Customer Reviews

Fiction Writer's Brainstormer

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Okay, it wasn't at first. I found it a little overly-glib at times and the first section a little on the vague side as it explores brainstorming methods.

But delve deeper.

For example, when I got to his ten-card/10-scene framework, I tried applying it to a story I've been hopelessly stuck in for several weeks. The more I had tried to fix it, the more convoluted and confusing it became. But his method WORKED! In just one try, I found my story focus again and realized I'd been in serious danger of over-writing. Now I'm much closer to finishing it!

It's definitely not a book that's cover-to-cover, page-by-page reading, and it's not always easy to find the "concepts." But it's really more a whole bunch of nuggets, some of which you'll find useful and some of which you may not.

But they're worth a try! Definitely a keeper.

I must own at least 50 books on writing. I'd made a promise to myself that I would NEVER buy another Writing Reference, until I finished writing something...ANYTHING, and submitted it for publication. "That's it! NO MORE BOOKS! And that's final!" Or so I said. Yes, fellow bibliomaniacs, I went into my local bookstore the other day, and FWB lept out at me, clamped it's teeth around my ankle, and wouldn't let go until I paid for it and brought it home. Turns out the title fits. It DOES create Brainstorms. A lot of advice out there tends to create sandstorms, or even worse, cerebral infarcts ( yes that last word is spelled correctly ) James Smith promises to be in the room with you, giving you advice and amazingly, he almost really is! Now this is refreshing...not the usual dry-up-the walls prose. I've never had to worry about a sagging middle ( other than my own) heck I would be happy just to be able to GET to the middle. I'd embrace it, sagging or not. It's a rollercoaster of a read....great fun with terrific down to earth wit. He puts a whole new spin on SHOWING rather than TELLING just in his writing style alone, and he makes you show him back. The big surprise is, how EASY it is once he shows you where to go. This is a totally NEW kind of writing advice-animal, unlike anything I have ever encountered in print or real life. It's revolutionary, and immediately involves the would-be writer in producing and participating in creating. I've only had the book for 5 days and it has completely turned me around. Well well WELL worth the money! ( Ok so I went overboard and fell into the well ) But...Thank You James Smith!

Different, yes, Down-to-earth, definitely.

After the disparity in reviews covering this book at both extremes of the spectrum, I had to see it for myself. Here's what I found.

Definitely go with the readers who liked the book. The author debunks the notion of writing as heaven-sent art. He gets down to the nitty gritty. He doesn't take himself too seriously but does take writing seriously. This comes through in the way he puts himself down while approaching the nuts and bolts of writing from a practical point of view.

I didn't just read the book. I actually tried Smith's creativity tips and found myself wanting to get back to a manuscript that's been buried in the back of my closet for years. I'm back in the writing game because of the Brainstormer.

I can see how somebody could take umbrage at the book. If you think of writing as sitting back with a smoking jacket and pipe and dreaming philosophically about literature while waiting for the muse to tap you

on the shoulder, don't buy the Brainstormer. If you want an author to set up, tap you on the brain and tell you to get to work, this is the reference for you. Thanks, Mr Smith, for putting me back to work on my Great American Novel.

Say what you will about The Fiction Writer's Brainstormer. But no one can deny that Mr. Smith accurately describes the formula for a big book or big film in today's market. From "the opening" to the "point-of-no-return complication" to the final "Oh, wow," he is dead on. As a published writer with two novels to my credit and several more in the works, I might not have read a writing "brainstormer," except that my wife happened to see it at the library and brought it home just in case I might have been interested. Well, let me tell you I have rewritten my last novel and plan to rewrite everything that I have in progress according to The Fiction Writer's Brainstormer big book/big film formula. I assume that everyone reading this review is either a writer or connected to writing in some capacity. If you are struggling and can't afford to buy this book, check it out at the library and outline it. I have done both, and already I see a night and day difference in my books. I have been writing fiction for ten years and I believe this is my biggest step forward.
Roy King

