The Story Cure – Dinty W Moore
A Book Doctor's Pain-Free Guide to Finishing Your Novel or Memoir by Dinty W. Moore.
Are you like me, and have one or two (or more) manuscripts laying in the bottom of a desk drawer? Like a sick patient laid up in a hospital? If so, The Story Cure is just what the doctor ordered.
The doctor being Dinty Moore – the director of creative writing at Ohio University, wise and witty, and a master at teaching the craft of writing.
With decades of teaching experience at both the beginning and professional levels, Dinty can legitimately call himself a “book doctor”.
The Story Cure is fun and easy to read – a valuable tool for aspiring writers seeking to diagnose and cure whatever problem is ailing their novel or memoir. Each chapter gives both a diagnoses and prescribes a cure, providing not only knowledge and facts, but lots of useful prompts and exercises to help you work through the problems and challenges confronting you as a writer.
The book examines the most common ailments writers face, including:
- wobbly structure
- flat plot
- too many words
- too few words
- weak characterization
- invisible settings
- weak openings
- and lots more…
The authors tone is in no way pedantic, but conversational and even humorous.
Moore’s proven prescriptions will revive your book and get it back on the road to completion, and result in a book you can be proud of. While I would dearly love to take one of Professor Moore’s classes, the next best thing is owning this book, and applying the knowledge within to my own writing.
The Story Cure, as one of my favorite go-to tools, gets five stars in my book.
