Customer Reviews

Developing Story Ideas

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have a shelf full of books on scriptwriting, directing, and other general movie making topics. However, the one thing that has held me back on my first short film was the lack of story. Rather - the lack of a GOOD story. I was very happy to stumble across this book. Finally someone has written not about putting your idea on paper, but GETTING the idea in the first place ("priming the pump", as the book says). You not only read the principles, but are encouraged to apply them with the many hands-on exercises presented throughout.

I believe this book is definitely a worthwhile read for anyone experiencing writer's block.

At last, a short simple book which gets very quickly down to the basic ideas of how to write - based on your own personal experience. Michael Rabiger displays a deep wisdom of the human situation and he manages to cut through the gleeful padding, found so often in armchair "feel good, do good" books, written for the inexperienced by those who could not speak from their own experience.
This book is different - there are no wasted words - however as is the case with all who have great experience (in any field) - the amased knowledge is crystallised down to just those words which are required to do the job...and not only that...he seems to be able to speak to you personally all through the book.
Although this book is more suited to group work - the insights it contains are worth having a copy - as they apply directly to the individual.
Well done Mr Rabiger - You have produced a great work - and have written it - YOURSELF.

You need to know what I'm going to tell you so that you have the right expectations when buying this book.

The book is designed more to support a storytelling class. There are group excersies and specific drills to complete after each section. So if you are alone it feels rare to read about class exercises. So, you have to understand this book's main target are teachers and students in a class.

The drills actually seem to be quite a promising activity. If I went to a fiction writing course I would like to be given this book.

The author deals with the creative process, the artistic identity and how writers actually have to dig deep in their soul to find their stories and their subjects or themes. This part I liked.

As for what the title promises "Developing story ideas". I'm not fully convinced with the material. In a certain way the basic theory is there (three act structure, scene cards, theme...) but you should be warned that there is much more that can be said about storytelling and how you actually create a great story. What does this mean? It means that if you want to write stories just to entertain yourself this is a good place to come. Now, if you want to become a professional writer the information in this book might be taken as the beginning of your education. Plenty of books await you. This book gives you the basics about how to develop story IDEAS. Once you have a story idea, then you have to develop the story itself. It wouldn't hurt if you consulted other books that have much more insight of how to build a story itself.

As for me, why did I change my mind and came back and posted a better review? Well, to me one of the best ways to decide if a book is good or not is to see if you come back to it to remember some useful insight you know is between its covers. That happened to me. I'm deep in a sotry I'm writing and I remembered this book had something that would help me. I came back. Believe me if a book makes you come back it probably has something valuable and it might be considered a goood book.

There you go, now it's time for you to decide if it is right for you or not.

This book is a textbook and it feels like one from beginning to end. "Pedantic" is a gross understatement. The exercises are useful but I think a budding writer might find this program more harmful than helpful, in it's desire to make sure you're always following his rules. In the end his approach might get you some ideas.. but not before it sucks all the fun out of the creative process.

If, on the other hand, you are a type A personality who really wants a rigid set of rules so you can feel secure in tackling something creative, maybe this will work for you. But my impression is that the aim of the book is to make storytelling so complicated and boring that he wants you to give up writing by the time you finish reading it. I'm a writer who buys all these books as way of refreshing my process and finding new inspiration. "Inspiring" this book is not.

Developing Story Ideas, by Michael Rabiger, tackles the question that plagues most writers today: where do you get your ideas. This book is his valiant attempt at an answer. It's also a textbook, aimed for use in screenwriting classrooms. I saw it on the textbook shelves for the Art Institute of Portland while perusing books at Powell's. The title was enough to intrigue me and I knew that I needed a copy. Despite the book's goal to provide exercises and structure to fit a classroom setting, Rabiger recognizes that the work could be read and used by the solo writer. He also recognizes that the text can be used to apply to all sorts of storytelling formats: screenplays, novels, short stories, memoirs.

Rabiger's premise is that you can use your life, the situations you've been in, the people that have come into contact with you, your dreams (both goal based and night time meanderings), and your imagination to create amazing stories. The chapters are structured similarly: introducing a topic and then diving straight into three or four exercises (that you can do on your own or in a classroom setting) that show you how to use or develop the concept being discussed. Concepts in later chapters build off and use elements of earlier ones. Developing Story Ideas also includes chapters dedicated to the tools of the trade, reviewing current/past works of others, and revising your works into standard formats.

What I liked
The biggest benefit this book has to offer, to me, was the CLOSAT game. The game is a two step process. First, you keep track of 6 different subjects in your writer's notebook. These are Character, Location, Objects, Situations, and Actions. Each type gets labeled accordingly (Rabiger explains how to do this extensively in the book). Each subject gets transferred down to an index card which is then used in the game. The game is played by shuffling all the same card types together and then drawing a mix of cards to create a scene. For example, you draw two Character cards, a Location card, and a Situation card. You are then given a few minutes to craft a story together using these elements before you present the premise to others (or, I suppose if you're working alone, writing it down in your writer's notebook).

