Bernard Selling

Works of art move and inspire us to think in new ways. And their creation is within your reach — the techniques required to create works of art simply take time, thoughtfulness, and a willingness to experiment. This sequel to Selling's popular Writing from Within includes a summary of his basic method which teaches you to write using the subject you know best: yourself. But Writing from Deeper Within also contains more advanced techniques that will show you how to expand your personal work into full-length plays, memoirs, screenplays, or novels.

Selling gets rid of the mystery behind creating great art, by breaking the process down into easily understood steps. He shares techniques for backstory, creating strong characters, story pacing, exposition, denouement, developing unique voices within the same story, researching and writing family histories, using visual motifs, employing subtext, and separating the author from the main characters. Whether you have been writing for years and want to continue to improve or are just starting out, Writing from Deeper Within will help you turn what ever you are writing into a work of art.

Many writing instructors and workbooks make basic assumptions about writing—that you need to have a good grasp of grammar, to read widely, and to write objectively—before you can tell a story. These assumptions are wrong. They invoke fear in would-be writers, who are afraid of being judged and criticized for what they say and how they say it.

Bernard Selling, author of Writing from Within and a writing instructor for over 30 years, helps people get over their initial fear of writing with this new Writing from Within Workbook. By writing personal stories, people can usually get past their misconceptions about how someone should write and learn how to write in a way that feels natural and comfortable to them. His comprehensive Workbook takes people through the writing process step-by-step, including lessons on how to add narrative, inner thoughts and feelings, dialogue, character sketches, and climaxes.

Once people are familiar with the basics of writing, they can extend their writing skills into other genres without fear. Selling introduces steps that allow readers to broaden their writing into screenplays, essays, fiction, and journals. He explains that the fundamentals of writing are the same, despite the different forms. With the ease and skill of an experienced writing teacher, he helps writers transform their work into whichever form they desire.
Draft samples will show writers how their stories will grow using the Writing from Within method. He comments on each draft, thus demonstrating how to evaluate a piece of writing. These personal notes also help keep readers on track and their goals in perspective. Selling also includes a full chapter of excerpts from past students' stories to show the potential of his method.

The completion of this workbook will:
build a love of writing and self-expression in students
create an understanding of what makes a story effective
enable students to apply the principles of storytelling to writing analytical essays
usher students into the world of the ‘examined’ life

All of the techniques that Selling presents are just as relevant to the non-fiction writer as to the fiction writer, and all writers, new and old, will write with more skill. Beyond that, storytelling skills can lead students in two important directions: awareness of the ‘self’ in their own stories (character) and awareness of relationships between and among other people. Writers will understand themselves and their characters better; they will find their voices, and Selling will help them along the way to doing so.

Many writing instructors and workbooks make basic assumptions about writing—that you need to have a good grasp of grammar, to read widely, and to write objectively—before you can tell a story. These assumptions are wrong. They invoke fear in would-be writers, who are afraid of being judged and criticized for what they say and how they say it.

Bernard Selling, author of Writing from Within and a writing instructor for over 30 years, helps people get over their initial fear of writing with this new Writing from Within Workbook. By writing personal stories, people can usually get past their misconceptions about how someone should write and learn how to write in a way that feels natural and comfortable to them. His comprehensive Workbook takes people through the writing process step-by-step, including lessons on how to add narrative, inner thoughts and feelings, dialogue, character sketches, and climaxes.

Once people are familiar with the basics of writing, they can extend their writing skills into other genres without fear. Selling introduces steps that allow readers to broaden their writing into screenplays, essays, fiction, and journals. He explains that the fundamentals of writing are the same, despite the different forms. With the ease and skill of an experienced writing teacher, he helps writers transform their work into whichever form they desire.
Draft samples will show writers how their stories will grow using the Writing from Within method. He comments on each draft, thus demonstrating how to evaluate a piece of writing. These personal notes also help keep readers on track and their goals in perspective. Selling also includes a full chapter of excerpts from past students' stories to show the potential of his method.

The completion of this workbook will:
build a love of writing and self-expression in students
create an understanding of what makes a story effective
enable students to apply the principles of storytelling to writing analytical essays
usher students into the world of the ‘examined’ life

All of the techniques that Selling presents are just as relevant to the non-fiction writer as to the fiction writer, and all writers, new and old, will write with more skill. Beyond that, storytelling skills can lead students in two important directions: awareness of the ‘self’ in their own stories (character) and awareness of relationships between and among other people. Writers will understand themselves and their characters better; they will find their voices, and Selling will help them along the way to doing so.

Everybody has something to say. In an age when Twitter, blogs, and Tumblrs give millions the chance to write whatever is on their minds, it seems that we're finding plenty of avenues in which to share it. How, then, do we write what is worth saying? How do we record our important memories so they'll be remembered? How do we tell our personal stories the way they deserve to be told?

In keeping with successful earlier editions of Writing from Within, Selling has stressed the idea that personal writing is a means to personal understanding. Learning to write well starts with the subjects we know the best—ourselves. To write life stories, writers explore vivid memories and re-engage with the perspectives of their younger selves. They learn to harness their inner critics and deal with fear. They use their creative drive to remember details from their most significant memories. The process of life story writing is as much one of self-discovery as it is one of nostalgia.

These emotional connections to memories provide the backbone for Selling's writing instruction. In this 25th anniversary edition of Writing from Within, the original lessons of life story writing are included and significantly expanded upon. Readers are given guidance on finding their earliest memories and on remembering details vividly. Writing instruction is offered to accompany this process and ensure that readers' life stories are full of clear, accurate memories.

The core focus of the book is on unlocking memories and writing them as life stories. However, this Anniversary edition also provides substantial new material on:

Story pacing techniques
Strategies for subtly adding exposition and denouement
Revealing and unraveling character
Writing stories within stories
Developing unique voices within the same story
Researching and writing family histories
Expanding life story writing into novels or screenplays
Advanced steps like creating visual motifs, employing sub-text, and separating the writer from the central character

Draft samples will show readers how their life stories will grow using the Writing from Within method. Excerpts from past students' life stories show the potential of the method. Personal notes to readers keep them on track and their goals in perspective.

Writing from Within: The Next Generation invites readers to find their voices and helps them along the way to doing so. As much a tool for personal reflection as a guide to writing instruction, the book represents a comprehensive discussion of the creative process. Writers, new and old, will write with more skill, understand themselves and their characters better, and be able to turn their life experiences into art.

So, learn to harness your inner critic. Construct your own writing process. Open the door to your past. Give the characters voices. Breathe some life into your story and leave something so future generations can get to know you.