Have you written a story with an exciting concept and interesting characters - but it just isn't grabbing the attention of readers or agents? It's time to look deeper into the story beats that create realistic and compelling character arcs. Internationally published, award-winning novelist K.M. Weiland shares her acclaimed method for achieving memorable and moving character arcs in every book you write.

Many people have a set of runes lurking around on a bookshelf, but not many people truly know how to use them…or the rich history behind them. Perhaps you’re unsure of how to prepare your runes for a reading, or perhaps you need a little help with interpretation.

If you're serious about your screenwriting, then you're serious about seeing your scripts produced. This book cuts to the chase with the point-by-point essentials behind every successful screenplay and shows you how to demonstrate the professional expertise that will get your scripts noticed. It's a quick, concise listen that gets to the bottom line with a no-nonsense approach to put your writing on a level with Hollywood's working professional screenwriters. Making movies is a complex matter so difficult that very few atempt it.

A simple conceptual framework through which the beginning student can understand his or her journey through Jiu-Jitsu while seeking personal development.

Learn to get the most out of therapy to unlock your best self. Millions of Americans will go to therapy this year, but veteran psychotherapist Gary Trosclair believes the vast majority of them will start the process with little to no sense of how to best use their sessions to achieve their goals. Recent research has identified effective client participation as one of the most crucial factors in successful therapy.

The Secrets of Story is a revolutionary and comprehensive writing guide for the 21st century, focused on clever ways to get an audience to fully identify with an all-too-human hero. Authors will learn to how to cut through pop culture noise and win over a jaded modern audience by rediscovering the heart of writing: shaping stories that ring true to our shared understanding of human nature.

A deeply original celebration of George Lucas' masterpiece as it relates to history, presidential politics, law, economics, fatherhood, and culture by a Harvard legal scholar and former White House advisor.

Have you always been interested in Tarot, but you just didn’t know where to start? Have you wondered if you were psychic and had no way to test it out? Have you had a Tarot deck sitting on your shelf for ages that you haven’t touched because you weren’t sure? If you’ve answered “yes” to any of these questions, Tarot: An Essential Beginner’s Guide to Psychic Tarot Reading, Tarot Card Meanings, Tarot Spreads, Numerology, and Astrology is for you.

Storytelling acts as a fantastic teaching tool that imparts life lessons to people of all ages. Storytelling has proved its durability and importance beyond any shadow of a doubt, beginning with the dawn of civilization and continuing in this era of almost immediate access to all knowledge. It has influenced our world in a number of ways, some of which are boringly simple to see and understand, and some of which remain more mysterious and enigmatic in meaning.

Of all the religions, creeds, and self-help manifestos the world has produced, most concentrate on how to achieve salvation in aspects other than the here-and-now, with our lives merely transitory testing grounds for a higher realm or our actions guided so that we maximize life in a state of "enlightened hedonism", consuming rapaciously but really achieving not much at all. But there's one philosophy that provides a concrete foundation for living well, for living "a good life" in this world. Stoicism.

Are you stuck trying to write a novel? This audiobook goes straight to the point, putting theory in plain language, adding examples from blockbuster stories, and finishing each section with exercises designed to help you work with your characters to write a novel that excites you and your readers.

How many times have you gone through something and said “I could write a book about this!”? Now is the time to stop doubting and start planning! Just as every great meal starts with a recipe, every epic novel starts with an epic outline. But is an outline really necessary? Can’t you just wing it? Isn’t all that time on an outline better spent on actually writing? And doesn’t an outline just pour water on that spark of creativity? That’s what you may have heard…until now! Writing is like The Hare and the Tortoise. Slow and steady will always beat quick and careless.

The Story Grid is a tool developed by editor Shawn Coyne to analyze stories and provide helpful editorial comments. It's like a CT Scan that takes a photo of the global story and tells the editor or writer what is working, what is not, and what must be done to make what works better and fix what's not. The Story Grid breaks down the component parts of stories to identify the problems. And finding the problems in a story is almost as difficult as the writing of the story itself (maybe even more difficult).

Ask a scientist about Hollywood, and you'll probably get eye rolls. But ask someone in Hollywood about science, and they'll see dollar signs: Moviemakers know that science can be the source of great stories, with all the drama and action that blockbusters require. That's a huge mistake, says Randy Olson: Hollywood has a lot to teach scientists about how to tell a story - and, ultimately, how to do science better. With Houston, We Have a Narrative, he lays out a stunningly simple method for turning the dull into the dramatic.

