The Writer's Lab: A Place to Experiment With Fiction - Softcover

Burke, Sexton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1599637057 ISBN 13: 9781599637051

Publisher: Writers Digest Books, 2012

Synopsis

The Writer's Lab provides writers, journalers, and creatives (anyone with a desire to write, really) with a medium for playing around with prose, poetry, etc. There are no rules here - only creative prompts and plenty of room for writing, sketching, diagramming, and planning stories, essays, and more. The "Lab" is loaded with fun exercises that foster creativity and a love of writing, along with space to experiment with your craft and improve it. Want to plot a murder? You can do that here. Create the cast of characters for your next novel? There's room for that. Feel like designing your own planet? Try page 144. In the Lab, you can play, experiment, and explore the nuances of fiction without having to create anything more challenging than a page or two of content. It can be picked up or put down on impulse, available to inspire creative thinking and offer pure joy on demand.

About this title

About the Author

Sexton Burke is a writer, publisher, and aspiring world traveler. He has written for numerous magazines and written two books devoted to helping writers stay creative and break through writer's block. He can currently be seen as a background player in the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's new film, "The Whisperer in Darkness."

Review

"Don't be fooled by the mad scientist-styled cover art...this is a seriously amazing vault of excellent writing exercises. The author devotes only a single preface page to explaining how to use the book before diving into the challenges, which range all over the place, from creating an autobiographical haiku to writing James Bond as if the character was a woman. You also get to practice writing things like killing off a character from your favorite book, finding love-worthy qualities about the person who most makes you miserable, and imagining what the pilots and passengers of a plan about to crash would do in the last fifty seconds before impact.

"I liked everything about this book: the black-and-white minimalist design of the pages, the imaginative quality of the exercises, and the many ways in which the author pushes you to practice not only the art but the more difficult aspects of it. This one is going with me on my road trip, and I expect I'll be filling up the pages in no time. Definitely recommended for any writer who enjoys challenges, wants to improve their craft and have fun in the process." --Lynn Viehl, New York Times bestselling author

"Sometimes you have an idea that just forms and the inner writer just can't help but sit down and get on with this epic project that your muse is forcing you to create with her point blank shotgun. Other times you want to sit down and relax to write something but cannot for the life of you think what you want to do.

"At times like this, you need to reach for this book. It has a lot of questions and exercises that get your inner writer moving which not only helps you ask the right (or write) questions but gives you a whole host of new ideas to explore as well as helping you improve the skills that you're developing. It's a great little tool and to be honest when dressed up in the fun way that they've done with this feels more like taking a break than doing any real work. All round a cracking title and one I'll use each time I get stuck. Great stuff." --The Falcata Times

Edition details

• Publisher: Writers Digest Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1599637057
• ISBN 13: 9781599637051
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 185