SKU: 45418974744

Novel Writing Bundle

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Novel Writing Bundle'Writing a novel'; three simple words that hardly cover all the complexities and challenges every writer encounters in the process. If you have an idea you've been sitting on for some time and don't know where to start, or you've stalled out on a work in progress, the Novel Writing Bundle will give you the push you need to complete your novel. For 90% off, this bundle includes nine OnDemand webinars that cover topics such as outlining, getting

'Writing a novel'; three simple words that hardly cover all the complexities and challenges every writer encounters in the process. If you have an idea you've been sitting on for some time and don't know where to start, or you've stalled out on a work-in-progress, the Novel Writing Bundle will give you the push you need to complete your novel. For 90% off, this bundle includes nine OnDemand webinars that cover topics such as outlining, getting started, plotting and pacing, and many more. We've also included our original digital guide, The Ultimate Guide of Writer’s Digest Writing Prompts: 450+ Ideas to Feed Your Creativity, as well as two digital editions of the Writer's Digest magazine. With the Novel Writing Bundle, you can save big on resources that will jumpstart your novel writing process!

How to Write an Opening That Pulls the Reader In (OnDemand Webinar): In this OnDemand Webinar, Wanda M. Morris delves into the elements that make a great opening to your story or novel. She analyzes examples of acclaimed first lines and opening paragraphs. Writers will leave the session armed with the tools for writing a great opening that lures readers in. ($79.99 value) 

Conquering the Muddle in the Middle (OnDemand Webinar): You have a rocking first act to your novel, and you even have an idea of how to end your story with a twist and a bang and a shot at certain bestsellerdom. But now what? How are you going to get from that great beginning to the kickass ending? You've hit the muddle in the middle. In this OnDemand webinar, nationally best-selling author Hank Phillippi Ryan will show you how these central pages can be crafted to intrigue, surprise and delight your readers—and have them turning the pages as fast as they can. With practical advice and specific tips, Hank will show you the way to the magic in the middle. ($79.99 value) 

Write a Smashing Ending: How to Leverage Your Beginning and Middle to Craft the Perfect Finale (OnDemand Webinar): Readers remember endings, which is why your ending will drive sales of your other books more than any other factor. In this OnDemand Webinar with WD Contributing Editor Elizabeth Sims, you'll learn what makes a great ending great; how top authors engineer their concluding material for maximum impact; and how to leverage your beginning and middle--whether for a standalone or series title--to create a terrific, satisfying finale, time and again. ($79.99 value) 

Mastering Voice: Finding the Magic Mix of Style, POV & Character (OnDemand Webinar): In a crowded market, one thing can make your story stand out from Page 1: Voice. It’s what grips our attention, makes your characters and their world feel real, and signals we’re in the hands of a compelling storyteller. This OnDemand webinar draws on various forms of art and entertainment to improve your command of written voice and style; demonstrates how point-of-view choices shape characters and build suspense (and how to maximize multiple POVs in mysteries and thrillers); teaches you to hone unique voices for every character; and helps tap that elusive “it factor” agents and editors look for. ($79.99 value) 

Put Your Side Characters to Work (OnDemand Webinar): Strong stories often have strong side characters. More than extras and setups for the next book, this OnDemand webinar, presented by Denise Williams, explores how you can utilize side characters to bolster plot and enhance character development in your romance books. ($79.99 value)

Novel Pacing: The Importance of Length, Depth, and Style (OnDemand Webinar): One of the biggest mistakes Richard Thomas sees new novelists make is when they switch from short stories to novels and they don’t adjust their pacing. This OnDemand webinar discusses the differences between short stories and novels, when it comes to pacing, and what that might look like. Learn how to make your novel sing by telling when you need to, but more importantly, unpacking and expanding in so many places (and different ways) to create an epic, entertaining, and original novel.($79.99 value) 

The Pros and Cons of Writing as a Pantser vs Outliner and How to Best Use Each (OnDemand Webinar): Some writers create 50 pages of outline before putting the first words to chapter one. Others open a blank page and shoot words from the hip. In this OnDemand webinar, C. Hope Clark speaks on the differences between being a Pantser and an Outliner in designing a book, explaining the pros and cons of each, so that you can tell whether your writing personality fits one or the other. Who knows? You might be in the wrong camp in writing your story! ($79.99 value) 

Strategies for Writing Compelling Dialogue (OnDemand Webinar): In this OnDemand Webinar, writers study the techniques for writing great dialogue that develops both plot and character. Crime fiction presents unique challenges and opportunities for writers, and this Webinar shows how to effectively use subtext, dialect, and action to accentuate tension. Techniques for avoiding the dialogue "tennis match" and concentrating meaning are explored as well. ($79.99 value) 

