While Fred is out sick, a visiting author signs Fred's book "To Frank". When Fred's desk-mate Luisa suggests Fred must really be Frank in school, this sparks an idea for Fred's creative writing assignment. Fred's What-If poem is coming together wonderfully, until--a mist fills the room and the writing assignment comes to life. Suddenly Fred--now Frankinschool--and Luisa--now Princessa Luisa--need to save the school from the mysterious potion--and...

"Organized into six accessible, easy-to-navigate sections, The Way of the Writer is both a literary reflection on the creative impulse and a utilitarian guide to the writing process. Johnson shares his lessons and exercises from the classroom, starting with word choice, sentence structure, and narrative voice, and delving into the mechanics of scene, dialogue, plot and storytelling before exploring the larger questions at stake for the serious writer....