Sunday, July 13, 2008

The Writer's Idea Book by Jack Heffron

Stumped for a new idea?
Too blocked-in from junk to think creatively?
The Writer's Idea Book stimulates the creative juices and gets you rolling again. I've owned this book for six years and use it to jump-start stories. Heffron gives several prompts within each chapter as food for thought.
A for-instance on page 59 says "Show the change in a character by showing how a once-loved hobby or object or activity now holds no interest to that character."
Heffron doesn't only tell his readers to write about our longing, but he tells us to compare our longings to a place. Describing hope is impossible without comparison. He suggests thinking of a time of suffering and how we weathered the storm. What feelings went through our mind?
He asks us to write a short description of something and then "go long" by expanding it to twice the original length.
Each short chapter with unusual titles such as "Minding Other People's Business" and "Vast is the Power of Cities" begins with an inspirational and thought-provoking quote. He tantillizes our imagination, then gives his prompts.
I have several pages dog-eared (I know, not nice), but I use it whenever my mind quits thinking as it does when I've been away from my writing too long. It's my creative accelerator.

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