Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
The Story Within: New Insights and Inspiration for Writers
by
Laura Oliver
Every reader has a story inside them.
Laura Oliver has been teaching aspiring writers how to plumb emotional contradictions for insight for more than a decade in workshops and university classes. Now she has written the book her students have been asking her for, a book that aspiring writers of every genre can use to guide, coach, and encourage them on their journey.
The St...more
Laura Oliver has been teaching aspiring writers how to plumb emotional contradictions for insight for more than a decade in workshops and university classes. Now she has written the book her students have been asking her for, a book that aspiring writers of every genre can use to guide, coach, and encourage them on their journey.
The St...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
November 1st 2011
by Alpha
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
51)
Feb 22, 2012
Mike Kalmbach
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Beginning or intermediate writers
Recommended to Mike by:
Gene Flaten
Shelves:
non-fiction,
writing
Overall, this is a great book. Lots of good advice for beginning to intermediate writers. It's organized in short, easy-to-consume sections that lend themselves well to reading in fast bursts, and her advice runs the gamut, from getting started to distributing your work. For the most part, the advice is solid and her analogies really help her examples hit home.
The one complaint I have came toward the end of the book, where the author seemed to recommend sending editors a "rejection" of a rejecti...more
The one complaint I have came toward the end of the book, where the author seemed to recommend sending editors a "rejection" of a rejecti...more
This book wasn't bad. It had a good presentation and covered a lot of material. I don't think I was really the right audience, though. A friend picked it up as a gift and I read it for that reason. It read a little too "chicken soup" for my tastes, but that is purely personal and I don't think it is in any way a fault of the book. I also didn't see a lot that I hadn't already seen before, but I think the book is intended for much more beginning writers. It isn't a bad book, it just wasn't really...more
Laura Oliver’s The Story Within is not your every day craft book. This is a whooping roller coaster over the highs and lows of the vocation of writing. Every writer has heard “Show, don’t tell.” I never thought I’d find an entire book on the craft of writing that page after page did just that over 26 topics of writerly discussion.
Full disclosure – Laura sent me the book, after I sent her my book No Red Pen: Writers, Writing Groups & Critique. We have never met, I’ve never been in her worksho...more
Full disclosure – Laura sent me the book, after I sent her my book No Red Pen: Writers, Writing Groups & Critique. We have never met, I’ve never been in her worksho...more
My mom passed on this book, written by her writing teacher, to me. I loved it and found it truly inspirational. I especially appreciated chapter one, about quieting your inner critic, and chapter 3, on "calling a story to you." I enjoyed the stories she wrote about herself and her students to highlight her points about writing. Highly recommend it for anyone interested in writing.
The Story Within: New Insights and Inspiration for Writers was recommended by The Writer magazine, and since I usually always enjoy reading books on writing, I bought it. I'm only in early chapters, so I don't yet have a sense of the whole. So far, though, Oliver's approach reminds me more of a Cameron, Goldberg, Lamott book than one by Burroway, Gardner, or Clark. She may go more deeply into strategies and craft further in the book. In these bleak days of early winter, though, I appreciate her...more
It wasn't bad. But it's going to be a very personal reading experience, and I think whether you like the book/find it useful is largely going to depend on what you're bringing to it as a reader/writer in the first place.
All of my feelings are in my review, at MyEntertainmentWorld.ca.
All of my feelings are in my review, at MyEntertainmentWorld.ca.
This book has some great tips about writing, but as a professional editor, I stumbled in many places by some awkward constructions and curious punctuation choices. This distracts from the overall message that good writing can take you places. I don't know whether to find fault with the author or the copy editor, but I felt that some major tightening could have really strengthen this book. Plus, it seemed to go on unnecessary tangents, as if we were reading a book of fiction. It seemed that some...more
Loved this book. Gives great information whether writing personal essays or fiction. Great writing tips and inspirational quotes as well. It is a book I will refer to again.
Apr 12, 2013
Fanny
marked it as to-read
Feb 26, 2013
Jonnathebooknerd
marked it as to-read
Feb 16, 2013
Matt
marked it as to-read
Jan 30, 2013
Renee
marked it as to-read
Jan 16, 2013
Denise
marked it as to-read
Jan 05, 2013
Gwenette
marked it as to-read
Jan 04, 2013
Bhunita
is currently reading it
Jan 04, 2013
Colleen Diamond
is currently reading it
Mar 08, 2013
Steph
marked it as to-read
Oct 22, 2012
Jessica
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