I've read more writing books than I can count, and usually find a few things in each one to inspire and guide me. I read both books by this author, (You Can Write A Novel) and gave my manuscript a complete rewrite. I used the techniques, followed some of his ideas, (not all of them) and paid attention to his suggestions. Result: the next editor who looked at my query asked for a full. Then I became a finalist in the Dorchester "New Historical Voice" contest. I didn't win, but who cares, because MY book is a September 2002 release. I took the advice in these books, applied it, and made the changes. It might just be a coincidence that I got published, but I don't think so. Make a good investment, buy these books, and pay attention. It could happen to you!

In chapter one of Fiction Writer's Brainstormer, the author tells us the "only unbreakable rule of writing" which is Never Be Boring. I would say that this book follows that rule nicely. While it is probably not the most useful writing book I own, it certainly is one of the more interesting ones.

Let me say from the beginning that Fiction Writer's Brainstormer is very obviously geared towards category fiction. This is not to say that it can't be of use to all writers, only that many of the "rules" in the book are better ignored by men and women writing outside of specific genres. For the book's target audience, it's both and hit and miss. I'll start with the bad and then move on to the good.

The Bad:
* The Brainstormer's Checklist of Minimum Essential Story Elements. This is not useful at all for people who are not writing the same kind of books as Mr. Smith. For example, 15 points are awarded for having "A truly heroic character," which as we all know is not necessary or even desirable in some works!

* The actual brainstorming activities are kind of boring and repetitive. I found them to be largely useless with regard to my actual writing. I did find the word puzzles fun, but the only thing they accomplish is giving the book a playful and memorable tone.

* The suggestion to copy a best seller word-for-word by hand. This seems time consuming and tedious. Why not just make it a habit to read good fiction and pay close attention to how and why it is considered good? There is also cause for concern that beginning writers, should they become to intimate with a published authors work, may start unconsciously copying the style of the chosen best seller. The author addresses this concern briefly and cautions against it himself, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.

The Good:
* Chapter 7, Brainstorming Style and Writing Mechanics. There are lots of useful little tips in here for people who want to write any kind of publishable fiction. Mr. Smith tells it to us straight: "No matter how creative and poetic your writing, if nobody understands it, it might as well be a diseased elm falling in an empty forest."

That silliness about copying a best seller by hand aside, this chapter cautions against long sentences and being overly abstract or poetic. Chapter 8 goes on to further explain how sentence and word length relates to readability (and by extension, publishability), with graphs and examples from famous authors.

* The Character Personality Evaluation Tool may be useful for some writers who are struggling to figure out how certain characters might react to and interact with each other.

* The chapter on Scenes is a pretty good summary of how one type of novel might flow. (for further examples, I would suggest "Story Structure Architect", also published by Writer's Digest) The Brainstormer's Scene and Scene Evaluation Cards are very flexible and can be modified and used by most writers.

* His ideas for keeping track of Subplots would be very useful for anyone who, like me, has the tendency to go off in a lot of directions and less of a tendency to bring everything full circle. By creating the type of chart found in the book I was able to keep my current novel on point and found it much easier to locate and remove dead-end subplots.

* TONS of useful information for people looking to sell category and series fiction! If you are writing something like Fantasy or Science Fiction, you'll find the last section of this book very useful to keep you looking at the bigger picture.

Overall I would say that this book is very useful for category writers and at least moderately useful for everyone else. Worth picking up either way, would have probably gotten 5 stars if Mr. Smith was a little less pushy about his way of writing and the scope of the book was a little broader.

The author of this book seems to think that the way to awaken your creativity is to throw lots of little word puzzles at you. Oh well--what works for one person doesn't work for another. I found some of the exercises similarly annoying, but again, everyone is different.

At first the author of this book came across as exactly the sort of writing author I dislike--early in the book he seems to be saying, "My way of writing is right for everyone." Given the wide variety of types of writing and writing styles out there, this is never a good claim to make. Luckily he turns out to be much more reasonable later in the book.

