Review: Out of the Box & On the Page

Out of the Box & On the Page is a book to help you get unstuck when your writing isn’t going your way. It provides a series of exercises for 10 days to help you change your perspective on your writing and look at your story or your characters in new ways.

Candace Havens, the owner of the Write Workshop group on Yahoo, usually presents this material as a workshop, but has now put it into book form and it’s available through Lulu, either as a print book or an electronic download.

What I like about this book

The exercises are easy to do and interesting. For example, Day 6 involves using a piece of art to inspire new thoughts on your story. Day 7 guides you through reviewing another book to identify what works and what doesn’t work in that book. You can then apply what you’ve learned to your own book, to include the elements you like and to leave out the ones you don’t like.

One thing that confused me initially is that every other page in the book is blank. I wondered, why all the extra space? I figured it out later… it gives you plenty of room to complete the exercises right on the pages.

Because of this, I think the electronic copy of the book is the one to buy, so you can print another copy of it the next time you’re stuck and go through the exercises again. The exercises are broad enough that you can continue to apply them to each new story and still gain new insights into your writing.

I recommend this book for…

If you’re stuck on a story and thinking of just abandoning it out of frustration or sheer boredom with it, pick up a copy of Out of the Box & On the Page before you do. You might find that your story is a lot more exciting than you realized.

The print version is $16.97. The electronic version is $6.00. Buy a copy before December 31 and use the coupon code HOHOHO for another 20% off either format.

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