Successful Revision Strategies (OnDemand Webinar): The first draft is where a novel comes together, but it’s not the finished product. Most successful authors know the magic (and success, for that matter) really happens during the revision process. In this OnDemand webinar, novelist Jennifer Givhan shares revision strategies to help you find success with your novel. ($79.99 value) 

The Ultimate Guide of Writer’s Digest Writing Prompts: 450+ Ideas to Feed Your Creativity (Digital Guide): In The Ultimate Guide of Writer’s Digest Writing Prompts, you’ll find hundreds of writing prompts to help you at any stage of the writing process. Whether you just want to write a quick paragraph on a random topic for a daily creativity outlet or are looking for ideas about creating a new character for your novel, the prompts in this PDF will offer you a match to help start the fire in your pen. ($19.99 value)

Writer's Digest November/December 2022 (Digital Edition): Writing “The End” on the final page of your story, memoir, or novel is something to celebrate. But how can you get there successfully and what happens next? This issue aims to answer all of those questions. Features include an interview with author Ian McEwan, articles about what should go in the back matter of your book, unconventional tips for “winning” NaNoWriMo, how to know when it’s time to end a freelance relationship, and much more. ($7.99 value)

Writer's Digest March/April 2022 (Digital Edition): Point of view is one of the first things writers learn about creative writing, yet it’s also one of the hardest things to master. It involves at a minimum: choosing the right POV for your story, making sure you don’t break the guidelines of that POV and inadvertently take readers out of the narrative, but also experimenting with POV to better serve your story… It’s a lot to consider and in this issue, we explore it all. This issue also includes a WD Interview with Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James, articles on how using beta readers can give writers a different point of view of their own work, best tips for interviewing from WD Editor-at-Large Tyler Moss, and debut novelist Amanda Jayatissa talks about how writing her sometimes unlikeable narrator in My Sweet Girl allowed her to see the world differently. ($7.99 value) 