Many of the author's hints are directed specifically at novel authors (in particularly, "category" or "commercial" novels). On the other hand, there's quite a bit of material in this book of use to any sort of fiction writer, so this isn't a big problem. Part 1 of the book is something of a general primer on creative thinking. Part 2 contains exercises for coming up with ideas related to specific projects. And part 3 addresses "The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective Writers." I prefer other books when it comes to general creativity, but there are some great exercises in here to help you specifically address the needs of your particular projects.

This book is probably most useful for people who want to make the transition from writer to published writer. There's information on what publishers are looking for, how publishers think, and how you can catch their eye, and the focus is on creating fiction that will sell. I suggest, however, that you not accept everything in this book blindly. Read other books on writing as well. Use your own common sense. Experiment, play around, and see what works best for you.

As a book to help writers of commercial fiction, Alice Orr's "No More Rejections" might make a better choice. For a general-purpose creative thinking book, I recommend Mari Messer's "Pencil Dancing," Monica Woods' "The Pocket Muse," or Eric Maisel's "The Creativity Book."

I am the publisher of Flying Pen Press. One of my responsibilities is that I have the final say on which novels we publish. I picked this book up in hopes it might give me some tidbits of information for our writer's guidelines.

Instead, this was a book that astounded me in its ability to teach what it has taken me more than 20 years to learn as a writer. Make no mistake, this is a book for the advanced writer. You won't find grammar rules or a punctuation guide in this book. What you will find is a book that explains clearly what makes a novel appealing to readers, and how to start from the blank page and with a minimum of time, complete a novel that has that appeal from page one.

The book is organized into three parts:

Part One is a collection of exercises for creativity, to help brainstorm ideas, words, and titles. These exercises are not like any writing exercises you may have seen, but they do invigorate the creativity process like no other exercises I have ever seen, except maybe in the book, Thinkertoys Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (2nd Edition).

Part Two is the meat of the book, and walks a novelist through some of the most difficult parts of writing a novel, from how to evaluate an idea and establish the tension of each scene, to characterization, word choice, and the greatest secret of all, that writing short words in short sentences is more important than all the other qualities of a novel combined.

Part Three is a collection of tactics for increasing one's writing productivity, which Smith calls the Highly Effective Habits of Writers.

I wish everyone who submits their manuscript to Flying Pen Press for publication followed Smith's advice. I will be recommending this book to all writers who approach me with a manuscript for publication. Likely, I will recommend Fiction Writer's Brainstormer in our writers guidelines, perhaps making it required reading. If more writers followed this advice, we would be publishing more books by more new novelists.

Keep 'em Flying,
David Rozansky, Publisher, Flying Pen Press

I admit it. I have an entire bookcase of "how to's" from the writing instruction genre. I probably have almost all of the highest rated writing reference books, but this is the one I drag out all the time when I start to get blocked. Many books by famous names who have written on this topic remain dusty and unused on the shelf. Smith's book, on the other hand, is full of bookmarks, post-its, and highlighted sections. Why? The practicality of the advice. Tools, strategies, and solutions to actually put readable words on the page. Highly recommended if you want to write saleable fiction in a non-literary genre.

As a published author, we all need a kick in the tail and this book does the trick. I keep going back to this book when I get stuck in plot and I always find something that helps. (Even if it's reminding me what I already know after 35+ books) I've taken his tips and forms and revamped them for my work, and not once have they failed. I especially like his brainstorming list that enables me to get the trash, the mediocre out of my head and dig deeper. No two writers write the same way, using the same method. Get over it. But a good writer who wants a CAREER in fiction writing should go back to the basics and rejuvenate their skills. I'm always learning new techniques that are just a twist on the tried and true. There are a zillion how-to book out there, but I feel this should be on every writer's bookshelf. Especially if you want to keep improving and be a great story teller.