Writing Alchemy: How to Write Fast and Deep - Softcover

Butler, Matilda; Bonnett, Kendra

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0984127844 ISBN 13: 9780984127849

Publisher: Knowledge Access Publishing, 2012

Synopsis

Writing Alchemy is a revolutionary approach to writing...a proven system.

From award-winning authors Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett--Writing Alchemy: How to Write Fast and Deep shares the secrets that put writers in total control of their writing process. Writing Alchemy applies the best of social science research to help you write with intense purpose...and have fun in the process.

Here's what a few of our students are saying:

"Writing Alchemy is one of the smartest investments a memoirist can make." -Kathryn S.
"Clever, innovative approach to writing. I like it." -Dawn T.
"I think it's a very direct, simple, repeatable process." -Grace G.
"I am so grateful for your whole approach to memoir writing." -Claudia S.

Writing Alchemy is the culmination of years of teaching and working with writers at all levels of their craft. Discover how to dig deeper into detail while you increase your output. You'll gain the tools to not only finish your book but write with greater power and confidence than you thought possible. Do you want to...

• Breathe life into the people you're writing about?
• Make them come alive as strong, multi-dimensional characters with honest emotions?
• Spend more time writing and less time rewriting?
• Create vivid word pictures rich in descriptive sensory detail that bring your readers into each scene?
• Use dialogue to show rather tell your story?

You can do all that...and more as you learn to Deconstruct the five essential elements of writing and Construct your story with purpose, insight and detail.

"...I feel fortunate to have 'stumbled upon' such a treasure." -Jodi A.
"I especially liked learning ways to describe my scenes and making them come to life." -Mary T.
"I felt stretched as I learned more about my own writing techniques." -Judy W.
"I have grown as a writer and have a greater command of the memoir genre." -Michelle S.

While this edition of Writing Alchemy is specifically for memoir writers, the information is appropriate for writers of all genres.

About this title

From the Author

Writing Alchemy Delivers on the Promise
We wrote Writing Alchemy: How to Write Fast and Deep for everyone serious about their writing...from the writers just starting out and looking to learn their craft to aspiring memoirists working on their first manuscripts to established authors with several books already published. Although we've been teaching our Writing Alchemy system for several years now, we check in with students constantly to learn what they're getting from our program.

Here are a few comments that will give you an idea of what you can expect to achieve as well:

"Writing Alchemy is helping me make my writing more interesting." We all want the people who read our stories to find them engaging. You'll find that your interest factor goes way up when you show with detail. It doesn't take flowery descriptive words or metaphors steeped in literary reference; just good detail clearly written.

"I discovered a system I could work my way through with every turn of the page." We call Writing Alchemy a system because it helps you work your way through a story or scene. It shows you how to dig into your thoughts and memory for the details that make characters, their actions and their surroundings come alive. Writing Alchemy is not formulaic writing; rather it stimulates you to tell your story and develop your own style.

"With the help of Writing Alchemy, I've given up stream of consciousness for Deconstruction." Deconstruction is the heart of the Writing Alchemy system. It helps you think through the five essential elements of writing--character development, emotions, dialogue, sensory description and time and place--and use them in your writing. Deconstruction moves you away from writing off the top of your head to becoming more deliberate and in control.

"I now have the tools to dig deeper into my characters and bring out both the good and the bad. Writing Alchemy has given me the means to deliver real characters to the page." While you need to start with a good story, it's the strong, multi-dimensional characters you develop that are going to carry the action. And it's not enough to develop them in your head; you need to share their personalities, their behaviors and the motivations that make them believable to your readers.

"The stories that seem so clear in my memory have been hard to put on paper. With Writing Alchemy, I've found the healing strength that comes from writing the truth." One of our students wrote us to say that she had been "telling all my memoirist friends that I've just been through another $50,000 worth of therapy with your lessons!" As you well know, memoir writing can be a way to work through some of the toughest experiences life can throw in your direction. Writing Alchemy will help you work through your thoughts and emotions and get them down on paper once and for all.

While hundreds of students and workshop attendees enjoy telling us that this is a powerful approach to writing, like all good writers they also show us...every time they write and share a story.

Finally, Writing Alchemy is ready for you.
And now it's your turn. As you are about to discover, Writing Alchemy delivers on many levels. In the almost 300 pages of tools, techniques, exercises and processes that together form our system, you will find yourself:

• Showing, not telling your story.
• Taking control of your writing process--what we call purposeful writing.
• Building rich, multi-dimensional characters.
• Digging into and working through emotions.
• Writing powerful dialogue.
• Taking your readers from casual bystanders and bringing them into your scenes.
• And finding greater satisfaction with your writing than ever before.

We can tell you that this is an exciting, revolutionary system. But that's just telling. Dig into the first chapter and share the enthusiasm that our students feel. By the end of Chapter 1 you'll be applying Writing Alchemy to your own stories. But don't stop there. Keep going as each successive chapter takes you deeper and deeper into the power of detail. The more you use Writing Alchemy, the more it will transform your writing, connecting you with your story and your readers with your prose.

