Write for Your Life


Book Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this clarion call to pick up a pen and find yourself from “one of our most astute chroniclers of modern life” (The New York Times Book Review), #1 New York Times bestselling author Anna Quindlen shows us how anyone can write, and why everyone should. What really matters in life? What truly lasts in our hearts and minds? Where can we find community, history, humanity? In this lyrical new book, the answer is clear: through writing. This is a book for what Quindlen calls “civilians,” those who want to use the written word to become more human, more themselves. Write for Your Life argues that there has never been a more important time to stop and record what we are thinking and feeling. Using examples from past, present, and future—from Anne Frank to Toni Morrison, from love letters written after World War II to journal reflections from nurses and doctors today—Write for Your Life vividly illuminates the ways in which writing connects us to ourselves and to those we cherish. Drawing on her personal experiences not just as a writer but as a mother and daughter, Quindlen makes the case that recording our daily lives in writing is essential. When we write we not only look, we see; we not only react but reflect. Writing gives you something to hold onto in a changing world. “To write the present,” Quindlen says, “is to believe in the future.”




Your Life Is a Book - And It's Time to Write It!


Book Description

Do you have a story that you just have to tell? Do you seek to preserve your life history as a gift for loved ones, or to pay tribute to those who have meant the most to you? Do you yearn to write about one major life experience to inspire others? You're not alone. The desire to write our life story is a timeless, universal urge. Somewhere inside us we know that writing a book about our life will touch those we love, while enriching our lives in today's cell phone-laptop lifestyle. Life is a book, and women and men from 19 to 99 are hearing the call to write it. Someone is waiting to hear you tell your life story: who you are, how you've lived, what you've learned. They want to hear all the stories that have shaped your life. Your Life Is a Book - And It's Time to Write It! An A-to-Z Guide to Help Anyone Write Their Life Story will take you on the journey of creating your memoir, autobiography, or life story. It doesn't matter how old or how young you are, or whether you've written a lot, a little, or not at all. Through practical tools, lively writing exercises, engaging questions, and helpful illustrations, you'll receive the guidance and encouragement you need from an expert life-writing teacher. Start writing your life story today! Kevin Quirk, M.A., has been helping ordinary people of all ages and backgrounds write their life stories as ghostwriter, personal historian, and Writing Your Life Story teacher since 1998. A former journalist and founder of Life Is a Book, he is coauthor of Brace for Impact: Miracle on the Hudson Survivors Share Their Stories of Near Death and Hope for New Life.




Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life


Book Description

In her first memoir, award-winning novelist Yiyun Li offers a journey of recovery through literature: a letter from a writer to like-minded readers. “A meditation on the fact that literature itself lives and gives life.”—Marilynne Robinson, author of Gilead “What a long way it is from one life to another, yet why write if not for that distance?” Startlingly original and shining with quiet wisdom, this is a luminous account of a life lived with books. Written over two years while the author battled suicidal depression, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life is a painful and yet richly affirming examination of what makes life worth living. Yiyun Li grew up in China and has spent her adult life as an immigrant in a country not her own. She has been a scientist, an author, a mother, a daughter—and through it all she has been sustained by a profound connection with the writers and books she loves. From William Trevor and Katherine Mansfield to Søren Kierkegaard and Philip Larkin, Dear Friend is a journey through the deepest themes that bind these writers together. Interweaving personal experiences with a wide-ranging homage to her most cherished literary influences, Yiyun Li confronts the two most essential questions of her identity: Why write? And why live? Praise for Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life “Li has stared in the face of much that is beautiful and ugly and treacherous and illuminating—and from her experience she has produced a nourishing exploration of the will to live willfully.”—The Washington Post “Li’s transformation into a writer . . . is nothing short of astonishing.’”—The New York Times Book Review “An arrestingly lucid, intellectually vital series of contemplations on art, identity, and depression.”—The Boston Globe “Li is an exemplary storyteller and this account of her journey back to equilibrium, assisted by her closest companion, literature, is as powerful as any of her award-winning fiction, with the dark fixture of her Beijing past at its centre.”—Financial Times “Every writer is a reader first, and Dear Friend is Li’s haunted, luminous love letter to the words that shaped her. . . . Her own prose is both lovely and opaque, fitfully illuminating a radiant landscape of the personal and profound.”—Entertainment Weekly “Yiyun Li’s prose is lean and intense, and her ideas about books and writing are wholly original.”—San Francisco Chronicle




How to Write the Story of Your Life


Book Description

How to Write the Story of Your Life shows writers how to mine the depths of their experience to write an engaging and saleable memoir. Frank P. Thomas gives readers the instruction they need to write the stories of their lives, including: The five Rs essential to the completion and publishing of a life story; research, remembering, 'riting, reading and reproduction Hundreds of memory sparkers to get readers started Organizational techniques for developing a writing plan and how to work with photos and documents Memories and the author's expert guidance are all writers need to leave a legacy for generations to come.




Write for Your Life


Book Description

Based on Lawrence Block's extremely popular seminar for writers. Discover Block's tips for overcoming writer's block and unleashing your creativity.




Rewrite Your Life


Book Description

"According to common wisdom, we all have a book inside of us. But how do you select and then write your most significant story--the one that helps you to evolve and invites pure creativity into your life, the one that people line up to read? In [this book], creative writing professor, sociologist, and popular fiction author Jessica Lourey guides you through the redemptive process of writing a healing novel that recycles and transforms your most precious resources--your own emotions and experiences"--Amazon.com.




