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The Story Cure: A Book Doctor's Pain-Free Guide to Finishing Your Novel or Memoir by Dinty W. Moore
awebster92's review against another edition
3.0
I am trying to polish up my first novel now as well as start the second in the series for NaNoWriMo. I thought this would be a handy read, or even give me a few tips I haven't read before. This is the first time I've read this author. Would I read him again? maybe. It wasn't bad. I actually feel like I learned quite a bit. Though, I would be shocked if he could go into deeper detail than he did in this book. Each of his points felt over explained in my opinion. The quotes help me put my thoughts in order, but I found myself skimming after the original detail was laid out.
I think this was aimed more at the first time writer, and not so much someone who has multiple stories in the making. That being said, I found myself adding a lot of notes to my Scrivener files to consider later. Any book has something to learn, and I would have loved to have this before I started my first book. I'm giving this a 3.5/5.
(I received a copy for review)
I think this was aimed more at the first time writer, and not so much someone who has multiple stories in the making. That being said, I found myself adding a lot of notes to my Scrivener files to consider later. Any book has something to learn, and I would have loved to have this before I started my first book. I'm giving this a 3.5/5.
(I received a copy for review)
kjboldon's review against another edition
5.0
A great, concise guide to getting through to the end that even so focuses on craft and creativity. Just a really good book on writing a book. Great exercises and examples.
melissabalick's review against another edition
I read every writing craft book my library has available, and each one has at least a little something I take from it. I’m editing a book I wrote right now, and this book’s suggestion that the very end should thematically match the beginning was kind of a lightbulb for me. It wouldn’t be difficult for me to make that happen, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what is wrong with the very end of my book. Now I have ideas for fixing it. I also liked the idea of locating the emotional undercurrent of the story and making sure every scene furthers it. He calls this the “Invisible Magnetic River” that flows underneath the story. I probably will forget that title, but I’ll remember the point. It’s one that the last few books on writing have also really helped me to grasp: the story-unifying power of theme.
sprinkledwithwords's review against another edition
2.0
This was an interesting book on writing. As a creative writing student, and having read many books on the craft in my time, I would like to think I'm fairly knowledgeable.
One thing that I found really fresh was the whole "book doctor" thing. It was a really new and interesting... but the downside is, that it did seem childish. I was unsure about who the author intended to write the book before; sometimes, it seemed to be intending to adults, and other times, it was too simplistic.
I'll do other good things first: the author was very good at giving advise on revising novels. I found what he said very helpful, and there were also (albeit fairly simplistic) pieces of advice that I think I will try and carry with my in my writing. He made a good use of other author's quotes and passages, too, although I felt like occasionally there was an over-reliance on them.
That's why I gave it two stars: because, to be frank, the advice was good. HOWEVER.
1) firstly, the metaphor of the "book doctor" ran on a bit, was a bit too deep and sometimes it just seemed filler to make the book longer. Also, I found some bits quite offensive, like when he was discussing "happy pills". Like, what? Aside from the fact that this has NOTHING TO DO WITH WRITING, it was handled insensitively, and it made me unhappy and tentative to read the rest of the book.
2) The author was OBSESSED with divorce and affairs. Seriously. The guy has obviously written some memoir in his time, and I'm guessing that something happened to him because it was in every chapter as an example of a memoir. It was boring. It was unhappy.
3) He was not funny... and actually had to explain his jokes. .-.
4) He used his own writing in the exercises. This could be pulled off well, but sometimes the 'extracts' (he invented them for the novel which is why they're in inverted commas) were over a page long and he'd already used other extracts from different, published novels.
All in all, I won't be recommending this book to anyone else. He offered some good advice, and some things I could remember for later writing, but overall I found it lacklustre, over-reliance on himself, and insensitive.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.
One thing that I found really fresh was the whole "book doctor" thing. It was a really new and interesting... but the downside is, that it did seem childish. I was unsure about who the author intended to write the book before; sometimes, it seemed to be intending to adults, and other times, it was too simplistic.
I'll do other good things first: the author was very good at giving advise on revising novels. I found what he said very helpful, and there were also (albeit fairly simplistic) pieces of advice that I think I will try and carry with my in my writing. He made a good use of other author's quotes and passages, too, although I felt like occasionally there was an over-reliance on them.
That's why I gave it two stars: because, to be frank, the advice was good. HOWEVER.
1) firstly, the metaphor of the "book doctor" ran on a bit, was a bit too deep and sometimes it just seemed filler to make the book longer. Also, I found some bits quite offensive, like when he was discussing "happy pills". Like, what? Aside from the fact that this has NOTHING TO DO WITH WRITING, it was handled insensitively, and it made me unhappy and tentative to read the rest of the book.
2) The author was OBSESSED with divorce and affairs. Seriously. The guy has obviously written some memoir in his time, and I'm guessing that something happened to him because it was in every chapter as an example of a memoir. It was boring. It was unhappy.
3) He was not funny... and actually had to explain his jokes. .-.
4) He used his own writing in the exercises. This could be pulled off well, but sometimes the 'extracts' (he invented them for the novel which is why they're in inverted commas) were over a page long and he'd already used other extracts from different, published novels.
All in all, I won't be recommending this book to anyone else. He offered some good advice, and some things I could remember for later writing, but overall I found it lacklustre, over-reliance on himself, and insensitive.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.
taylorepperson's review against another edition
3.0
The Story Cure is a reference book that teaches writers how to write better books. While I enjoyed parts of this book, some of the tips and main themes, I also didn't love this one. Maybe that's just me though, I don't love reading books about how to write.. part of me would rather just write. But it was well written. I give it 3.5/5 stars.
