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51st out of 161 books
—
79 voters
Finding the Core of Your Story
by
Jordan Smith (Goodreads Author)
What’s your story about?
It’s the most frightening question in the world if all you have is a blank stare. But what if you had an attention-grabbing answer that left your audience wanting more? It’s not only possible, it’s simple if you have the right tools.
Story consultant Jordan Smith has helped countless storytellers strengthen and pitch their stories. His tool of choice...more
It’s the most frightening question in the world if all you have is a blank stare. But what if you had an attention-grabbing answer that left your audience wanting more? It’s not only possible, it’s simple if you have the right tools.
Story consultant Jordan Smith has helped countless storytellers strengthen and pitch their stories. His tool of choice...more
Paperback, 108 pages
Published
December 12th 2012
by Jordan Smith
(first published June 1st 2012)
Win a Copy of This Book
Finding the Core of Your Story
by Jordan Smith (Goodreads Author)
by Jordan Smith (Goodreads Author)
What’s your story about? It’s the most frightening question in the world if all you have is a blank stare. But what if you had an attention-grabbing a…more
Giveaway dates:
May 14
- Jun 14, 2013
2 copies
available,
103 people
requesting
Countries available:
US
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(Besides the fact that I gave it five stars.)
1--It explains what a logline is. Not knowing what a logline is makes it very hard to write a good one. But Jordan clears all that up quickly and coherently in the opening chapters.
2--It addresses all the common logline problems. There are several pitfalls writers are prone to trip over when crafting loglines. Jordan addresses all of these point-blank so you can save yourself from looking like an uneducated amateur.
3--It classifies various logline fo...more
1--It explains what a logline is. Not knowing what a logline is makes it very hard to write a good one. But Jordan clears all that up quickly and coherently in the opening chapters.
2--It addresses all the common logline problems. There are several pitfalls writers are prone to trip over when crafting loglines. Jordan addresses all of these point-blank so you can save yourself from looking like an uneducated amateur.
3--It classifies various logline fo...more
Assuming you’re an author (as in, you write , especially if you write stories), and someone asks you what you’ve been writing, or what your story is about, what would you say? Jordan Smith ( over at http://fixmystory.com/ ) set out to answer that question in this book. He shows you how to boil down the idea behind your story to a single sentence, called a logline. An incredibly useful tool at about every stage of authoring–from thinking up an idea, to writing the story, to telling others about i...more
I won this book on a blog giveaway, but the preceding views/opinions are my own.
Jordan Smith has a clear-cut style. He knows how to give advice and his advice is solid. In this short book, you learn how to create a standard and precise log line for your script, novel, or any other format of writing.
What is a log line? A log line is a one-sentence description of a story. Jordan's book will teach you the rest. Though I've participated in Script Frenzy for two years to take advantage of the film...more
Jordan Smith has a clear-cut style. He knows how to give advice and his advice is solid. In this short book, you learn how to create a standard and precise log line for your script, novel, or any other format of writing.
What is a log line? A log line is a one-sentence description of a story. Jordan's book will teach you the rest. Though I've participated in Script Frenzy for two years to take advantage of the film...more
Finding the Core of Your Story, to borrow the Smashwords short summery, is about how every storyteller should be able to say in one sentence what his story is about. This book will help you learn to do just that with a writing tool called a logline. These handy single-sentence descriptions of stories originated in Hollywood, but filmmaker Jordan Smith will show you how to write one for any story.
And he does just that. Jordan has written an easy-to-read, easy-to-follow book that outlines what a...more
And he does just that. Jordan has written an easy-to-read, easy-to-follow book that outlines what a...more
I am not sure what I was expecting from this book, but certainly not what I got! As an aspiring author with 2 books in progress, it is really easy to get bogged down in minute details and the inflections/tone of each scene or chapter.
This book helped me to take a step back and look at the big picture. What is my book about, really? What is the main storyline? How do I explain the main storyline in 1-3 sentences (preferably just 1)?
I was able to pinpoint not only the weaknesses in the story as a...more
This book helped me to take a step back and look at the big picture. What is my book about, really? What is the main storyline? How do I explain the main storyline in 1-3 sentences (preferably just 1)?
