How To Tell a Story: In our high-tech, hyper-connected, analytic age, storytelling is the essential way to connect with people everywhere. By following 33 intuitive techniques, you will be able to create a compelling tale, with an intriguing characters, a revealing “world of the story,” meaningful action and details, and more.
The Mechanics of Writing: These days–like it or not–everyone is a writer. Whether you’re a student or a working professional, writing is the essential “connective tissue” for whatever you do. This guide demystifies that challenge with 35 simple and intuitive techniques–each with a telling case study.
How to Analyze an Issue: In a wide range of studies and professions, you need to figure out: Does this make sense? How To Analyze an Issue offers a welter of tips and tricks for exploring the toughest issues you will face. It all begins–you guessed it–with storytelling. By understanding the structure of narrative, we unlock the secrets of more abstract reasoning and analysis.
Four Writing Guides Designed for the Classroom
The Elements of Writing: The comprehensive system for writing in all fields. Based on the latest research on learning and the brain, The Elements of Writing offers a three-stage strategy for mastery: storytelling, mechanics, and analysis. We start with all the basic elements of storytelling (character, narrative, action, details, and more), then move to mechanics (sentences, words, paragraphs, editing, and more), and conclude with analysis (questions, explaining, models, and more). The book’s 79 sections include detailed explanations, how-to instructions, case studies, and exercises. (Buy The Elements of Writing today in ebook or paperback formats.)
Reading and Writing the Essay: Ideal for rigorous writing classes in high school and college. Reading and Writing the Essay is modeled after William Zinsser’s classic Yale course. Charles Euchner, who taught in that Yale program, offers a complete guide to writing five kinds of essays: profile of a person, description of a place, depiction of action, breakdown of a complex process, and analysis of an issue. (Order Reading and Writing the Essay in ebook format; paperback to be released soon.)
Writing About Politics and Society: Ideal for classes in political science. WAPS uses some of the great modern works on politics and social science–from classic works by John Stuart Mill and George Orwell, literary classics from Shakespeare to Robert Penn Warren, and modern works from Robert Caro, Jane Jacobs, Joan Didion, Yuval Noah Harari, Kim Wehle, and Jennifer Mercieca–to reverse-engineer all 79 elements of writing. By exploring key concepts in politics, we also drill master the essential skills of writing well.
Writing About Place: Designed for students and practitioners in architecture, planning, preservation, and environmental studies … and anyone who cares about place. Based on the acclaimed The Elements of Writing, this new work not only shows the simple, intuitive techniques you need to write well, write fast, right away. It also offers a bevy of case studies from architecture and planning. So to master writing, you also get a dynamic sampling of some of the most important authors and ideas in architecture and planning. (Order Writing About Place in ebook and paperback formats.)
The Minis: Short Treatments of All the Topics
The Golden Rule of Writing: What if you could master every challenge of writing — building great sentences and paragraphs, constructing compelling stories, explaining complex concepts — with one very simple principle? That principle, called The Golden Rule of Writing, states the matter simply: Make everything a journey. Start strong, finish strong. This brief guide shows how to do it. (Buy The Golden Rule of Writing now.)
Storytelling: To connect with any audience, tell a story. You will never meet a person who doesn’t like telling or hearing great stories. Starting with the “narrative arc” that Aristotle outlined 2,500 years ago, give your story a structure that makes the experience whole. Show characters hitting “brick walls,” struggling to achieve some great objective. And create plots that create closure for the hero – and the reader. (Buy Storytelling now.)
Characters: People like watching people. As a storyteller, then, give the reader compelling, surprising, and sympathetic characters. The best character starts with a ”dossier,” a complete inventory of the character’s background, experiences, desires, and values. Show them in action with other types of people. Show how their interactions with other character types reveal their ability to act, learn, and grow. (Buy Characters now.)
World of the Story: The setting not only offers a “container” for the characters and action, but also reflects their values, status, understanding, and struggles. They also help us to know the characters, create possibilities but also impose limits on the characters. Settings help us to explore the larger community and the unfolding action – and to see what’s unusual and deserves attention. (Buy The World of the Story now.)
Action and Scenes: The world, as one philosopher put it, is “one great blooming, buzzing confusion.” To grab and hold the reader’s attention, create action both surprising and meaningful. Get characters to act, knowingly and unknowingly, to move the story forward. Use “beats” to make every moment – every nod, word, and movement – drive the tale. Fill scenes with real human desire and hesitation. And make sure every action somehow reveals something new. (Buy Action and Scenes now.)
Details and Surprise: The best writing surprises. Even when exploring familiar topics, show readers something they don’t already know or feel. Show details that most people would not notice. Approach scenes like a magician. Rather than revealing the obvious, explore the hidden qualities of characters, settings, action, and scenes. Write cinematically, freezing some details and putting others into action. Finally, create scenes of wholeness. (Buy Details and Surprise now.)
The Structure of Writing: “The great book of Nature,” Galileo said, “is written in mathematical language and the characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures.” You could say the same about writing. Stories usually take the shape of a narrative arc. But other shapes – lines, circles, and triangles – also offer structure to a piece. To highlight powerful relationships, use numbers – ones to set characters or ideas apart, twos to depict conflict or complements, and threes to reveal dynamism. (Buy The Structure of Writing now.)
Sentences and Paragraphs: The most important unit of writing is the sentence. If you can write “one true sentence,” to use Ernest Hemingway’s term, you can write anything. Good sentences begin with simplicity: strong verbs, clear subjects, and important objects. If the sentence is the most important of unit, the paragraph is the runnerup. Ideally, a paragraph states and develops just one idea. By using “tabloid headlines,” you can make sure that every paragraph stays on point. (Buy Sentences and Paragraphs now)
Words, Words, Words: “The difference between the right word and the almost right word,” Mark Twain once said, “is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.” To find the right word, start with simplicity. But don’t stop there. Sometimes you need a longer word to write with precision. Active verbs give your writing energy and verve. Avoid adjectives and adverbs. Above all, avoid bureaucratese and academese. (Buy Words, Words, Words now)
Grammar Made Simple: To most writers, grammar is an imposing set of abstract dos and don’ts, with exceptions that bewilder more than enlighten. But grammar is really just a simple way to coordinate your writing. Grammar developed to make life easier, not harder, for writer and reader alike. This ebook offers three simple ways to think about grammar—getting along, traffic management, and being precise. We go into detail, with lots of examples, to show you how grammar enlivens writing—and keep you and your reader on track. (Buy Grammar now)
Editing Without Pain: For most writers, editing poses the most difficult challenge. Faced with an ungainly draft, most writers work methodically from beginning to end. But by moving from the biggest to smallest pieces of your piece, you can edit faster and more effectively. With the “Search and Destroy” system, you can catch more mistakes and avoid “melting down” from overexertion. (Buy Editing Without Pain now)
Writing With Style: Connect with people’s senses of sight, sound, and feeling. As brain researchers now know, you cant know anything until you can feel it too. Metaphors and similes offer an essential approach to helping the reader experience an idea by relating it to something different. Finally, all good style requires a spirit of play to amuse and challenge the reader. You can learn all of these skills, step by step, in this practical guide. (Buy Writing With Style now)
Analysis Without Paralysis: All analysis asks a simple question: What causes what? Once we identify a slew of possible answers to questions, we identify variables. That’s when the real work begins. If we can “operationalize” variables, we can gather factual evidence of possible answers to our questions. we can supplement statistics with testimony from experts. With all these data at hand, we can develop both small-scale and large-scale analysis. (Buy Analysis Without Paralysis now)
