Customer Reviews

Story Starters: How to Jump-Start Your Imagination, Get Your Creative Juices Flowing, and Start Writing Your Story or Novel

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

 

 

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.

I picked this book up and flipped it open at random, then started chuckling at how corny the ideas were. How could anybody write a story based on a fairy tale? Based on the Bible? Hasn't it all been done?

But then the ideas started flooding into my mind. I literally cannot read this book on the subway anymore because I can't get my notebook out in time to record all the story concepts this book triggers one after another.

The key, I've found, is not taking Stanek's suggestions literally, but allowing your mind to free-associate. Yes, the ideas may be corny, but they all work. I'm convinced there are trillions of stories in this tiny paperback book, just waiting for you, the author, to let them out.

I have read several of this "creative writing books", and believe me, a lot of them are not worth the plastic they come wrapped in. This is definitely NOT the case.

The author instructs you in simple yet effective techniques to set your creative genius on the loose. After you read the book and apply some of the ideas in it you will start to see that there is a potential story in almost every event, object or person that you encounter, just need to add a little imagination and you have your story.

The best part is that the author has quite some experience on teaching and educating aspiring writers, so the book is structured in a very didactic, simple and solid way. You can even read it orderly or just concentrating on the parts that you're interested, and still get the whole idea of each chapter.

Among other things she shows you how to get a story from everyday objects, how to get a story from events, how to help shape your character through action rather than pure description, etc.

As I told you before, I have lost quite a load of money on useless creative writing books, and I can tell you: THIS IS A MUST HAVE, perfect for us writing newbies that keep looking around for the perfect story to tell.

This isn't just a book of story starters. It's a book on how to write stories, with a bunch of story starters finishing off each chapter (and plenty of suggestions worked into the material). The topics covered range from developing your character to stock characters and archetypes, conflict, using current events to inspire your stories, naming your character, using animals as minor characters, and more. The author approaches some of the material from the point of view of how you can use it to inspire ideas for stories (which fits the theme of the book perfectly), but other bits seem like they're meant to be part of a more generic book.

In some places, particularly the chapters that seemed more generic, the writing babbled and wandered a bit. There seemed to be a distinct lack of context for some things. The author threw out references all over the place without explanation, and although they referred to well-known works, not all of her readers will have read every one of those works (or remember the details necessary to make heads or tails of what she's trying to say).

Sometimes this book made perfect sense to me and was a joy to read; at others I felt lost and confused. Occasionally I felt like I was reading one book that had bits of another book woven into it, or a book that the author had just kind of plopped down onto paper in a semi-stream-of-consciousness manner, without going back to make sure everything fit in its place.

For the most part I really like the story starters themselves. Ms. Stanek provides a goodly number of them at the end of each chapter, and I'm sure that somewhere in there you could find something to inspire you. She also includes plenty of throw-away ideas within the text itself. Some of the starters are wild and crazy, which nicely fits into the idea of loose associations and flights of creativity. Others are more normal. Some seem rather hackneyed, however.

All in all I think this book serves as a good source of prompts. The story-writing material is a little less amazing, but since that isn't the focus of the book I see it as being less important. If you're buying the book just for the story starters and can buy it at an appropriate price for that, consider my rating to be a 4; otherwise, on the whole I'd give it a 3.

What is most astonishing is how poorly written this book--a writing reference book after all!--is. The text is full of syntax errors, run-on sentences, and muddled descriptions. Here's an example (from p. 29) containing all three: "When John, the librarian/mystery writer I work with, grew peevish about my repeatedly saying, 'The pacing is toooooo slow,' he gave Cleveland, his PI, a friend on the force (not what you'd expect), reworked (sic) the narrative into dialogue, and went zipping on."

Still, despite the clumsiness and errors, this book has a thread that's worth hanging onto. In particular, the lists of 'story starters' offered at the end of every chapter, are like having the benefit of a daily journal for those of us who lack the discipline and diligence to maintain our own. It is a very good resource in that respect, and provided me with many idea nuggets to chew on.

Great tool to jumpstart the story writing creativity. I use it when I am blocked and can't think of a storyline. Easy to read.

I was really hoping that I would learn something new from this book. It's good for story starters like the title says. However, in a weird way the author talks to you like you were a six year old.
If the writer had taken the time to work on his `ideas' and writing for the book it would have been better.
However, it is a good book for some one who is starting.

I wasted money on this. I had no idea a book could be so disorganized and confusing. STORY STARTERS didn't make good on it's title, but it succeeded in one thing: landing itself into my trash bin.

This book is *awful.* It's full of unconnected dribble.
Can the author carry a thought through? What is she
doing writing at all, let alone writing about writing?
She has a PH.d. in what?? Better to do some searching
in the deja archives about getting ideas for writing.
The author seems to float in and out of dreamland. That
might be ok for the process of thinking up fiction, but
not for writing about writing. Now if she was going to
show me how to float in and out of dreamland, and how to
make that dreamland actually interesting, that would be
another thing. Her dreamland was boring.