Create A Story: Beat Writer’s Block with These Creative Prompts is due to be released April 6, 2021.
This title is a bit outside my usual book for review! It’s not even a book, really. Create A Story is neither a story nor a guidebook — this is a notebook filled with interesting prompts and wordbanks to get you writing. I wouldn’t have minded a little instruction, but the sheer variety and volume of the prompts makes this a fabulous brainstorming tool.
After two succinct paragraphs of encouragement, you’re dropped right into the prompts. No fanfare, no guidance, just a blank book waiting for you to fill it. Each genre is marked with a cute line drawing in the margin and is discreet enough that mixing genres is easy. The prompted genres include:
- Historical Fiction
- Mystery & Suspense
- Romance
- Life Experience
- Comedy
- Fantasy
- Action & Adventure
- Horror
- Science Fiction
- Western
So no matter which genre you prefer, you’re sure to find a prompt that inspires. There’s no guidance whatsoever. This may be encouraging to writers who prefer no instruction, but for inexperienced writers, a few paragraphs on story structure or genre tropes wouldn’t hurt.
The prompts within genres are wide-ranging. In the romance category, you may find prompts as simple as “a prince falls in love with his servant,” to out-there ideas about “a person who is guided by Cupid in their dreams and starts a matchmaking service.” Add that to 15 words to include in the story (arrow, oracle, meddle, arrange, etc) and it’s probably impossible for a creative person to find zero inspiration between these pages.
Overall, this is a great idea-sparking notebook. There isn’t much space to write, but plenty for jotting down ideas and plot points to write elsewhere. A physical copy would make a great gift for anyone suffering from writer’s block.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
