Rating: 
Summary: Insurance against writer¿s block
Review: A review from the author of DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF and DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE.If you ever wanted to write and didn't know what to write about or how to start, this book is for you. Jack Heffron offers more than 400 writing prompts that are sure to spark your interest and desire to put pen to paper-without your feeling limited by the suggestions. He assures you that you will put your personal touch on each one. If you love to write and have no shortage of ideas, but you'd like a fresh start or a new angle, this book is inspiring in its abundance and originality. Heffron's text is down-to-earth and informative while being realistic about our fantasies about writing compared with the reality. His personal asides are witty and humorous, encouraging us to try the prompts without taking them too seriously. This is a book I will recommend to my students and writer friends, including those who say they are never blocked. I'm taking this book with me on my next vacation.
Rating: 
Summary: Not especially helpful for poets....
Review: I purchased this book after reading the many glowing 5-star reviews. As a poet, I was hoping for exercises that would "warm me up" by providing thematic ideas and/or specific forms for poems. However, in reading through the book at first I was confused; all of the exercises seemed to translate only into narrative prose forms (short stories, novels, memoirs, essays, etc.). A little over halfway through the book, Mr. Heffron actually states that he doesn't write poetry and has never really liked it! (mystery solved). I did read the rest of the book because, as other reviewers have pointed out, the author does have a warm voice and a helpful perspective on writing in general. However, it should be made clearer -- in the book description/jacket if not the reviews -- that the book does not usefully address poetry and the problems of poets.
Rating: 
Summary: Prompts, prompts, and more prompts!
Review: Jack Heffron's "The Writer's Idea Book" is a very good specimen of a book of writers' exercises. It mixes "prompts" of various sorts (more than 400 of them according to the cover, and I believe it!) with short riffs of practical advice on a wide range of writing matters. While Heffron is a professional editor and does give advice regarding methods that he believes work best, he concentrates on writing for yourself in this book rather than trying to get published. This is just the idea phase after all--check out his later book, "The Writer's Idea Workshop," for practical advice regarding taking your idea from raw ore to refined metal. There are many prompts meant to help you mine your own experiences for ideas and plots. (As well as your likes and dislikes, your family, your home town, places you've visited, "public moments," secrets, dreams, and more.) There are prompts to help you explore different forms of writing, structure your story, and more. There are even good solid hints on dealing with openings and endings. The huge number of prompts in this book guarantees that you should be able to find something to spark your creativity no matter what mood you're in. In fact, about the only thing that bothered me about this book was the lack of the unusual. I love genre. Horror, science fiction, fantasy--I love the strange, and this book had a very "literary" feel to it. That'll make it perfect for many other writers out there, but it left me a little flat. I like to have a certain otherworldliness come into play when looking through lots of writing exercises and warm-ups. This book is meant to push you into finding inspiration from the ordinary rather than the extraordinary; I would have liked a better balance. It's certainly a fun book, however, and definitely a kick in the inspiration department!
Rating:
Summary: Prompts, prompts, and more prompts!
Review: Jack Heffron's "The Writer's Idea Book" is a very good specimen of a book of writers' exercises. It mixes "prompts" of various sorts (more than 400 of them according to the cover, and I believe it!) with short riffs of practical advice on a wide range of writing matters. While Heffron is a professional editor and does give advice regarding methods that he believes work best, he concentrates on writing for yourself in this book rather than trying to get published. This is just the idea phase after all--check out his later book, "The Writer's Idea Workshop," for practical advice regarding taking your idea from raw ore to refined metal. There are many prompts meant to help you mine your own experiences for ideas and plots. (As well as your likes and dislikes, your family, your home town, places you've visited, "public moments," secrets, dreams, and more.) There are prompts to help you explore different forms of writing, structure your story, and more. There are even good solid hints on dealing with openings and endings. The huge number of prompts in this book guarantees that you should be able to find something to spark your creativity no matter what mood you're in. In fact, about the only thing that bothered me about this book was the lack of the unusual. I love genre. Horror, science fiction, fantasy--I love the strange, and this book had a very "literary" feel to it. That'll make it perfect for many other writers out there, but it left me a little flat. I like to have a certain otherworldliness come into play when looking through lots of writing exercises and warm-ups. This book is meant to push you into finding inspiration from the ordinary rather than the extraordinary; I would have liked a better balance. It's certainly a fun book, however, and definitely a kick in the inspiration department!
Rating:
Summary: More than Ideas
Review: Jack Heffron, in his genius, has simplified the writing process for professional writers and teachers as well as for writing initiates. However, this is more than just a book of tips and ideas. You will be inspired by the author's personal revelations and the writing prompts that lie within the book's covers. Aside from being a wonderful treat--or gift--for a writer at any level, if you need a creative jolt, then BUY THIS BOOK!
Rating:
Summary: More than Ideas
Review: Jack Heffron, in his genius, has simplified the writing process for professional writers and teachers as well as for writing initiates. However, this is more than just a book of tips and ideas. You will be inspired by the author's personal revelations and the writing prompts that lie within the book's covers. Aside from being a wonderful treat--or gift--for a writer at any level, if you need a creative jolt, then BUY THIS BOOK!
Rating:
Summary: Fertile Fodder for the Writer
Review: No excuses for writer's block when this book is handy. Just let the book drop, open to any page and read a "prompt", any prompt. The author is generous with his ideas to stimulate the writer's mind. Just start writing and let your mind, and fingers, wander with the writer's fodder presented. So many ideas, prompts and exercizes, you'll never run out as just one of these paths can lead you everywhere. Well written with kind words and gentle prodding for the writer in you.
Rating:
Summary: Fertile Fodder for the Writer
Review: No excuses for writer's block when this book is handy. Just let the book drop, open to any page and read a "prompt", any prompt. The author is generous with his ideas to stimulate the writer's mind. Just start writing and let your mind, and fingers, wander with the writer's fodder presented. So many ideas, prompts and exercizes, you'll never run out as just one of these paths can lead you everywhere. Well written with kind words and gentle prodding for the writer in you.
Rating:
Summary: You need these prompts!
Review: The value of this book is in its many and rich prompts. (No offense to Mr. Heffron, but Part I is the omnipresent: "when you write", "where you write", "celebrating your creative self", etc.) Part II however gets you off and running. There are hundreds of powerful prompts to help you explore the infinite ways to know (and to know what you know) and to write about something. The idea being that the writer (human being) is the quintissential observer, sculptor, shapeshifter, and magician. Prompts have you writing from a variety of imaginitive perspectives, and to various ends. You will strengthen weaknesses and discover hidden strengths. Also highly recommend "Beginnings, Middles, and Ends" by Kress.
Rating:
Summary: No excuses (any longer)!
Review: This book is a great reference to have on the shelf to spark one's creative juices or just to pickup and write something different than that three volume novel you've been sweating over for the last 10yrs. I liked the way Heffron organized the book.
You could literally just open the book, find the word "prompt", read the instructions and write something. You can follow the way the author has it organized or be spontaneous. The book is geared more in my opinion to short-story/novel fiction writers than columnists or poets.
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