Books & eBooks
Creative Books
Scholarly books contain in-depth information and can cover a topic more thoroughly than articles.
See the tips for searching our catalog and the suggested book titles.
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Note for Distance Learners
If you are on a satellite campus or taking classes online, you have the same access to library resources as students on the Alva campus. That includes books in our print collection, which we can deliver by mail or courier. See the Interlibrary Loan page for details:
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The Interlibrary Loan Department can order books from other libraries or ship our books to other locations.
Suggested Books
The following is a sample from our catalog.
Save the Cat! by Call Number: 808.23 Sn921sISBN: 9781932907001Publication Date:Here’s what started the phenomenon: The best seller, for over , that’s been used by screenwriters around the world! Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny, and candid look inside the movie business. Save the Cat! is just one of many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying.
Sol Stein’s Reference Book for Writers by Call Number: 808.02 St345soISBN: 9780312550950Publication Date: 2010-11-09Street smarts from a publishing insider: This book offers a wealth of tips, tricks, and savvy advice to writers from college students to experienced authors and includes useful information about the publishing process.
Story by Call Number: 808.23 M1945sISBN: 0060391685Publication Date:In Story, McKee expands on the concepts he teaches in his $450 seminars (considered a must by industry insiders), providing readers with the most comprehensive, integrated explanation of the craft of writing for the screen. No one better understands how all the elements of a screenplay fit together, and no one is better qualified to explain the “magic” of story construction and the relationship between structure and character than Robert McKee.
A Writer’s Toolkit by Call Number: 808.02 B7363wISBN: 0759633681Publication Date:This book grew out of the teaching and writing experiences of the authors, over thirty years. It presents the fundamental principles of creative writing and illustrates them with both student and professional writing.
Elements of Writing
Beginnings, Middles & Ends by Call Number: 808.3 K884bISBN: 9781599632193Publication Date:Translating that initial flash of inspiration into a complete story requires careful crafting. So how do you keep your story from beginning slowly, floundering midway, and trailing off at the end? Nancy Kress shows you effective solutions for potential problems at each stage of your story—essential lessons for strong start-to-finish storytelling.
Characters & Viewpoint by Call Number: 808.3 C1782cISBN: 9781599632124Publication Date:Vivid and memorable characters aren't born: They have to be made. This book is a set of tools: literary crowbars, chisels, mallets, pliers and tongs. Use them to pry, chip, yank and sift good characters out of the place where they live in your imagination. Award-winning author Orson Scott Card explains in depth the techniques of inventing, developing and presenting characters, plus handling viewpoint in novels and short stories.
Conflict, Action & Suspense by Call Number: 808.3 N669cISBN: 0898796342Publication Date:Offers step-by-step instructions on how to use conflict, action, and suspense to generate drama in fiction writing, discussing stage-setting, openings, cliff-hangers, mood and atmosphere, character development, misdirection, pacing, and other techniques.
Description by Call Number: 808.3 W85071dISBN: 9780898796810Publication Date:Details how to use the element of description properly in fiction writing and different ways to apply description techniques. Includes samples of work by such noted writers as Mark Helprin and Anne Tyler.
Plot by Call Number: 808.3 D545pISBN: 0898793033Publication Date:Offers advice for fiction writers on how to create, develop, and fix plots, providing a definition of plot and discussing viewpoint shifts, flashbacks, subplots, narration, melodrama, and other topics.
Scene & Structure by Call Number: 808.3 B4729sISBN: 0898795516Publication Date:How to construct fiction with scene-by-scene flow, logic, and readability.
Setting by Call Number: 808.3 B4729seISBN: 0898796350Publication Date: 1994-02-15Examines the importance of setting in fiction writing, discussing the use of setting to unify the story and advance the plot; looking at how setting affects character, adds meaning and vitality, and creates atmosphere; and considering other related topics.
Voice and Style by Call Number: 808.3 P2935vISBN: 9780898796933Publication Date:Voice and style are tangible as air, and just as real. Readers hear “voice” in the overall sound of your story and in the thoughts and words of your characters. They sense “style” in the way you pull these currents together, creating the magnetism that unifies all the other elements of your fiction. Your voice, your style will make readers remember you and seek out your work.
