Creative Writing | Tom Dye's Blog

Writing a novel or screenplay sounds like a fabulous idea. But where do you start? And how do you finish?

Award-winning author, Amy Deardon, answers these questions in The Story Template: Conquer Writer’s Block Using the Universal Structure of Story. This approach will help you focus your creativity and complete your unique and compelling story, script, or novel. With this tool and more than 100 targeted writing exercises, you will learn to:
* Ascertain the four foundational story pillars, and use the “secret weapon” of the story template, to structure your story.
* Build character depth with believable change.
* Create subplots to raise tension while you deepen and contrast story themes.
* Review writing techniques that shape your ideas into a compelling manuscript.

The Story Template is a product of Amy’s comprehensive research — as well as her personal experience — for what makes a story “work.” No matter your level of accomplishment, this book will help you build a better story.

I gave this book 5 Star because – It taught me what I wanted to know about how to structure a story for the greatest impact and reader satisfaction, and it gave me the confidence that I can actually do so one day.

When you’ve finished with these exercises, you will be ready to start writing your manuscript, with ease and flow and speed, because you will have already done the hard organizational work.
You will have a detailed roadmap that will allow you to bring your vision — your book or screenplay — to completion.

If you’ve ever thought about writing a novel, or even a short story, this book is for you. If you’ve never written anything before, have writer’s block, or just don’t know how to get started putting your ideas for a great story down on paper, reading this instructional book with its easy to follow exercises is sure to jump-start your imagination and creativity.

While I haven’t published my first widely acclaimed novel just yet, nor started writing it, reading this book has certainly gotten me to believe in the possibility.

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Is It Just Me? or Is Everyone a Little Nuts! by Judi Coltman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I almost didn’t finish reading this book, but every few chapters I’d get a small morsel of entertainment and so I just kept on reading. I think the entire purpose of the book was simply that the author wanted to be able to say she “wrote” a book. That is one reason to read it too, so you can say you “read” a book. I couldn’t recommend it, but if you start reading this book, eventually you’ll be finished with it, or not.

It only took me 48 years to make the leap from the present tense of “writing a book” to the past tense of “wrote.” That could not have happened without every single person who told me to do it. And really, sometimes, you have to create your own reality because others can suggest it but they arenʼt going to do it for you.

Begin at your own risk.

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