Full review on my blog: http://www.myhopefulstory.com/2017/09/04/book-review-story-cure-dinty-w-moore/
Huge thank you to Blogging for Books for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.
Full review on my blog: http://www.myhopefulstory.com/2017/09/04/book-review-story-cure-dinty-w-moore/
Huge thank you to Blogging for Books for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.
iblamewizards's review against another edition
3.0
This was a tough one to rate, as I can't say that any of the advice in the book was poor. Dinty W. Moore clearly knows a lot about writing, and I'd love to take one of his classes, but unfortunately the way the whole book was set up simply didn't give the information the weight it deserved. How To Write books are a dime a dozen these days. They're everywhere and of varying quality. To set yourself apart, you really need to try and do something different. The Story Cure certainly tries to do that. Setting the book up as an ailment/diagnosis/cure scenario was a really unique way of setting up a how to book. The problem is that it failed to make the information accessible. The prompts and help were trapped between layers of unnecessary exposition and winding examples and metaphors that, while interesting to read for the most part, seemed only to serve to pad out a book that was sparse on information and long on prose.
jenlouden's review
4.0
Excellent clear help for the later stages of writing a novel or memoir. And funny.
debnanceatreaderbuzz's review
3.0
I am (in theory) the perfect person to read this book. I have been working on a memoir/novel for...wait for it...forty years. Yup. And I haven't finished.
Oh how I want a story cure.
I'm still waiting.
I love Dinty W. Moore. He's a marvelous writer and (I bet) he's a marvelous teacher. But this book didn't do it for me. For whatever reason. It's filled with oodles and oodles of diagnoses ("You just can't find the opening sentence," for example) and cures, but I couldn't use the cure because I couldn't figure out what diagnosis applies to my book, and that's a deal breaker here.
Oh how I want a story cure.
I'm still waiting.
I love Dinty W. Moore. He's a marvelous writer and (I bet) he's a marvelous teacher. But this book didn't do it for me. For whatever reason. It's filled with oodles and oodles of diagnoses ("You just can't find the opening sentence," for example) and cures, but I couldn't use the cure because I couldn't figure out what diagnosis applies to my book, and that's a deal breaker here.
sprinkledwithwords's review
2.0
This was an interesting book on writing. As a creative writing student, and having read many books on the craft in my time, I would like to think I'm fairly knowledgeable.
One thing that I found really fresh was the whole "book doctor" thing. It was a really new and interesting... but the downside is, that it did seem childish. I was unsure about who the author intended to write the book before; sometimes, it seemed to be intending to adults, and other times, it was too simplistic.
I'll do other good things first: the author was very good at giving advise on revising novels. I found what he said very helpful, and there were also (albeit fairly simplistic) pieces of advice that I think I will try and carry with my in my writing. He made a good use of other author's quotes and passages, too, although I felt like occasionally there was an over-reliance on them.
That's why I gave it two stars: because, to be frank, the advice was good. HOWEVER.
1) firstly, the metaphor of the "book doctor" ran on a bit, was a bit too deep and sometimes it just seemed filler to make the book longer. Also, I found some bits quite offensive, like when he was discussing "happy pills". Like, what? Aside from the fact that this has NOTHING TO DO WITH WRITING, it was handled insensitively, and it made me unhappy and tentative to read the rest of the book.
2) The author was OBSESSED with divorce and affairs. Seriously. The guy has obviously written some memoir in his time, and I'm guessing that something happened to him because it was in every chapter as an example of a memoir. It was boring. It was unhappy.
3) He was not funny... and actually had to explain his jokes. .-.
4) He used his own writing in the exercises. This could be pulled off well, but sometimes the 'extracts' (he invented them for the novel which is why they're in inverted commas) were over a page long and he'd already used other extracts from different, published novels.
All in all, I won't be recommending this book to anyone else. He offered some good advice, and some things I could remember for later writing, but overall I found it lacklustre, over-reliance on himself, and insensitive.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.
One thing that I found really fresh was the whole "book doctor" thing. It was a really new and interesting... but the downside is, that it did seem childish. I was unsure about who the author intended to write the book before; sometimes, it seemed to be intending to adults, and other times, it was too simplistic.
I'll do other good things first: the author was very good at giving advise on revising novels. I found what he said very helpful, and there were also (albeit fairly simplistic) pieces of advice that I think I will try and carry with my in my writing. He made a good use of other author's quotes and passages, too, although I felt like occasionally there was an over-reliance on them.
That's why I gave it two stars: because, to be frank, the advice was good. HOWEVER.
1) firstly, the metaphor of the "book doctor" ran on a bit, was a bit too deep and sometimes it just seemed filler to make the book longer. Also, I found some bits quite offensive, like when he was discussing "happy pills". Like, what? Aside from the fact that this has NOTHING TO DO WITH WRITING, it was handled insensitively, and it made me unhappy and tentative to read the rest of the book.
2) The author was OBSESSED with divorce and affairs. Seriously. The guy has obviously written some memoir in his time, and I'm guessing that something happened to him because it was in every chapter as an example of a memoir. It was boring. It was unhappy.
3) He was not funny... and actually had to explain his jokes. .-.
4) He used his own writing in the exercises. This could be pulled off well, but sometimes the 'extracts' (he invented them for the novel which is why they're in inverted commas) were over a page long and he'd already used other extracts from different, published novels.
All in all, I won't be recommending this book to anyone else. He offered some good advice, and some things I could remember for later writing, but overall I found it lacklustre, over-reliance on himself, and insensitive.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.