What if you could generate creative ideas for your writing on demand and never had to stare at a blank screen again?
Books require ideas. From the initial idea for a novel or series, right down to the objects in a scene and words in a sentence. In a single project you may need hundreds or even thousands of ideas. If you rely on lightning to strike or ideas to simply "come to you," you could be left waiting until they are shoveling in the dirt on top of you.
In Endless Ideas, Platt and Silver show you how to take a methodical approach to ideation and turn on your idea making machine to never run dry or find yourself stuck and banging your head on your desk again.
You will discover:
How ideas are formed and the "machinery" behind ideation
A clear strategy to develop your creativity and turn on your idea making machine!
How to flip from looking for one idea, to generating lots of great ideas for any problem you are stuck on
Creating "light bulb" moments on demand
How to choose between your ideas and get them to do the most heavy lifting for you
How to expand an idea and take it from a tiny grain to fully developed.
How to apply ideation in the different areas you will need it most: Books/Series ideas, plot ideas, character ideas, world building ideas, and marketing ideas.
Isn't it time you turned on your creative machine and had light bulb moments on demand?
Man, Sean Platt and Neeve Silver put out some of the best writing instruction books I've read to date. It's not just that they have excellent ideas---it's that these books are digestible, practical, and easy to implement right away.
I think of myself as a creative person, so I wasn't sure Endless Ideas would help me with my particular struggles, but the book covered everything I wanted help with and a lot more.
Namely, coming up with specific plot ideas (e.g., How is the gang going to escape the room the villain locked them in?) and choosing ideas when you have way too many and struggle with finding the "best" idea (spoiler alert: there's no such thing).
It just so happens that Neeve and I have very similar writing approaches and preferences, which made this book all the more useful, but you don't have to be an introverted anxious/perfectionist writer who prefers to turn ideas around in your mind for a bit before choosing one to get a ton out of this book.
I found this book immensely helpful. From ways to fill your brain with raw material from which ideas can form, to ways of organizing your ideas and structuring your stories, the book is packed with useful insights. I found the exercises for idea generation to be extremely useful. I can’t wait to stop telling myself I don’t have any ideas, and start coming up with fresh concepts to write about.
If you feel creatively stumped for ideas, this book is a must read. While most of the practices they describe in the book are ones I already do, I can vouch for the fact that they work because I have a ton of creative ideas. What’s nice is that while this book is focused on generating ideas for writing, you can apply the concepts and techniques to any discipline and get similar results.
Stuff I needed to hear. Basically, don't put ideas on a pedestal. Come up with tons of crappy ones and a few are bound to be gems. Any idea can be developed into a good story - don't wait for the perfect one to come along, and don't kill yourself trying to make that perfect one happen.
Better than the last one of these I read, but still has a ton of fluff in it. I found myself skimming a lot after the 60% mark, so not a good sign. Sure, there were a few ideas earlier in the book that I’ll use, however, I found much of the book a rehash of these, simply telling you to use them in different stages of the writing process (like email marketing).
I received a free copy of this book from the author. I had the opportunity to review or not.
Once again the team at Sterling and Stone have come through with great information. This time it is Neeve Silver who has presented one of the best books I have read on how to find ideas for your book. The delicious ways to find ideas are explained well and in easy to understand language. She makes the concept of creating sound easy without being condescending. The budding author, the stuck author, the professional author can use her technique to get out of those mucky quicksand holes we sometimes get caught in.
I loved her ideas and the inclusion of some examples really helped me see what she was telling. If you ever have been stuck, what never? Then this is the book for you. I highly recommend you grab this book and keep it right on your writing table with all other essentials. You’ll be glad you did.
I'm one of those writers who struggle with ideas and for the longest time, I thought it was just me. Ask any writer where they get their ideas, and you're guaranteed to get the 'ideas are everywhere' standard response. That's not helpful at all!
With this book, Neeve actually gives you a road map on how to reach that mythical place called Everywhere. What I really liked about this book is how actionable it is. It gives you tools and techniques on how to come up with ideas and--perhaps even more important--hiw to develop them into a story. Neeve uses lots of examples to illustrate what's she's saying (and I really want to read that witch-story, but perhaps it's written under a different pen name?)
This is one of the best--if not THE best--craft books on idea development. Definitely will reserve a prime spot for this on my keeper shelf!
I really liked this book. For me, the author was very honest about her struggles finding ideas to write, but she showed how trusting a few processes helped her overcome her lack of ideas. This transitioned her to having to choose which idea she liked best, which is a better problem to have.
I feel she could have included more examples, like providing an actual "50 things list" and which items she chose. Maybe a few more "5 ideas per day" lists, and some more "freewriting" examples. But I did get the "idea" and I'll come back to this little book for inspiration as needed.
I followed the Sterling & Stone guys years ago, and Neeve is one of their newer people.
Oh no, I did it again; forgot to write notes for this as I read it, or soon after I completed it, and it is in Kobo and I can’t copy notes. ugh.
I am not sure of Neeve’s penname - often an issue when someone is telling you writing advice and they have NO published works of fiction, you know?
But as I vaguely recall there was good advice in here. Personally, my issue is corralling and recording my endless ideas. And working out how to get them from cool concept to completed work.
This books shows you how to go from idea to a full storyline taking a concept to fleshed out writable outline. Neeve shows how to keep a book of idea to use them later on. The book included examples and easy to understand instructions. This is definitely worth adding to your writing craft library.
I volunteer to read an ARC and this is my honest opinion.
Pragmatic book on coming up with ideas during the writing process. It differentiates idea types, which was interesting for me (who doesn't love a taxonomy!), and has a number of creative idea generation suggestions for writers. It has a great, upbeat tone that is inspiring in itself.