A guide to writing long-form nonfiction is presented as a series of lighthearted essays that share insights into the lessons the author has learned on the writing process during his years at Princeton University.

Warns against common errors in structure, style, and diction, and explains the fundamentals of conducting interviews and writing travel, scientific, sports, critical, and humorous articles. Reprint.

Break through writer's block using your five senses! The sensory details that infuse our everyday experience—the smell of a favorite dish cooking, the texture of a well-worn coat, hearing a song that reminds you of a person or a time in your life—can be used to add richness and spark to what we write. Whether you are a professional writer (or want to be one) or someone who enjoys just writing for your own personal fulfillment, Writing from the Senses will show you how to tap into an endless source of engaging material, using your senses as prompts. The exercises will stimulate you to develop stories, imagery, and details that will allow readers to see, taste, hear, smell, and feel that they're in the scene. Writing from the Senses •Provides 60 prompts and creative writing exercises organized by sense; •Presents engaging narratives, personal essays, and instruction to entertain and inform readers and illustrate the effectiveness of each exercise; •Helps writers recognize the sensory prompts that surround them daily and use them to trigger their individual stories; and •Shows how freewrites from the prompts in this book can result in publishable pieces.

Lyric essays on writing, moving among digression, reflection, imagination, and experience as a lover might, bringing art into the world.

"Drawing on the lessons learned throughout a distinguished writing career and nearly 20 years as a teacher of creative writing, McCann delivers a collection of essays that combines practical advice, creative inspiration, and a profound call to arms for anew generation of writers to bring truth and light to a dark world through their art. Addressing subjects such as "The Terror of the White Page," "Embrace the Critics," and "If You're Done, You've Just Begun," this collection is a testament to the bruises of writing as profession and as calling, and a paean to the power of language"--

An insider's report on how professionals read and write instructs aspiring writers on the methods employed by such literary figures as Kafka, Austen, and Dickens, in a resource that draws on key examples to demonstrate the essentials of good plot and character development. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.

From the author of The Queen of the Night, an essay collection exploring his education as a man, writer, and activist—and how we form our identities in life and in art. As a novelist, Alexander Chee has been described as “masterful” by Roxane Gay, “incomparable” by Junot Díaz, and “incendiary” by the New York Times. With How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, his first collection of nonfiction, he’s sure to secure his place as one of the finest essayists of his generation as well. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel is the author’s manifesto on the entangling of life, literature, and politics, and how the lessons learned from a life spent reading and writing fiction have changed him. In these essays, he grows from student to teacher, reader to writer, and reckons with his identities as a son, a gay man, a Korean American, an artist, an activist, a lover, and a friend. He examines some of the most formative experiences of his life and the nation’s history, including his father’s death, the AIDS crisis, 9/11, the jobs that supported his writing—Tarot-reading, bookselling, cater-waiting for William F. Buckley—the writing of his first novel, Edinburgh, and the election of Donald Trump. By turns commanding, heartbreaking, and wry, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel asks questions about how we create ourselves in life and in art, and how to fight when our dearest truths are under attack.

A guide for the next generation of writers&;self-care rituals, creativity-generating rhythms, and personalized strategies for embracing a creative life. Wild Words is an invitation to explore the intersection of your writing practice with everything else in your busy life. Through personal stories and practical lessons you&;ll learn how to enter a new relationship with your creativity, one that honors where you&;ve been, where you&;re headed, and where you are today. Discover methods to support a sustainable writing practice, clarifying and nourishing routines, an understanding of your own creative history, and guidance on how to make small but powerful mind-set shifts (such as how to see a career as a partner rather than an obstacle). Above all, Wild Words encourages you to approach creativity through a seasonal lens and helps you untangle the messy process of embracing your circumstances, trusting your voice, and making time to put pen to paper, season after season.

The author of the Easy Rawlins mystery series shares professional tips on how to write a novel, counseling aspiring writers on how to create and adhere to a daily writing schedule, determine a personal narrative voice, and work through the challenging initial stages. Reprint.

An award-winning author provides the creative lesson plans and innovative writing exercises she uses in her popular writing workshop aimed at non-writers, which focuses on the connection between the hand, the brain and spontaneous images. Original.