A guide to writing a fiction or nonfiction book in a twenty-six day "marathon". It includes an introduction and a series of short essays with practical tips, tools, and encouragement to help readers incorporate the techniques into their own life.

Offers advice and tips for packing a punch while being succinct when writing titles, essays, Tweets, letters, and emails in short form.

All of us are faced countless times with the challenge of persuading others, whether we're trying to win a trivial argument with a friend or convince our coworkers about an important decision. Instead of relying on untrained instinct--and often floundering or failing as a result--we'd win more arguments if we learned the timeless art of verbal persuasion, rhetoric. How to Win an Argument gathers the rhetorical wisdom of Cicero, ancient Rome's greatest...

"This wise and entertaining guide by one of the great editors of our time offers timeless tools for making meaning clear. Refresh your writing. Unravel convoluted sales talk written to deceive. See through political campaigns erected on a tower of falsehoods. Fake news is but one of the pimples of a literate civilization under siege. Slovenly English! Billions of words come at us every day with unimaginable velocity and shriveled meaning, in social...

A widely admired writer and teacher of writing, Verlyn Klinkenborg now gives us a distillation of that experience in an distinctive book that will help anyone who wants to write, write better, or have a clearer understanding of what it means for them to be writing. Klinkenborg believes that most of our received wisdom about how writing works is not only wrong but an obstacle to our ability to write. Here he sets out to help us unlearn that "wisdom"--about...

The craft of writing offers countless potential problems: The story is too long; the story's too short; revising presents a huge hurdle; writer's block is rearing its ugly head.
In Help! For Writers, Roy Peter Clark presents an "owner's manual" for writers, outlining the seven steps of the writing process, and addressing the 21 most urgent problems that writers face. In his trademark engaging and entertaining style, Clark offers ten short...

"MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan isn't one to avoid arguments. He relishes them, as the lifeblood of democracy and the only surefire way to establish the truth. Arguments help us solve problems, uncover new ideas we might not have considered, and nudge our disagreements toward mutual understanding. A good argument, made in good faith, has intrinsic value-and can also simply be fun. Arguments are everywhere-and especially given the fierce debates we're all embroiled...

Master the Power of Story
When you consider the thousands of years of storytelling that comprise our literary tradition, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the shadow of so many works. But there are common threads that link all stories—from Beowulf and Hamlet to Gone With the Wind and The Godfather to the story you're drafting right now in your head. These threads form the foundation that supports story—a foundation...

"For most of the 2,000-plus years since its foundation as a discipline by ancient Greek thinkers, rhetoric-the art of using language to persuade-was a keystone of a Western education. But in the early 20th century, studying rhetoric fell out of fashion. In The Ancient Art of Thinking for Yourself, Robin Reames, one of the world's leading scholars of rhetoric, argues that it's high time to bring it back. Drawing on examples ranging from the Sophist...

"Hook your audience with unforgettable storytelling! What do Luke Skywalker, John McClane, and lonely dog on Ho'okipa Beach have in common? Simply put, we care about them. Great storytelling is making readers care about your characters, the choices they make, and what happens to them. It's making your audience feel the tension and emotion of a situation right alongside your protagonist. And to tell a damn fine story, you need to understand why and...