Official Review: Finding the Core of Your Story: How to s...

[npandit]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Finding the Core of Your Story: How to strengthen and sell your story in one essential sentence" by Jordan Smith.]

In this short, informative, and very easy to read book, Jordan Smith walks you through how to create a “logline”; or a quick, one-sentence summary of your story to pitch to anyone--especially including agents, publishers, and producers. I have nothing but positive things to say about this book, as it met or exceeded every expectation I had and delivered its promise. Here are the book’s plus points.

• • Everyone can write a sentence, but Smith clearly and effectively outlines the part of the sentence that makes it a good logline. He tells you exactly the components that you need to look for in your one-sentence summary that have to exist in order for the logline to be intriguing and effective.
  
  • Peppered throughout the book are very useful examples from films most of us have seen. He uses many different examples, but for continuity, he uses some of the same examples to make his points throughout the book, and breaks them down from different angles.
  
  • He also uses bad examples of loglines, which are very helpful, because you can see what they are lacking, making it clear how to make them better. He categorizes the mistakes people make, so that it’s easy to figure out how not to fall into a similar trap.
  
  • Though it is clearly very well thought out and researched, the book is written in an interactive, conversational tone—the mark of an effective teacher—he explains something complicated by breaking it down, and gives you the tools you need to be able to do it, ultimately making the whole thing seem easy.
  
  • He doesn’t go on and on about why it’s useful to have a logline. Sometimes guide-books spend more time discussing why they are important rather than giving you actual guidance. But—I discovered another potential use for a log-line that I didn’t realize before: It can help strengthen your story! The way that you think about how to make a good log line can be applied to making your story stronger, and sometimes, the process of developing a logline helps you think about which aspect of your story need to be strengthened.

There is not one negative thing that I can say about this book. It is extremely informative and useful if you are a writer. I would recommend it to every single person who has ever written anything, or who plans to write anything. Even before you write your story; it can be helpful to have a log-line. I would recommend using this book as a reference and going back to it many times. It is only 55 pages long and should take a very short time to sift through the contents. If you need to pitch your story to anyone, this book should be your new best friend. I give this book the full 4 out of 4 stars.

If I could give it a 5, I would.

***
Buy "Finding the Core of Your Story: How to strengthen and sell your story in one essential sentence" on Amazon

[ALRyder]

If it weren't for your very last sentence I would never think 55 pages on how to write a sentence would be THAT important. Now you've got me curious.

[npandit]

Lol!

ALRyder, do you write? If you write stories (or plays, or really anything) or know someone that does, I very highly recommend this book.

I thought the real selling point of this book was that it shows writers how to analyze their stories in an organized and objective way, by showing how to identify the specific story elements in your work which need to be present in order to make good stories.

What I found fantastic was that the author doesn't simply say "Here is how to make a great advertisement for your product", he says "Here is how to make a better product, and how to analyze how good your product is, through making the advertisement."

It was pretty awesome.

Most established professionals probably already know how to do this; but I think for people that are just starting out, (and even for established professionals that just want to strengthen their story-telling) it's really fantastic and helpful, and it's got little exercises for you to do at the end of each chapter, which you can apply to your own work.

I can't recommend it enough! Hope you enjoy!

[ALRyder]

I will definitely have to buy it if and when I finish something. I find that I have a tendency to get distracted with all the writing books, and they just work as more of a way to procrastinate more than anything else :p

[npandit]

Lol!

This one is actually worth it, in my opinion. If you are wary of getting sucked into another writing book, I think the author also has a website where he discusses some of his concepts. It might be good to flip through on 'slow' days of writing, or working on the loglines might be a good way to get over writer's block.

But I've never really read any books about writing, just random articles here and there; so you may already have a similar technique at you disposal from another source, in which case it may not be as helpful.