The Writer's Toolbox: Creative Games and Exercises for Inspiring the 'Write' Side of Your Brain

by Jamie Cat Callan

Writer's block has met its match with Writer's Toolbox!

Designed by a longtime creative writing teacher, this innovative kit includes a 64-page booklet filled with exercises and instructions that focus on a "right-brain" approach to writing. Sixty exercise sticks: First Sentences , Non Sequiturs , and Last Straws will get stories off the ground, 60 cards fuel creative descriptions and four spinner palettes will ignite unexpected plot twists. For any aspiring writer, this kit is the perfect first step on the path to literary greatness! Make those days and nights of struggling to create writing ideas go away without having to bury yourself in more books with Writer's Toolbox , which makes for the perfect gift for writers.

Genres: Writing, Reference, Nonfiction

64 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2007

About the author

Jamie Cat Callan latest book, Parisian Charm School will be released from Penguin Random House in January 2018. She is the author of "Bonjour, Happiness!" and the wildly successful "French Women Don't Sleep Alone." Inspired by her beautiful and elegant French grandmother, Jamie has traveled all over France, interviewing hundreds of women to uncover their secrets to simple, authentic pleasures, including how to stay stylish at any age, how to enjoy more with less and how we too can find our joie de vivre, American style. Jamie is also the creator of The Writers Toolbox. Jamie has taught her unique right-brain style of writing at Grub Street, UCLA., NYU, Wesleyan University and Yale University. She has won a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant in fiction and a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellowship to write in Auvillar, France.

Reviews

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quickly read the book today and it helped spur some of my writers brain. I haven't used the toolbox a lot, but so far it's been really useful 😊

[Darlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am enjoying the toolbox method when I need to write something new. I am still a bit confused in using ALL the ingredients but it certainly helps every now and then for inspiration.

We have used the tools in our writers' group as well. I am thinking I need to add some sticks that aren't so modern to give a bit of depth.

[Sannie Hald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this as a gift when I was in London. My boyfriend bought it to me when we were in Waterstones. It is full of fun quirky writing exercises that I try to do on a daily basis with my writing buddy. I really love it and it has me writing every day. A must have for aspiring authors.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little writing games to get the creative side of your brain working in unexpected ways.

[Dixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the book and look forward to trying out the games. A unique and fun way to jump-start a story or pull one out of the doldrums.

[Polt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good little exercises to get back into the practice of writing. A nice set of recommendations for additional reading in the back of the book as well.

[Lilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have three stars picked, but it's more like 2.5 stars.

Below is my review as posted on Read All Over Reviews:

This is an extremely nice and quality set. It comes with a 64-page booklet, sticks to draw, wheels to spin, a timer to turn and cards to draw--all with the aim of getting the right-brained person around that creative writing block. The author, Jamie Cat Callan, is a long-time writing teacher. She has taught writing at N.Y.U., Yale University, U.C.L.A. Extension, Fairfield University, and Wesleyan University. So this is definitely a set put together by someone who knows what they are talking about.

However, none of the games and exercises helped me at all. I get about two minutes of writing under my belt and then here would come another wall. I just didn't have the time to keep pulling cards or drawing sticks for ideas. Especially with NaNoWriMo just around the corner.

It's a fantastically well-designed set and I wanted so bad for it to work, and it may just be because of me that it wouldn't work, not the set. It's probably something that either works for you, or doesn't. I couldn't really find a middle ground.

[Alison Flower · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little box of tricks to mess with for writing excercises. The box contains spinning wheels giving you protagonists, obstacles, goals and action. It has cards to shuffle and choose, called sixth sense cards, a timer, and a series of sticks with a first sentence, non sequitur and the last straw. There is a short descriptive instruction manual.
What's great about this is that you actually get to play with sticks and wheels, it makes a creative writing session fun. Many books do the same thing but you end up page flicking, with this your prompts just stay there til you draw another.
What isn't so good is the American lingo . A degree of flexibility has to be used. What is a rice apple anyway?
Overall, a great idea. I wish bookshops would mark things if they are American though!

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a writer, or want to be a writer, you need this toolbox. Order it!

[Thomas Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very fun way to create ideas for further investigation toward short story ideas. I have used this little device of colored popsicle sticks, with suggestive phrases that you must somehow work convincingly into what you've already written all within the time the little hourglass empties it grains of sand. It is delightfully fun to write in this way. Sort of like timed chess but this is timed writing. It is excellent in breaking out of 'writer's block. I highly recommend and is hilarious to see what you end up with at the end of a session.