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Story Starters
 
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Story Starters (Paperback)

by Lou Willett Stanek (Author)
3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
US List Price: $12.95
UK Equivalent: £8.71
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Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with The Artist's Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self by Julia Cameron

Story Starters + The Artist's Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self
Price For Both: £17.58

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Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Quill (April 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0380795523
  • ISBN-13: 978-0380795529
  • Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 13.4 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 678,205 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From the Author
STORY STARTERS designed as a jump start for your imagination
STORY STARTERS, a companion to SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A NOVEL , geared to those who want to write but haven't found their plot. Many suggestions for characters, stories &themes to stimulate your creative urge. Good luck!

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:    (0)
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2 star:
 (1)
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Average Customer Review
3.2 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was hoping for, 4 Jan 2002
By Andy Cook (Bristol, UK) - See all my reviews
Hhhmm. It's difficult to know quite what to say about this book. For me, it's next to useless but I guess for others it may be of some value. What I was hoping for when I ordered it was practical advice describing methods and techniques for going about turning a germ of a story idea into a full blown, structured plot. Well, this book doesn't deliver that. What it does do is give dozens of one or two line "what ifs" and very basic scenarios. The rest of the book consists of quite a bit of padding supposedly going into more detail but I found it far too vague and superficial to be of use.

Whether this approach is of any value to you will depend on where you get stuck in the plot making process. I guess there may be the odd one or two ideas in the book that strike a chord with someone and lead them to creating their opus. Personally, if generating basic ideas was the problem, then I'd have preferred the book to contain one or more techniques for generating them but, instead, the book just consists of dozens of basic premises of very variable quality.

If you think it's not possible to have a technique for generating ideas then you'd be mistaken. Take a look at "Successful Sitcom Writing" by Jurgen Wolff for a couple of solid, practical methods for pumping out ideas.

All in all, this is not a book I could recommend to anyone, I'm afraid.

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39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Hard Going, 26 Mar 2002
By A Customer
This book contains lots and lots of 'what if? ideas' some good some bad. I found one or two interesting. I think the main problem for me was that the book was aimed at an american audience. Lots of the scenarios made no sense or had no relevance to me (English). I also found it hard going - in that it was difficult to actually read. I was thinking 'What is she talking about ?' quite a lot of the time. For instance she often refers to classic works by the christian name of the main character - fine if it's Huck or Holden but confusing a lot of the time. As an English reader I needed sentences that were finished or at least contained more information and a few less colloquialisms. I shouldn't complain I suppose - it is an american book after all and other people have found it useful, but if you're not american perhaps there are better books for you to try?
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Kiss your writer's block good-bye forever!, 2 May 1998
By A Customer
Anyone who has ever suffered from writer's block should rush out and pick up a copy of "Story Starters" today. This useful volume includes hundreds of suggestions for stories in every conceivable category to help get you over the hump. Each chapter addresses a different type of story, from age old themes to stories pulled from the headlines, then shows the writer how to look at familiar concepts in order to use them for inspiration. I loved this book because it not only makes you anxious to hit the typewriter, but it shows you how easy it can be to draw plot ideas from your everyday life. Ms Stanek also includes pertinent lessons that answer questions you might have regarding technical aspects of different genres. For instance, the chapter on writing based on memories discusses the use of flashback as a literary tool. The book is filled with examples from a wide range of fiction and the story starters themselves are so numerous, the most prolific writer would be hard pressed to work his way through them all. I recommend this book whole-heartedly to all writers everywhere.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Spoilt for choice
This book has so many story starters you really are 'spoilt for choice'. Before I had finished reading the first chapter my story was planned. Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2001

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