Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes

Rating:
Summary: Great book for any writer
Review: I LOVED THIS BOOK. It was great. I've always enjoyed writing, but a few months ago I got writer's block. This book helped me to get started in short stories again. I highly recommend this book to anyone reading this review.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD AT GETTING ANYONE IN THE MOOD TO WRITE
Review: I read this book and totally loved it. There are so many writing exercises and it's so fun doing them. For example, one topic might be to write about a secret and you have only five minutes to write about it.
When I did the exercises I was so surprised by some of the stuff I wrote. The ideas just came in a flash for me. I found myself with so many ideas rushing through me that I had to slow down a little to actually get everything written down. Occasionally, I would read one of the topics and for a second I'd think something like, "Okay, I can't think of anything to write about an insect" and then the next second I found myself just writing for five minutes straight as the story rapidly unfolded in my mind. When the five minutes were up, I'd be left feeling stunned that I actually wrote a pretty decent story on a subject like the one above.
Although, I've always enjoyed writing, before I read this book I was starting to get a little stuck. I had trouble thinking of topics or finishing short stories. This book really made me want to start writing stories again. I haven't completely finished the book yet, but already it has really helped me out a lot. I unquestionably reccomend this book to anyone reading this review.

Rating:
Summary: Building blocks for writers
Review: The basic idea of "Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes" is that you can really let go and write interesting stuff if you set a timer for five minutes, grab a writing prompt, and free-write for those five minutes. Okay, Ms. Allen doesn't call it free-writing; she explains it as though it's something new. However, she does have a rather new and interesting approach to the use of free-writing, and that has value.

She directly relates these exercises to the short short story form. She also sees the five-minute exercise as a stepping stone, or building block, when working on longer fiction. She presents a great deal of information on the use of these exercises in the creation of short stories, novels and novellas, in terms of both method and revision.

Unfortunately, the text of this book rambles, babbles, and repeats itself; don't read this book while you're sleepy or bored. The five-minute exercise method itself is quite fascinating, however. The ideas for working these exercises into longer pieces save this book from being a simple rehashing of free-writing and turn it into a collection of very interesting ideas.

She makes the point that when free-writing, you need to allow yourself to "make a mess." You can't be thinking of comma usage if you want to see what your unconscious mind has waiting for you. On the other hand, when discussing examples from her students' work, she describes "mistakes" they made as being ones of "carelessness." If she wants people who read her book to let go and write what comes into their heads, then it's a bad idea to indicate that making mistakes would be careless of them.

This isn't a perfect book, and you have to be willing to look past a few small issues, but the ideas are innovative and useful. If you're looking for a new way to jump-start your creativity, this book can be a lot of fun!