Non-Fiction Review: The Story Cure

The Story Cure: A Book Doctor's Pain-Free Guide to Finishing Your Novel or Memoir by Dinty W. Moore, May 2, 2017. 224 pages. Published by Ten Speed Press. Source: Blogging for Books

A collection of cures for writer's block, plotting and characterization issues, and other ailments writers face when completing a novel or memoir, prescribed by the director of creative writing at Ohio University.
People want to write the book they know is inside of them, but they run into stumbling blocks that trouble everyone from beginners to seasoned writers. Drawing on his years of teaching at both the university level and at writing workshops across the country, Professor Dinty W. Moore dons his book-doctor hat to present an authoritative guide to curing the issues that truly plague writers at all levels. His hard-hitting handbook provides inspiring solutions for diagnoses such as character anemia, flat plot, and silent voice, and is peppered with flashes of Moore's signature wit and unique take on the writing life.

With the lack of Catholic books available for review lately, which saddens me, on Blogging for Books I have had to broaden my scope of books to try out. Which leads me to Dinty W. Moore's The Story Cure; it looked interesting so I thought I'd give it a chance.

• I both liked and disliked this book, to be quite honest. On the one hand, he had some good advice for working out the kinks in one's story, I'll definitely be going back to some of the points in the future. Some of what he talks about. 'plot and structure' and 'your heart's story', had some good, commonsense advice for getting your story (whatever kind it may be) out of your head and onto paper. 

• On the other hand, yes, I need an entirely new section for this part, I did not like how it was presented. While I could see why he used the language he did to illustrate what he was talking about, it at times just annoyed the daylights out of me. 

• So, there is definitely a win-lose with the Story Cure. The win being that it has good information that can help you move forward in your writing by helping you to pinpoint the weak points in your novel. The lose, the presentation can be a little bothersome and dry in certain sections. 

Final Verdict: The Story Cure- Holds some commonsense advice for working through your story's problems. Though the format can be, well, a little dry sometimes. 

The Story Cure earns

A copy of this book was received for review consideration. All thoughts are my own.