 About
The Writer's Software Companion
Imagine a tireless writing
coach standing by your side, a coach with all
the writing and teaching credentials you could
ask for. Now, imagine you are stuck on how to
begin a story.
With only a second of thought
your coach brings you:
- In-depth
advice on the writing of good beginnings
- 20 key
points on starting stories, kick-starting your
imagination, and capturing editors' and readers'
attention
- A step-by-step
writer's checklist on story beginnings
- Brief,
highly focused articles on starting stories
or novels
- A compendium
of professionally published story beginnings,
annotated by a celebrated writing teacher
- An interactive
laboratory where you get trial-and-error feedback
as you write sample beginnings
- Question-answer
interaction with a noted writing expert on the
topic of beginnings
- A mini-word
processor where you keep your own notes on the
topic of beginnings
Imagine
that your coach offers these same services on
virtually every topic useful to a beginning writer.
And that your coach can:
- troubleshoot
the most critical writer's problems
- define
hundreds of literary terms instantly
- offer
thousands of possible character names
- remember
every question you asked it that day (and the
answers)
- find
hundreds of useful documents based on only a
word or phrase from you
- create
an exciting working experience
. . . and much more.
This imagined
coach is a very real multimedia program, the Writer's
Software Companion. The Companion
is the collaboration of Writer's Digest
fiction columnist, Nancy Kress, and adult-learning
expert, Terry Boothman. It combines the expertise
of an award-winning novelist and writing teacher
with that of a noted expert on computer-based
learning.
How
Does It Work?
The Companion understands exactly how
you learn and how to build your skills. It works
at the most critical time for learning: during
the very process of writing - which makes it different
from a writing course, a workshop, or a traditional
book on writing technique. By giving you total
control of the learning process, it saves you
years of inefficient trial-and-error activity
and accelerates your learning by as much as ten
times the normal rate.
Unlike competing
products, the Companion is not an "electronic
page turner" that makes you pay ten-fold
for advice that could be given as easily in a
book. It does not make you learn esoteric theories
of writing or assemble awkward plot fragments.
It does use the intelligence of the computer
to teach you in ways that are simply impossible
in books or workshops.
The Companion
is comprehensive, covering hundreds of writing
topics, giving you in-depth treatment in bite-sized
chunks that make learning automatic. It is Windows
multimedia-based, providing a rich, stimulating
environment that comes to life immediately, uses
an intuitive interface, and asks only a single
computer skill: clicking a mouse.
You
will pay for it with the sale of a single story.
Spend an
entire month evaluating the Companion.
If you don't find it to be everything we say it
is, return it. You'll keep the bonuses, and we'll
refund the full purchase price, no questions asked.
Requires
Windows 95, 98, 2000 or NT, a 486 processor or
better, a CD-ROM drive, 19 meg. of hard disk space,
and at least 8 meg. of memory (RAM).
We offer
our deepest apologies to our many friends with
Macintosh computers; there is no Mac version,
however you can run Windows applications on your
Macs with Virtual PC software, purchasable at
any CompUsa or other computer stores.
As of this
date, the Companion is in use at a long
list of American universities, and has been sold
to writers in 60 countries worldwide.
order now
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