I also liked how Rabiger brings the idea mining process to a personal level by suggesting that everyone's life histories can provide fertile ground for great stories. There are many questions and exercises in this book that are geared towards capturing details and past memories, that can then be used as central pieces in your own works. He invites the reader to create a list of important themes in their life and then use them to develop stories that help cater to the themes.

Developing Story Ideas gives plentiful exercises to explore all the concepts presented within its covers. I love books with exercises. Yes, it's fun to read and learn more about the theory and various aspects of my writing craft, but when it comes right down to it, give me exercises. They help reinforce the theory and give me a chance to work out the techniques. And this book definitely delivers on the exercises. There are over 50 of them.

What I didn't like
On the other hand, I found the text very clinical, and a bit hard to read. I recognize and understand that the book's primary audience are film school students. But as a textbook its written a bit matter-of-fact-like where he says things and does not expand upon them as much as I would like. Sometimes the text makes assumptions and conclusions that the reader is supposed to understand. Maybe I'd have no problem understanding where Rabiger is coming from, if I were a screenplay writer. But, as a fiction writer, I felt lost in trying to understand why he put some items in the book.

The book's structure varies a bit for my tastes. Rabiger begins the book strongly in showing you how to develop ideas from your past and then using the CLOSAT game. It then deviates to delve into the benefits of reviewing and disseminating previous works. He writes a few chapters that relate to the fine art of dissecting scenes and stories to see how it was all put together. I can see the benefits from including such examinations but I also did not expect to find in a book on story idea mining. If Rabiger had used the reviewing of movies and other stories as a means to backup his own ideas, I'd have understood how this fit in, but on its own, it left me puzzled. Thankfully, he returns back to the quick-fire mode of showing you how to mine stories from your past, news, dreams, and myths for more ways to come up with story ideas.

With the core book telling the reader how to use the tools of a dramatist and reviewer before they get into writing their own stories, I felt that the book tended to jump away from providing solid ways to develop one's own story ideas. Even though Rabiger explains it in his overview and introduction, I had a problem just seeing why we needed to delve into scene breakdown in a book that is supposed to help students generate story ideas.

Bottom Line
Overall, I liked Developing Story Ideas and give it 4 out of 5 stars. There's a lot of good exercises and suggestions in this book. However, I'm not convinced that it provides the definite answer to the age old question of where writers get their ideas. Instead, it provides a dialogue between the various ways of idea generation and how to present them to a modern audience. I'm sure that if used in a college setting, this book and its theories and group exercises would provide a wonderful syllabus. Developing Story Ideas contains good suggestions and exercises in this book to appease any writer.

This was a gift for my son. He just graduated from film school and it was on his list of 'books I must read'! He said it is great!

With the 2nd edition, the author continues to claim that you could use this book by yourself. But nearly every exercise throughout the book requires a classroom of people or at least a writing partner, and they're not adaptable for working alone (despite the author's insistence).

Although I think some reviewers were a little harsh, they're also correct about the basic substance. The book is really a broad answer to the question "Where do you get your ideas?" Other writing books, including screenwriting ones, answer "Where do you get your ideas" in a chapter or two, so a whole book on this - even with all its short chapters - feels repetitive.

It appears that the exercises are where the author most relies on clarifying and expanding his points, rather than within the text that precedes them, so a writer working alone is out of luck. I know I keep coming back to this, but the group-dependent techniques also may not benefit new writers once they're out on their own. Personally, most writers I've known do work alone. They find their ideas on their own and they develop those ideas and write on their own, so these methods may be counterproductive for how the writing life usually works.

On the positive side, I liked his CLOSAT idea: labeling notes in your writer's notebook with Character, Location, Object (think "props"), Situation, Act (deed or action), and Theme for easy reference, and I'll likely go back through mine and do just that for my current project. Otherwise, I've attempted to make use of both editions and just can't.

Rabiger is too complex to be a regular American artist. We Americans tend to be kind of two-dimensional and short-sighted. In his books he explains his "stranger-in-a-strange-land" perspective--as a result, his books are brilliant and speak to the craftsman and the searching artist. He's about a solid foundation in one's work regarding concept and execution. He's from another era and not about "what's gonna sell!" or "be a hitmaker!"---instead his approach is about integrity and longevity as an artist. Metaphorical short-hand: like a marriage based on good stuff instead of marrying arm candy.
(scattered writing like this above is why I love/need his books)

This book was not at all helpful to me. It contained no new information or insights.