Write for Your Life: A Guide to Clear and Purposeful Writing (and Presentations)


Book Description

The best-selling author’s practical guide to writing clearly and convincingly in every professional setting. How would you create a winning pitch for your latest investment idea? Or persuasively argue for a major policy change? Or successfully ask your boss for a raise? The answer: clear and effective communication, whether in writing or through a presentation. Best-selling author Charles Wheelan has spent decades mastering effective communication skills in his work as a writer, college professor, journalist, speechwriter, political candidate, and public speaker. In Write for Your Life, he shares his best tips. Taking readers through all the steps required to arrive at a coherent first draft, he then explains the best ways to improve and fine-tune your writing. He covers how to organize and present information, why it’s necessary to adapt your tone to different audiences, and when to use summaries, sidebars, bullet points, and other tools for making information more digestible. He explores the truth behind popular clichés like "Show, don’t tell" and "Kill your darlings," and discusses the proper use and attribution of quotations from secondary sources. And he goes on to cover how to speak effectively, providing helpful advice for preparing a winning presentation or delivering a speech. Writing with his signature wit and humor, Wheelan illustrates his points with entertaining examples from his own life, as well as memorable anecdotes from leading magazine and newspaper writers, political figures from Winston Churchill to Barack Obama and Elena Kagan, and a diverse array of the best communicators from the worlds of culture, sports, and politics. Write for Your Life is an essential guide for anyone needing to get their ideas across whether in an email, memo, report, presentation, fund-raising letter, or speech.




The Brave


Book Description

Perfect for fans of Rain Reign, this middle-grade novel The Brave is about a boy with an undiagnosed anxiety issue and his move to a reservation to live with his biological mother. Collin can't help himself—he has a mental health condition that finds him counting every letter spoken to him. It's a quirk that makes him a prime target for bullies, and frustrates the adults around him, including his father. When Collin asked to leave yet another school, his dad decides to send him to live in Minnesota with the mother he's never met. She is Ojibwe, and lives on a reservation. Collin arrives in Duluth with his loyal dog, Seven, and quickly finds his mom and his new home to be warm, welcoming, and accepting of his disability. Collin’s quirk is matched by that of his neighbor, Orenda, a girl who lives mostly in her treehouse and believes she is turning into a butterfly. With Orenda’s help, Collin works hard to learn the best ways to manage his anxiety disorder. His real test comes when he must step up for his new friend and trust his new family.




How to Write


Book Description

The Guardian's 2008 'How to Write' supplements were a huge success with wordsmiths of all stripes. Covering fiction, poetry, comedy, screenwriting, biography and journalism, they offered invaluable advice and bags of encouragement from a range of leading professionals, including Catherine Tate on writing memorable comedy characters, Robert Harris on penning bestelling fiction and Michael Rosen on constructing stories that will appeal to young people. This book draws together the material from those supplements and includes a full directory of useful addresses, from publishers and agents to professional societies and providers of bursaries. Whether you're looking to polish up your writing skills or you want to ensure that your manuscript finds its way into the right hands, How to Write will prove essential reading.




How to Heal Our Divides


Book Description

Recent times have put a spotlight on the inequities, systems of oppression, and deep divisions in our society. Much has been written that acknowledges and describes racial, political, religious, and other divides, but there is little practical information on what can be done about them. How to Heal Our Divides highlights organizations that are taking real action to address these issues and heal divides in effective and practical ways. Take a look to see how you can help make the world a better place.Reviews"Jesus' final prayer with his disciples (John 17) asked for one thing: that we his followers demonstrate a profound unity that will both convict and attract the watching world. In this time of deep division, this book shows how to do exactly that."- Philip Yancey, author of "What's So Amazing About Grace""Creed and community remind me that changing habits is hard, and practicing solidarity involves wrestling with my own failures. But, with the help of others, each one of us can mend the fault lines in our own lives and lend our hands to repair the world. Read these essays and discover you are not alone. You have friends, co-workers, mentors, and guides for the way." - Diana Butler Bass, author of "Freeing Jesus" "Grateful" and "Grounded""A brilliant and loving collection of real stories, "How to Heal Our Divides" shows what brave, humble people are doing all over the world to heal hurt and build bridges to restoration and peace. With inspiration on every page--written by some of the world's most renowned authors--here's a source of hope and healing that arrives just when we need it most." - Patricia Raybon, award-winning author of "My First White Friend: Reflections on Race, Love and Forgiveness" and "Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace""This volume brings together a diverse team of creative practitioners of un-division. All of these practitioners are translating peace-making theory into practice on the street, in the neighborhood, and in the human heart. Not only that, but they are developing and revising theory through their practice. That's what makes each contribution so powerful."- Brian McLaren, author of "Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It""For twenty-five years, the Center for Courage & Renewal has helped people reclaim the wholeness that is everyone's birthright gift, so they can bring their identity and integrity more fully into their personal, vocational, and public lives. I am happy to participate in 'How to Heal Our Divides' to come alongside other organizations working with similar goals."- Parker J. Palmer, Founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal"A vast book of diverse and accessible ideas the world needs right now!"- Mark Schaefer, author of "Cumulative Advantage""Filled with strong and hopeful voices, How to Heal Our Divides is a book that recognizes it will take more than a Kumbaya moment to bring wholeness to our society. It does the hard work of bringing civil discourse to the page in a way that shows us it is possible to talk even when we don't agree. The healing will begin from there." - Sophfronia Scott, author of "The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton""Projects like the ones in this book are healing the world. My own work as an activist has been shaped by stories like the ones in this book. This is holy work we are doing. It begins with humility."- Shane Claiborne, leader of Red Letter Christians