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83 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fun book to use, August 18, 2005
This review is from: The 3 A.M. Epiphany: Uncommon Writing Exercises that Transform Your Fiction (Paperback)
And I do mean use. The exercises are intriguing and fun and sprinkled throughout rather than lumped at each chapter's end. I also found the writing style very accessible (as opposed to the usual dry 'lecture notes into a book' approach). The introduction may be appear long, but don't skip it. There's a lot of suggestions and ideas for getting the most out of this book.
Whether you're a beginning writer or more experienced, there's a lot of stuff in here that will get even a blocked writer generating material quickly and brainstorming new ideas.
I do have one complaint however - It's printed in what appears to be 6-point type! Very good lighting and strong reading glasses are a MUST for this one.
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65 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kiteley's Epiphanies, July 17, 2006
This review is from: The 3 A.M. Epiphany: Uncommon Writing Exercises that Transform Your Fiction (Paperback)
Books of writing exercises mainly aim to inspire creativity in the writer. Usually the idea goes like this: by putting a constraint on the writer (a particular topic, a set of words to use, etc.) and often a word limit or time limit, the writer will come up with new material she wouldn't have thought of if she'd simply set pen to paper and said, "what comes next?" It can help to alleviate the terror of confronting the blank page that many writers face now and then.
Brian Kiteley's "The 3 A.M. Epiphany" is a little bit different, in several ways. For one, most of the books I've read use time limits, whereas this book uses word limits, pushing you to come up with small gems rather than reams of material to sift through.
The exercises also have an additional dimension to them that most don't. Each one is carefully constructed to help you explore a certain aspect of your writing. These aren't meant to be "merely" inspirational--they're designed to teach technique, as well, without reading like a dry instructional book.
There are types of exercises in here I really haven't seen anywhere else, particularly in the sections on "Internal Structure" and "Exercises for Stories in Progress", and I think you'll find them inspiring in ways that other books aren't. They'll make you think, work and write in whole new directions.
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46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Uncommon and Great, January 28, 2006
This review is from: The 3 A.M. Epiphany: Uncommon Writing Exercises that Transform Your Fiction (Paperback)
I was, to say the least, skeptical when I bought this book. I have read many books designed to spark ideas and motivate you to write, through various plans and exercises. But I came to this book anyway, hopeful. To imagine a book being a spark to the writing via the "uncommon writing exercises" it promises is saying quite a thing. Hard to live up to that hype. But Kiteley does it, and does it with such skill that you wonder what it must be like to sit in on one of his lectures. I read this book and simply envied his students. Creative approaches to writing are commonplace (often not that creative on second thought, and sometimes not even helpful), but "uncommon" approaches, as this book offers, are a wonderful thing to a writer wondering where to go next. If you are a writer satisfied with the present state of your craft, pleased that you've found a genre you like, and want nothing more than to write at the level you currently do, you don't need this book. But I feel sorry for your lack of adventure. If, on the other hand, you are a writer looking for a challenge, or a writer mired in the regular grind, take this book and study it carefully. The ideas in it are incredible new ways of seeing things that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. Not every exercise will spark you. Fine. There are many, and every day is a new chance for an exercise that didn't interest you to change your mind. If you are serious about exploring the craft and not just skating along the surface of it, this book will reward you.
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