Panning for Gold in the Kitchen Sink: Everyday Creative Writing Review

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(More customer reviews)Everything important I know about writing, I learned from this book. If I write too much more, then you might atribute my writing style to this book. So just buy it - and learn to write!

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These 45 enjoyable "invention exercises," drawing on everyday experiences, could help novice and experienced writers strike gold. Virtually anything that the writer encounters can be valuable, once touched by their creative efforts and marked with their individual signature. In Panning for Gold in the Kitchen Sink the reader will find the prospecting tools of the trade - from freewriting and free association to puzzles and computer gaming. Creativity will be spurred writing exercises based on everyday life - from domestic chores, daily routines and family relationships to the outside world of work, travel and romance. Examples of writing based on the exercises are included together with published works that relate to the topies. The book is for writers - beginning or advanced, committed or dabbling - who wish to discover the worlds of fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction. In addition to inspiration, this book provides helpful recommendations for evaluating work for freshness and originality as well as guidance on such practical issues as getting work published and overcoming writer's block.

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The Kitchen Man Review

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(More customer reviews)Women who read this book are very grateful for a male character they can actually like. As a feminist, I think this is extremely important.
Gabe is real - smart, funny, not a male model, beset by worries and a MENCH. He tries to do the right thing for the right reasons.
Relationships take work and this novel shows people who work constructively.
Looking forward to another novel. Are you listening "Woody?"

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Writing a Great Movie: Key Tools for Successful Screenwriting Review

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(More customer reviews)Look no further, Jeff Kitchen's book is the gold standard for building a a screenplay. I've read dozens of books on the craft, and this is the only one that leads you through the dirty work of building your story piece by piece.
Jeff's tools help you transform your tale into a compelling drama.
As a reader, you will feel like you're looking over Jeff's shoulder as he lays the bricks of a pyramid from the ground up.
I've been applying the tools to a script I previously completed. The DILEMMA tool really helped me get a handle on some weak spots regarding my main character. And the Sequence, Proposition, Plot tool blew me out of the water.
I also plan to use "Writing a Great Movie" to build other story ideas I've been working on. Jeff offers all the ingredients needed to cook up an original and memorable story.
But you still have to add the spices, brew the potion to just the right temperature and serve it to an audience hungry for a film that will "rock their world."
Jeff's book will help you do that. Too bad I could only give it five stars. It deserves at least ten.



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Let's cut to the chase: Writing a Great Movie is a practical nuts-and-bolts manual to dramatic writing for film. This hands-on course in screenwriting shows how to create, develop, and construct an original screenplay from scratch using seven essential tools for the screenwriter—(1) Dilemma, Crisis, Decision and Action, and Resolution; (2) Theme; (3) the 36 Dramatic Situations; (4) the Enneagram; (5) Research and Brainstorming; (6) the Central Proposition; and (7) Sequence, Proposition, and Plot—which break the writing process down into approachable steps and produce great results.Author Jeff Kitchen—a working screenwriter, renowned dramaturge, and teacher at the University of Southern California's graduate film school—shares the insider secrets he has developed over years of writing and teaching. Writing a Great Movie is the complete guide to creating compelling screenplays that will sell.•State-of-the-art screenwriting theory and technique from a master•Author named one of today's top screenwriting teachers in Creative Screenwriting magazine•Great for writers at every level, beginner to established

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In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal Review

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(More customer reviews)I find this book an excellent companion to Kitchen's and Jones' first book on the creative nonfiction "short" entitled, In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction. The evolution of creative nonfiction and the "short" is apparent in these pages. No longer is it mandatory that a literary journalist or creative nonfiction writer "immerse" the reader in a person, place or thing. These pieces of creative nonfiction show that writers can make a simple journal entry, letter, or, for that fact, an email, stand on its own -- that even the smallest episode in our lives, or simple everyday pictures we've taken with our mind's eye, can have "symbolic realities." As a person who reads and writes prose and poetry, I find the brevity, and yet complexity, of the works appealing. Mary Oliver, who I've enjoyed as a poet, turns a poetic list of items she finds at the beach into a prose piece on beauty and existence. Kimberly Gorall turns a brief childhood conversation with her mother into a statement about womanhood. William Heyen uses one simple paragraph explaining the habits of an insect to an analogy on creativity and imagination. A bright high school senior, Janice Best (editor of Elan), uses an ingenius email format to try to explain why she writes. All of these "shorts" have a similar element -- they start with detail -- an intense focus -- and they end making a statement about our human existence. I have been liberated by the form presented in these pages -- and plan to teach college students using this book as a reader. But I believe any one who enjoys learning about the 'human condition' will enjoy this book. It's a quick read, but the impact of the material here lasts a long time.

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