It's time now for you to move far from writing as usual.

- Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett

From the Inside Flap

Authors' Praise for Writing Alchemy: How to Write Fast and Deep

"Writing Alchemy is the Next Best Thing. It will help you create purpose-driven writing, develop a more productive writing practice that makes better use of your time and energy, and take more pleasure from the creative process....You'll find something you can use on every page--and it's fun to read, too!" - Susan Wittig Albert, memoirist and NYT best-selling author of the China Bayles series and other mysteries

"Deconstruction could easily become the buzz word for anyone writing family stories. It's a user-friendly, step-by-step method of gathering detailed information before the writing begins....It's fun and fast. I'm using it as I write my manuscript 'Living with 12 Men.'" - Betty Auchard, award-winning author of Dancing in My Nightgown and The Home for the Friendless

"Writing Alchemy is one of the most exciting books about writing I have read in a long while....This book is indispensable for not only memoir writers, but writers of fiction as well. WRITING ALCHEMY is going on my shelf, right next to Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones!" - Pamela Jane Bell, author of 13 popular children's books and currently writing her memoir

"Deconstruction to the rescue! If you feel your writing is missing some 'magic' element this is the book for you! Using analogies, Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett present the left-brained processes of story construction in a right-brain friendly way....And you can begin improving from the very first chapter!" - Robyn Chausse, writer and Book Blog Tour Manager for WOW! Women on Writing

"Writing Alchemy is an invaluable resource to aspiring authors. With fresh insights drawn from social science, the guide offers fun and creative new tools for overcoming writer's block." - Jerramy Fine, author of Someday My Prince Will Come and Bright Young Royals

"Writing Alchemy is going to have a permanent home on top of my writing desk and will become well-worn and dog-eared in no time....I know I'll be using Writing Alchemy in my future writing projects." - Linda Hoye, author of Two Hearts: An Adoptee's Journey Through Grief to Gratitude

"Readers will be inspired and empowered to create stories that move and resonate, filled with deep and memorable characters who converse in dynamic and organic dialogue. I couldn't wait to finish the book so that I could bring what I learned to my current novel in progress." - Leslie Gilbert-Lurie, author of Bending Toward the Sun

"Writing Alchemy helps you to translate your memories into an artistic construct. It very effectively reminds you that fact is far more fascinating than fiction. Having read Writing Alchemy, I now know how to practice memoir writing in my daily emotional life." - Jid Lee, Associate Professor of English and award-winning author of To Kill a Tiger

"Oh, if my client X had only read this book first, my job would have been so much easier! (On the other hand, maybe they wouldn't have needed me to rewrite and I'd be out of a job!)....Highly recommended!" - Kim Pearson, poet, ghostwriter, editor and award-winning author of Making History

"If you ever wanted your readers to "Be There Now," this is the book for you. Writing Alchemy...[is] a handbook to turn the raw materials of our memories into writing gold." - Janet Grace Riehl, poet and author of Sightlines: A Poet's Diary and companion audiobook

"Writing Alchemy is a finely detailed guide to writing skillfully and purposefully....Drawing on research in the social sciences and tested by the authors' own students, Writing Alchemy can help memoir writers make their own pasts come alive for their readers." - Hawley Roddick, novelist and author of Your Memories: Saving the Stories of Your Life and Work

"Writing Alchemy...is an encyclopedia and workbook for writers of all genres. I wish I had had Writing Alchemy right beside me when I started my novel. Now I have to go back and insert all the things I've learned." - Madeline Sharples, poet and author of memoir Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with Her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide

"The revolutionary ideas in Writing Alchemy jumpstart the process through the use of pre-writing exercises that...guide the reader through the secrets behind the alchemy, the craft behind the magic, until your own important life narrative shimmers upon the page." - Sue William Silverman, poet and award-winning author of two memoirs and Fearless Confessions: A Writer's Guide to Memoir

"Writing Alchemy is a fresh, dynamic approach to writing...it is anything but a rigid set of rules and guidelines....Once you try it, Writing Alchemy's innovative approach to creative writing will become indispensable to your writing practice." - Amber Lea Starfire, writing teacher, editor, author of Week by Week: A Year's Worth of Journaling Prompts & Meditations

"[Butler and Bonnett] show how to assemble a story by first detailing the essential parts...From there, it's a matter of assembling the parts into a narrative. Easy, right? No, but with Butler and Bonnett as guides, the transformation from raw material to memoir may well be magic." - Susan J. Tweit, naturalist and award-winning author of Walking Nature Home: A Life's Journey

"The deeper you get into Writing Alchemy the more sense it makes....And indeed, they have developed a grand new approach to writing that I intend to try with my own writing classes....a unique writing system that is certainly worth exploring...." - Maralys Wills, award-winning author of 13 books, including Damn the Rejections, Full Speed Ahead

Edition details

• Publisher: Knowledge Access Publishing
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0984127844
• ISBN 13: 9780984127849
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 306