I was able to pinpoint not only the weaknesses in the story as a...more
This. Was. Good. To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. The blurb got me excited, but reading that it was only by a story consultant? Gave me my doubts. Most the writing books I've read have been from authors or literary agents.
Those doubts were unnecessary.
This book was excellent. It was different than all the others I've read (trust me, I've read quite a fair few). The writing style was witty, amusing, and just made non-fiction fun. I like fun. I'm sure most people do. Besides...more
Those doubts were unnecessary.
This book was excellent. It was different than all the others I've read (trust me, I've read quite a fair few). The writing style was witty, amusing, and just made non-fiction fun. I like fun. I'm sure most people do. Besides...more
I read the earlier edition of this book and was very much pleased with it, so I hadn't considered that a second edition could be a whole lot better! The author has added important information that explores new angles that weren't covered in the first edition, like loglining a series, and how that's different than doing a single book.
It's lost none of the humor and helpfulness of the first edition, with a personable tone that made me laugh out loud multiple times, and easy-to-understand explanati...more
It's lost none of the humor and helpfulness of the first edition, with a personable tone that made me laugh out loud multiple times, and easy-to-understand explanati...more
This is kind of a tough one for me to rate and review. On the one hand, the content is really useful and I think will be helpful to me. But on the other hand, it's not a lot of content. It's quite a short book, and to be honest it feels a little padded as is. So I feel like the price is pretty steep for the amount of book you're getting.
This is a book on loglines, short, single sentence summaries of a story, which, as the author points out, are useful for a lot more than just pitching. The examp...more
This is a book on loglines, short, single sentence summaries of a story, which, as the author points out, are useful for a lot more than just pitching. The examp...more
Aside from actually writing 100,000 words of a story, one of the most difficult things in fiction is boiling that huge story down to a pithy sentence or two - what the movie industry calls a logline. What Jordan Smith has done in this fast little book is offer a series of formulae to ease that process. As an outliner, creating a premise sentence (basically a logline) is always a foundational part of process, so I'm totally on-board with what Smith is encouraging here. He's broken the art of the...more
Title: Finding the Core of Your Story
Genre: Non-fiction
Logline: After finding a lack of books on loglines, a snarky author must brave the self-publishing world to publish his insightful book on the subject.
Main Character (also the author): Jordan Smith
Logline: A snarky author writes a delightful and insightful book about loglines, braving the self-publishing world in his attempt to help screenwriters and authors.
This book was amazing! I read the first edition when it came out and loved it. The f...more
Genre: Non-fiction
Logline: After finding a lack of books on loglines, a snarky author must brave the self-publishing world to publish his insightful book on the subject.
Main Character (also the author): Jordan Smith
Logline: A snarky author writes a delightful and insightful book about loglines, braving the self-publishing world in his attempt to help screenwriters and authors.
This book was amazing! I read the first edition when it came out and loved it. The f...more
Very good advice on writing loglines to clarify and explain your story. The only thing that prevents me from giving it five stars is that many of the examples are repetitive; I would have appreciated reading sample loglines from more movies or novels instead of seeing a small selection of them repeated often. I must reiterate that it's useful advice, though.
Jordan Smith did a great job being witty, entertaining and getting to the point. Great book for any creater of books, stories, movies, etc. Quick read and very useful. Goes into how to use Loglines before, during and after you write/create something. Uses examples that are useful.
It's remarkable to write a book focused purely on the best ways to put together loglines. It's a skill every storyteller should master and after reading this book, you have no more excuse not to be able to :-)
Jordan is funny and he makes reading about loglines entertaining. Loglines are a fascinating concept and a useful skill to hone. Maybe in another book he will explain how to use loglines in a non-fiction context.
May 24, 2013
Liza
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| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creative Reviews: Nonfiction Book for Writers Available for Review | 3 | 9 | Apr 27, 2013 10:15am | |
| Read 4 Review: R4R - Finding the Core of Your Story | 2 | 15 | Apr 23, 2013 03:39am |
Jordan Smith is a storyteller who generally works in the realm of film, though he often branches out into other forms of narrative fiction. He's always picking stories apart to see what makes them tick. He is the author of
Finding the Core of Your Story
and
A Purple and Gold Afghan and other stories
, and the producer/director of the
Month of the Novel
web series. Jordan blogs about all manner o...more
More about Jordan Smith...
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