In 'Beautiful Days,' Zach Williams ponders parenthood, reality and the uncanny

No matter your current skill level, William Zinsser believes anyone can practice the craft of writing. On Writing Well offers a back-to-basics approach, focusing on honing essential writing skills rather than trying to employ complex stylistic techniques. Even if you’re not a professional writer, you’ll often find yourself in a position where you need to express an idea with words, and whether you’re crafting an email or a resume, you can apply Zinsser’s principles of simple, clear, and engaging writing. This book explores how to approach the discipline of writing and effectively put your ideas into words.

In this guide, we’ll explore Zinsser’s principles of simplicity, clarity, and identity, how to achieve each of them, and the specific challenges of creative nonfiction genres. Along the way, we’ll examine how his principles align with or differ from other writing experts, and we’ll provide actionable tips so you can apply Zinsser’s ideas to your writing.

On Writing is Stephen King’s musings on his craft—about how he discovered writing, what he learned about it, and his advice to you as a writer. Part memoir and part practical advice, it’s a personal look at one of the bestselling authors of all time.

Learn how Stephen King got his start by writing as a teenager, then struggled as an early writer until his breakthrough book Carrie. Then learn his key tips on writing good fiction, including how to develop a realistic story and characters, why you must avoid adverbs, and how to make it in the writing business.

Storytelling is an elusive art—you may have found yourself moved to tears by a story without fully understanding why. This makes writing fiction a tricky endeavor. Is it possible to learn how to capture and communicate this kind of emotional magic? Arguably, yes. The same basic storytelling principles apply no matter what kind of story you want to write—whether it’s a hilarious short film, a heart-wrenching novel, or a chilling horror audio drama.

For this Master Guide, we’ve collected and distilled advice from successful authors and storytelling experts, including Stephen King, Robert McKee, and Lisa Cron. You’ll learn how to structure your story in a way that makes sense to audiences, use your characters to communicate your story’s theme, and convey your unique voice through your storytelling.

Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights is not a conventional memoir. As he neared age 50, the Oscar-winning actor revisited the journal that he had kept for the previous 35 years to see what he could learn from it. The result is this book, which combines hard-earned insights about the art of living with vivid accounts of McConaughey’s upbringing in rural Texas, his adventures in the movie business, his global travels, and his lifelong search for love and fatherhood. Part autobiography and part life-guide, Greenlights both explains and illustrates McConaughey’s philosophy of “catching greenlights”—recognizing and even creating those moments when life says “yes” and you cruise into success as you pursue your destiny. It’s valuable reading for anyone in search of an entertaining manual on finding your way in the world.

On Writing is Stephen King’s musings on his craft—about how he discovered writing, what he learned about it, and his advice to you as a writer. Part memoir and part practical advice, it’s a personal look at one of the bestselling authors of all time.

Learn how Stephen King got his start by writing as a teenager, then struggled as an early writer until his breakthrough book Carrie. Then learn his key tips on writing good fiction, including how to develop a realistic story and characters, why you must avoid adverbs, and how to make it in the writing business.

Stories are mysterious—like music, they have an emotional power over us that’s impossible to explain. However, screenwriter and storytelling expert Robert McKee argues that stories’ emotional power is not only explainable but also something you can learn to create. In Story, McKee breaks down how stories function and uses this theory to explain how you can write a gripping story. The book is intended for screenwriters, but its principles apply to any kind of storytelling.

In this guide, we’ll explain what ingredients enable stories to engage audiences on both an emotional and intellectual level. You’ll learn how “beats” of action and reaction act as the driving force of compelling scenes and how scenes, sequences, and acts fit together to form stories that hold attention. We’ll provide background from earlier works that likely inspired Story, such as Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces. We’ll also supplement McKee’s writing advice with tips from other popular books, such as Stephen King’s On Writing and Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat!

You want to engage and persuade your audience when you talk about your work, passions, or values. But even when you care deeply about your message, you don’t always connect with your listeners. In his 2018 book Unleash the Power of Storytelling, speechwriter-turned-actor Rob Biesenbach asserts that you can make your message much more compelling by simply telling a story.

Biesenbach explains that stories affect us deeply because they have a unique power to captivate our attention, influence our perception, and shape our emotions. In this guide, we’ll explain how Biesenbach defines a story and explore the fundamental pieces that make up a story. (Hint: It’s not as simple as beginning, middle, and end!) We’ll also compare Biesenbach’s insights to other popular theories about stories and storytelling, and we’ll look at the research on how storytelling affects your brain—and how these effects play out in the real world.

On Writing is Stephen King’s musings on his craft—about how he discovered writing, what he learned about it, and his advice to you as a writer. Part memoir and part practical advice, it’s a personal look at one of the bestselling authors of all time.

Learn how Stephen King got his start by writing as a teenager, then struggled as an early writer until his breakthrough book Carrie. Then learn his key tips on writing good fiction, including how to develop a realistic story and characters, why you must avoid adverbs, and how to make it in the writing business.

Many people feel their dream of being a professional writer is too abstract to become reality. However, Nicolas Cole argues otherwise and uses his own story as testament—he went from a nobody blogger to a successful career writer in only a few years. According to Cole, anyone can create a successful online writing career—be it in blogging, copywriting, poetry, or any other digitally published format—as long as they do two things: write consistently and understand the world of online writing. In The Art and Business of Online Writing, Cole lays out his guide to establishing an online writing career based on his experience and success.

In this guide, we’ve organized Cole’s tips and tricks into a three-part guide for becoming a successful online writer. We’ll discuss the technicalities of writing successfully, gaining an audience, and eventually profiting from your content. In our commentary, we’ll expand on Cole’s advice using expert sources like On Writing by Stephen King and Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk.

According to hedge-fund manager and energy trader Bill Perkins, your goal should be to die with zero dollars in your bank account because you’ve used all your money to lead the fullest possible life. Perkins explains that people generally tend to over-save and under-experience, but at the end of our lives, we’ll actually value experiences more than the money we saved. In Die With Zero, he proposes a strategy for maximizing enriching experiences throughout your life and minimizing unspent funds.

Perkins gears his book toward an audience with disposable income whose earnings will likely continue to grow over time. He acknowledges that his advice isn't a substitute for a professional financial planner, and he focuses on big-picture spending and saving principles rather than specific financial advice. We’ll supplement Perkins’s recommendations with other financial advice and alternative views on how to make the most of your wealth.