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4.1 ★★★★★
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J
JeFF Stumpo
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 5
A Feminist Divine Comedy?
Format: Paperback
Let me start with this: The Descent of Alette is difficult to read at first. Notley "puts quotation marks around" "groups of words" "in lines" "that can be off-putting." Note that I'm not quoting from the book there, just giving an example of what the book's text appears like. This forces us to read more slowly, taking in each line a few words at a time. What appears to be awkward is in fact a great solution to the speed-reading most of us do these days. That being said, it's troublesome for the first few poems, less so after that, virtually invisible by the end of the first section. When talking about this book, I immediately compare it to Dante's Divine Comedy, and I commonly see others do the same (see an earlier review here on Amazon.com). Exchange Hell for a subway, and you've basically got it: an underground realm ruled over by a Tyrant, poor souls being tortured, though in this case there is no indication that they have done anything to deserve it. Notley's language might not be quite as beautiful/harsh as Dante's, but her images stand with anything he created. After introducing two characters on a subway, a woman and her baby, both on fire, Notley writes: "another woman" "in uniform" "from above ground" "entered" "the train" "She was fireproof" "she wore gloves, & she" "took" "the baby" "took the baby" "away from the" "mother" "Extracted" "the burning baby" "From the fire" "they made together" "But the baby" "still burned" ("But not yours" "It didn't happen" "to you") "We don't know yet" "if it will" "stop burning," "said the uniformed" "woman" "The burning woman" "was crying" "she made a form" "in her mind" "an imaginary" "form" "to settle" "in her arms where" "the baby" "had been" "We saw her fiery arms" "cradle the air" "She cradled air" ("They take your children" "away" "if you"re on fire") "In the air that" "she cradled" "it seemed to us there" "floated" "a flower-like" "a red flower" "its petals" "curling flames" "She cradled" "seemed to cradle" "the burning flower of" "herself gone" "her life" ("She saw" "whatever she saw, but what we saw" "was that flower") After surviving the horrors of the subway, Alette goes even deeper underground, passing through a series of psychological challenges that at times seem straight out of Freud, at times out of Classical mythology, at times out of collective dreams. Throughout it all, we learn more and more about Alette, who is not just a "hero" who goes through the motions necessary to the plot, but who considers and stumbles and is confused and learns. The third section of the book is a rebirth, wherein Alette finds a source for a stronger power than the Tyrant's, and it is distinctly feminist in its nature. I need to note here for those who react to feminism in a knee-jerk way: Notley's feminism is not a militant feminism, though it requires brief "military" action on Alette's part. Men are helpful in the story, have purpose besides being the bad guy. If anything, what Notley attacks in the form of the Tyrant is the idea of a corrupt masculinity, a kind of Big Brother who would easily stand as an antagonist in any number of 20th/21st century literary works. Alette's feminism is the discovery of her place in the world, and that place is not slaving away mindlessly for the Tyrant, not acting as just a womb or pair of hands or pretty face. It's a nuanced message, despite the epic (and therefore presumably black-and-white) nature of the whole book. The fourth section is the showdown with the Tyrant, a great deal of philosophizing, and an ending that I actually find more satisfying than that of Paradiso. I won't spoil it here, but it just works extremely well in conjunction with the themes of Descent as a whole. If you want to be challenged, if you want to think deep thoughts, if you want surreality and magic, pick up The Descent of Alette. For even more interesting reading from the author and her partner, you could also turn to The Scarlet Cabinet, which contains but actually predates the on-its-own publication of Descent.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2010
K
Kent Shaw
Lexington, US
★★★★★ 5
A Contemporary Epic
Format: Paperback
I have a complicated relationship with most of the books I've read by Alice Notley. I admire her facility with the lyric, her ability to get just beneath a concept or sentiment using a very talk-y style so that I always feel like I'm with whatever speaker she's using, inside that mind and her mind all at once. This is a good kind of complication. It's one I yearn for with poems. The unpleasant complications are when I feel as though I'm just being subjected to her unedited notebook entries. Too much, too much, too much. It comes up especially with her book Mysteries of Small Houses. I mention these difficulties only to sharpen the accomplishment of The Descent of Alette. Like other reviewers, I feel the tonal similarities to Dante's Inferno. Which becomes a subversive allusion considering Alette seeks after a male Tyrant in order to destroy him, while Dante sought after his Beatrice out of desire. But I read and reread Alette, because Notley continually subverts patriarchal conventions in the book. I actually find I crave the speaker's intellect, and the mythic logic that gives the book its arc. I want it more. Yes, there are quotations around each fragment in the poems. I actually appreciate them for slowing my reading down, and for sharpening my focus on the use of Notley's language. And it's not just a stylistic tic, or something to be endured. It could actually be described as further subversion of The Tyrant Alette pursues.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2011
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Raquel Wilbon
Alexandria, US
★★★★★ 2
Imagery and diction
Format: Paperback
This book was very challenging to read because everything was written in quotations however, it was intriguing as a different way of writing poetry.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2020
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amber a
Carnegie, US
★★★★★ 5
I tend to leave most books in this genre disappointed. I miss the classics
Format: Hardcover
I bought this book after hearing Stacey Lee speak about narrative tension at a lecture for YA writers - the talk was specifically entitled, "How to keep them up all night." The lecture (alongside Anna Shinoda) bit off a rather large amount of material. Neither woman mentioned vampires. The methods they discussed were smart, creative, and delivered with just enough humor to leave me wondering whether I'd be able to put their debut novels down. I devoured GONE WITH THE WIND at least six times cover to cover between my sophomore and senior year. While I am more susceptible to the Historical Fiction page turner than the average girl, I tend to leave most books in this genre disappointed. I miss the classics. I opened this book determined to not judge it by its gorgeous pastel cover. I started slowly. I enjoyed the first four or five chapters - leaving each fully appreciative of Lee's craft. I particularly enjoyed her ability to pepper humor though tragedy. I often complain about writers who miss the mark here. Stacey Lee nailed that important believable balance for me. I liked her characters quickly. I left each chapter satisfied, but thoroughly able to get up and go on with my life. Like a jaded Thumper in Walt Disney's BAMBI, this book was more than nice, but I wasn't susceptible to any kind of teen-aged Twitterpation over it. After the sixth or seventh chapter - four or five days after I first picked it up, I quietly closed my copy, placed it on my nightstand, switched off my lamp, fluffed my pillow and turned over. I turned over again. I flipped on the light - OK, just one more chapter... I zombie sleepwalked to work the next day. That night I retired early, making some completely convincing excuse about being exhausted. I was certainly too tired to read. Flash forward to 6AM when I woke up with this novel on my face. I turned it's last page this afternoon, fully satisfied. I am truly sad it's over. This book transported me. It's one I'll want to have in my collection forever, alongside the beautiful books that mattered to me as a teen; JANE EYRE, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, UNDER A PAINTED SKY. Classic in feel, subject matter, and voice - but modern in approach, I'd be as comfortable recommending it to my book club as I would handing it to any teen. Readers of all ages and walks of life will surely find something that resonates with their own stories too. As for me, I am sure I'll be back on the trail with these girls-- I mean boys, before long. Now I'm off to try my hand at Anna Shinoda's LEARNING NOT TO DROWN. Well, maybe tomorrow. I need a good night's sleep and it's clear these authors know how to keep those pages turning.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2015
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Ruth Franklin
Dallas, US
★★★★★ 4
Good, Fun, Important Topics
Format: Paperback
Good, solid, read for ages 12+. Somewhat unrealistic and yet believable story of two strong young female characters traveling west disguised as boys. Couldn't stop reading it until I was finished with the book, and now my granddaughter is doing the same. This book has many relevant themes about race, gender, class, religion, and other stereotypes and is an excellent choice for a classroom or family read aloud. Get it.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2017

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