Live Writing: Breathing Life into Your Words

A practical guide for how to make your writing come alive, by the bestselling author of A Writer’s Notebook and the ALA Notable Book Fig Pudding.

What is “live writing”? It’s the kind of writing that has a current running through it—energy, electricity, juice. This book is a young writer’s toolbox for bringing writing to life. But instead of awls and hammers, this toolbox contains words, imagination, a love of books, a sense of story, and ideas for how to make the writing live and breathe.

Perfect for classrooms, Live Writing is full of practical wisdom for young writers, from bestselling writer Ralph Fletcher. Aspiring writers will devour these tips for how to make their words jump off the page!

• Finding Your Voice: Learn how to make your writing sound honest and authentic, with all the quirks and rhythms of real human speech.
• Building Characters: Move beyond "good guys" and "bad guys" to create believable characters with real emotions who leap off the page.
• The Writer’s Toolbox: Discover practical strategies for crafting powerful leads, memorable endings, and vivid settings that pull your reader in.
• Storytelling for Kids: A perfect resource for the classroom or young writers at home, filled with inspiration from beloved author Ralph Fletcher.
• Improve Your Writing: Go step-by-step through the writing process with dozens of tips and examples from other young writers just like you.

| This book is based on the simple idea that every writer has a "tool box." Instead of awls and hammers, a writer's toolbox contains words, imagination, a love of books, a sense of story, and ideas for how to make the writing live and breathe. I wrote this book to give you some practical strategies to throw into your toolbox. I hope you'll try them, because these are ideas that can make you a better writer.

This book is titled Live Writing, and you may be wondering what I mean by that. Most of us have read (and written!) the opposite kind of writing-dull, drab language that sounds about as interesting as a city phone book. By "live writing" I mean the kind of writing that has a current running through it-energy, electricity, juice. When we read "live writing", the words seem to lift off the page and burrow deep inside us.