy about Mr Gum's new dinnertime arrangements and soon the town of Lamonic Bibber is gearing up for war. Can Polly and her friends save the town from being torn apart? Will Mr Gum's hunger ever be satisfied? And who on earth is Thora Gruntwinkle? All will be revealed when you read What's For Dinner, Mr Gum? You'll see a gingerbread man driving through London You'll see an annoying little monkey driving everyone mad You'll see Friday O'Leary falling asleep in a hedge Yes, it's all there in glorious black and white, my friends. Except for the cover, which is in color. It's Bonus.

This book will help you plot like a pro, master the art of suspense like Poe, craft captivating dialogue like Twain and - most crucially - get your short stories published. How to Write Short Stories and Get Them Published is the essential guide to writing short fiction. It takes the aspiring writer from their initial idea through to potential outlets for publication and pitching proposals to publishers. Along the journey this guide considers the most important aspects of creative writing, such as character, plot, point of view, description and dialogue. All of these areas are illustrated with examples of classic fiction, and accompanied by exercises that will help every writer hone their natural skill and talent into the ability to craft compelling short stories.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News is a vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family. Quoyle, a third-rate newspaper hack, with a “head shaped like a crenshaw, no neck, reddish hair...features as bunched as kissed fingertips,” is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing wife meets her just desserts. An aunt convinces Quoyle and his two emotionally disturbed daughters to return with her to the starkly beautiful coastal landscape of their ancestral home in Newfoundland. Here, on desolate Quoyle’s Point, in a house empty except for a few mementos of the family’s unsavory past, the battered members of three generations try to cobble up new lives. Newfoundland is a country of coast and cove where the mercury rarely rises above seventy degrees, the local culinary delicacy is cod cheeks, and it’s easier to travel by boat and snowmobile than on anything with wheels. In this harsh place of cruel storms, a collapsing fishery, and chronic unemployment, the aunt sets up as a yacht upholsterer in nearby Killick-Claw, and Quoyle finds a job reporting the shipping news for the local weekly, the Gammy Bird (a paper that specializes in sexual-abuse stories and grisly photos of car accidents). As the long winter closes its jaws of ice, each of the Quoyles confronts private demons, reels from catastrophe to minor triumph—in the company of the obsequious Mavis Bangs; Diddy Shovel the strongman; drowned Herald Prowse; cane-twirling Beety; Nutbeem, who steals foreign news from the radio; a demented cousin the aunt refuses to recognize; the much-zippered Alvin Yark; silent Wavey; and old Billy Pretty, with his bag of secrets. By the time of the spring storms Quoyle has learned how to gut cod, to escape from a pickle jar, and to tie a true lover’s knot.

The Newbery Award–winning author of Dead End in Norvelt shares advice for how to be the best brilliant writer in this funny and practical creative writing guide perfect for all kids who dream of seeing their name on the spine of a book. With the signature wit and humor that have garnered him legions of fans, Jack Gantos instructs young writers on using their "writing radar" to unearth story ideas from their everyday lives. Incorporating his own misadventures as a developing writer, Gantos inspires readers to build confidence and establish good writing habits as they create, revise, and perfect their stories. Pop-out text boxes highlight key tips, alongside Gantos's own illustrations, sample stories, and snippets from his childhood journals. More than just a how-to guide, Writing Radar is a celebration of the power of storytelling and an ode to the characters who—many unwittingly—inspired Gantos's own writing career.

Writing a story seems scary when you're a kid. That's why this guide is for young authors. It has all the tips you'll need including choosing a writing space, picking cool characters, and designing a great cover. Use this guide and one day you could have 1000s of readers just like Zuni Blue, author of the smash hit The Mean Girl Who Never Speaks.

Writing a story seems scary when you’re a kid. That’s why this guide is for young authors. It has all the tips you’ll need including choosing a writing space, picking cool characters, and designing a great cover. Use this guide and one day you could have thousands of readers just like Zuni Blue, author of The Mean Girl Who Never Speaks.