Ayn Rand discusses how a writer combines abstract ideas with concrete action and description to achieve a unity of theme, plot, characterization, and style, the four essential elements of fiction. Here, too, are Rand's illuminating analyses of passages from famous writers, rewrites of scenes from her own works, and fascinating rules for building dramatic plots and characters with depth.

The medical clairvoyant Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) left the world a wealth of clairvoyant readings on everything from health and spirituality to psychology and past lives. Now the most significant teacher of Cayce's teachings, Mark Thurston, updates and revises his classic book, Discovering Your Soul's Purpose, to help you use the Cayce teachings in the 21st century to find greater purpose in your relationships, career, and overall mission in life.

Ayn Rand discusses how a writer combines abstract ideas with concrete action and description to achieve a unity of theme, plot, characterization, and style, the four essential elements of fiction. Here, too, are Rand's illuminating analyses of passages from famous writers, rewrites of scenes from her own works, and fascinating rules for building dramatic plots and characters with depth.

There has never been a better time to build an audience around your idea or product. But with so many people and companies clamoring for attention, it's also more challenging than ever to do work that deeply resonates with the marketplace and creates true and lasting impact.

Would you like to discover your sacred purpose in life? With a unique system that utilizes 12 central archetypes and a symbolic Wheel of Life, Caroline Myss helps you follow your personal life path to its highest point.

Have you ever wondered…whether God exists? whether life has meaning? Whether pain and suffering have a purpose? This audiobook is my invitation to sit down with C. S. Lewis and me to think about some of the persistent questions and dilemmas every person faces in life. We’ll explore Lewis’s thoughts on everything from friendships to heaven, from the reasons for faith to the power of stories.

Here's what started the phenomenon: This book has been a best seller for over 15 years and has 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.

You love Dungeons and Dragons. As an experienced dungeon master, you've run dozens, if not hundreds of games. You put a lot of work into making your games great. What if there's another way to look at how you prepare your game? What if it turned out you could spend less time and less energy and have a better game as a result? It's time to unleash the Lazy Dungeon Master.

In this essential guide to acting, internationally renowned directing coach Judith Weston demonstrates what constitutes a good performance, what actors want from a director, and what directors do wrong. She also goes over script analysis and preparation and how actors work, and she shares important and helpful insights into the director/actor relationship.

Landmark Essays, Volume 2 continues a wonderful journey to the heart of the matter of our lives, to what matters most. It points out what's possible if we step outside of what we know, and recognize and embrace our capacity to bring forth an entirely new possibility for living—not because it is better, but simply because that is what human beings can do.

Managers as Mentors is a rapid-fire listen and a provocative guide to helping associates grow and adapt in today’s tumultuous organizations. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated. As with previous editions there is a fictional case study of a mentor-protégé relationship running through the book, but this is augmented with six actual case studies of top CEOs who relate key mentoring experiences in their lives. This hands-on guide takes the mystery out of effective mentoring.

There’s a reason it’s called a tabletop roleplaying game. Taking on the personae of different characters in the story brings a richness and depth to the experience and can make your game sessions exciting and memorable. But how can the poor, harried Game Master wrangle a whole slew of unique personalities on top of all the other work that goes into preparing each week? The Kobold Guide to Roleplaying has the answers you seek.

Have failure and setbacks left you not knowing where to turn. Don’t worry, you’re not alone! With Overcoming Failure, you have the answers to where to turn next right at your fingertips. Let best-selling authors Marcia Wieder and the inspirational Les Brown show you the way to setting your fear aside and achieving anything you set your mind to. Should you keep moving forward or should you change direction?

Rand takes listeners step by step through the writing process, providing insightful observations and invaluable techniques along the way. She discusses the psychological aspects of writing and the roles played by the conscious and subconscious mind. She talks about articles and books, explaining how to select a subject and theme, how to identify your audience, and how to write the first draft.

In productive classrooms, teachers don't just teach children skills, they build emotionally and relationally healthy learning communities. Teachers create intellectual environments that produce not only technically competent students, but also caring, secure, actively literate human beings.

Robert McKee's screenwriting workshops have earned him an international reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress, and putting major screenwriting careers back on track. Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton, Gloria Steinem, Julia Roberts, John Cleese, and David Bowie are just a few of his celebrity alumni. Writers, producers, development executives, and agents all flock to his lecture series, praising it as a mesmerizing and intense learning experience.