"A modern and actionable guide to the fundamentals of writing compelling, well-crafted, authentic stories in any medium, with lessons illustrated by novels, plays, films, music, video games, and TV, and writers from Shakespeare and Dostoevsky to Quentin Tarantino and Eminem."-- "A master class of 27 lessons, drawn from 27 diverse narratives, for novelists, storytellers, filmmakers, graphic designers, and more. Author Daniel Joshua Rubin unlocks the...

This volume provides an analysis of stories' plot structures and their psychological meanings, attempting to distill all of storytelling down to a few archetypes. Drawing on a vast array of examples, from Proust to detective stories, from the Marquis de Sade to E.T., the author leads readers through the changes in the nature of storytelling over the past 200 years, and why so many stories have 'lost the plot' by losing touch with their underlying...

"Inside this resource ... you'll find a combination of exercises, how-to instruction, and motivational passages to keep you moving forward every time you sit down in front of your computer screen. No matter your skill level or genre, Writing Your Novel from Start to Finish will help you set goals and attain tiny wins that keep you motivated along the way to your completed novel"--

"As the author of twenty-four novels, Elizabeth George is one of the most successful--and prolific--novelists today. In Mastering the Process, George offers readers a master class in the art and science of crafting a novel. For many writers, the biggest challenge is figuring out how to take that earliest glimmer of inspiration and shape it into a full-length novel. How do you even begin to transform a single idea to a complete book? Elizabeth George...

Elements of Surprise opens with an novel but narrow focus: how a particular cognitive bias, the "curse of knowledge," underwrites stories that rely on what it calls "well-made surprise," as seen in (for example) classic detective fiction--that is, surprises in novels, films, television, and plays that set us up to be fooled in ways we find pleasing and satisfying. But from there, the book expands its reach. At its core, "cursed" thinking underlies...

"August, 1911: The Mona Lisa is stolen by Vincent Peruggia. Exactly what happens in the two years before its recovery is a mystery. Many replicas of the Mona Lisa exist, and more than one historian has wondered if the painting now in the Louvre is a fake, switched in 1911. Present day: art professor Luke Perrone digs for the truth behind his most famous ancestor: Peruggia. His search attracts an Interpol detective with something to prove and an unfamiliar...

"Once in a book by Mordecai Gerstein ... there lived a family of characters." This is the tale of one little girl's search for her own story.

"Think of your favorite story -- the one that kept you turning pages late into the night, the one with a plot so compelling, so multilayered, so perfect that you couldn't put it down. How can you make your own plots - in your novels, short stories, memoirs, or screenplays -- just as irresistible? Plot Perfect provides the answer. This one-of-a-kind plotting primer reveals the secrets of creating a story structure that works -- no matter what your...