A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words: Image-Driven Story Prompts and Exercises for Writers [Hardcover]

Phillip Sexton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2006

A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words

The old saying is true. And if you're a writer in need of inspiration, it's also the key to creating an endless number of stories while honing your craft to a razor's edge.

Inside, you'll find over 110 beautiful and intriguing photos created just for this book. Each photo is paired with a thought-provoking writing prompt. Together, they'll help you break through writer's block, generate hundreds of story ideas, and improve your writing ability by leaps and bounds. Many prompts are geared toward specific elements of the craft, enabling you to focus on whatever aspect of writing - character, dialogue, beginnings, endings, description, and more - you find most worthy of examination.

And by probing deeper into the details of each photo, you'll also learn how to improve your observational skills, find ideas everywhere you look, and create intriguing stories on demand.

One thousand words and more are just waiting to be written. Open the cover and see for yourself.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Phil Sexton is a co-founder of the literary journal Fresh Boiled Peanuts. He is also co-author of The Writer's Book of Matches.

Tricia Bateman is art director for HOW magazine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books (December 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582974721
• ISBN-13: 978-1582974729
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.9 x 6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #655,482 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Ordinary Picture Can Inspire An Extraordinary Story April 25, 2007

By Geri Taran

Format:Hardcover

I am rarely as tickled by a How-To book as I am by this one. It's a delightfully conceived book on stimulation for writers and it's fun. Perhaps the best thing about it is that while it's full of great stuff, it also causes one to look at almost every other mundane thing with fresh eyes.

The 110 photos, chosen to intrigue and provoke a writer's imaginings, are accompanied by mini prompts, fragments of ideas that challenge the storyteller to weave a variety of tales. The writer is baited to focus on numerous aspects of story from beginnings to endings and include character profiling, dialogue practice, setting and more.

I'll bet even a person who wasn't a writer before now might be intrigued enough to try her hand at a story after reading through these easy to read pages.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Different! Excited to try July 5, 2007

By Filmbuff-reads stuff

Format:Hardcover

Just bought this book because it's so different from all the other writing-instruction books. In my humble opinion, writing fiction is about conjuring up images, emotions, and characters-- conjuring, in a word-- and the best writers make you visualize as you read. I believe these pictures, along with the prompts, will make me think more like a writer. The pictures are mostly of a single detail or nuanced item; there are also some photos of varying environments (long shots). Each of these photos train the writer to look at the details and bring them out on the page. That's what most professional authors do. They bring the image out as if you were staring at that single frame, simplifying the broad-ranged setting by having you hone onto the finely-tuned details; if the details are telling and representative enough of the environment, the reader should be able to fill the rest out himself.

This book has a very interesting way of having you do that. Instead of going into the philosophy of writing visually, it sets up the pictures for you and assigns exercises that will enable you to learn that for yourself. In your own style.

I'll be honest. I haven't done an exercise, yet. But I have a great feeling about this book. Search inside and see what you think. It may be just what you need to get the creative writing juices started, and I believe once you get over the block of visualizing on the page, your writing experience should prove to be much more productive and your writing should be just overall improved, maybe even exciting to read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Creative, well-thought-out prompt book May 14, 2007

By Katharine Coldiron

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I enjoyed looking at the pictures and reading the prompts in this book so much that I bought it as a gift for a friend who is trying to write more. She reports that she loves it as well. I have not tried actual writing with the prompts (no writer's block since I got the book), but I look forward to it. The reason for four stars instead of five? The price. Writing books seem to be overpriced as a group, and this one is a good example.