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M. Harold Page
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Storyteller Tools: Outline from vision to finished novel without losing the magic Kindle Edition

by M Harold Page (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 62 ratings
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Ken MacLeod: "...very useful in getting from ideas etc to plot and story."


Hannu Rajaniemi: "...find myself to coming back to [this] book in the early stages. Just convinced an aspiring writer friend to buy it."



M Harold Page wrote and sold three novels in 2013, in each case starting from scratch. This handbook shares the creative outlining techniques that enabled him to speed from vision to completed novel, again and again.
• No more unfinished writing projects!
• Turn sweeping visions into viable stories, fast!
• Grow a novel out of anything no matter how vague: an opening; some characters; a story world; a philosophical idea; a theme; a map; a gaming setting...
• Conjure up conflicts and story questions to drive your plot.
• Write usable outlines "in flow".
• Ace NaNoWriMo!
• Learn to use your storyteller instinct!
• Lose yourself in creating stories for other people to lose themselves in...
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    95 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    May 6, 2014
  5. File size
    4988 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"...very useful in getting from ideas etc to plot and story." - Ken MacLeod (Award-winning veteran Science Fiction author and writing teacher) on Twitter
"...find myself to coming back to @mharoldpage's book in the early stages. Just convinced an aspiring writer friend to buy it."- Hannu Rajaniemi (Award-winning SF writer and nanotech entrepreneur) on Twitter

From the Author

After a wild year writing franchise/tie-in fiction I took a break to write up my process... only to discover I didn't really have a process so much as a toolbox that I could use flexibly to tell stories. So this book isn't about a top-town procedure, nor does it serve up boilerplate formulae -- Campbell's the hero can make his journey elsewhere. It's also not about how to be creative -- you are already creative. Instead, it's all about tools you can use "in flow", with a faraway look in your eyes and music blaring out of your computer speakers while your imagination rampages to the end of your story.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00K6PBXY6
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ M Harold Page (May 6, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 6, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4988 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 95 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 62 ratings

About the author

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M. Harold Page

M. Harold Page

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Swordsman, geek parent, author. I write books where people resolve complex themes through the medium of interpersonal violence... sometimes with tanks in.

Drop by my author home page to find out what I'm up to!

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
62 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Henri Muurimaa
5.0 out of 5 stars Claims not to try to inspire nor enthuse but does both anyway
Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2014
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The guide starts with some thoughts on the creative urge. It then proceeds as an easy explanation of the six tools the author uses to wrangle a set of intense but vague story ideas into consistent and interesting outlines and finally into a finished novel.

The tools and methods are presented in a logical top down manner. First we find out about the story sculpting methods that encourage a writer to consider her story from different viewpoints and validate that the core ideas and dynamics form a complete whole. Next come the storytelling methods to convert the big picture into engaging chapter outlines, and finally into paragraphs of clear prose. Each chapter ends with a bullet point summary and a few exercises that encourage the reader to experiment with the methods.

Each tool is accompanied by reasoning behind it, and I found myself agreeing with most of it. The guide keeps reminding the reader to use the tools in any order and sequence that best fits the creative process of the writer. Equally important is the persistent focus on drama by expressing a story through conflict between the characters.

The book is pretty short and I had no problems reading it from start to finish in one sitting. The tools are thoroughly described with ample examples and I’m grateful that the author didn’t feel the need inflate the page count with superfluous padding. The formatting could have looked a bit better on my Kindle in places, and some concepts seemed to be introduced more than once, but these were minor issues that didn’t lessen my experience with the guide at all.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I can’t call myself a writer (yet?), but the author’s insights on the storyteller’s drive and his personal methods to address it felt familiar and right to me.
14 people found this helpful
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David C.
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy, fun, fast, and practical
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2016
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Unlike other writing books that are padded with fluff and rules, this book quickly gives you the tools you need to go from outline to completed book, while still allowing you the freedom to decide how you want to approach your story by letting you choose the techniques you want to apply. Whether you only have a vague idea of a conflict, a character, or the bare bones of a story, these tools will allow you to flesh out your story, quickly spot potential problems and fix them before you waste time writing text you're just going to have to cut out. His tools will allow you to easily see whether what you have is an interesting story waiting to be written or an uninteresting story waiting to be written then thrown out wasting years of your life, costing you your job, your marriage, and resulting in the death of dozens of puppies and kittens whose owners had the unfortunate pleasure of reading your work.

Seriously just get the book. It's good.

TLDR: Fun, fast, and effective techniques. Quick read and lots of practical, actionable information.
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Big Head
4.0 out of 5 stars Six great tools for writing fiction
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2015
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Page gives six tools that are immediately useful to the fiction author. They are useful to beginners, and (I assume) could be useful to accomplished authors as additions to their usual tools. The tools give alternate ways to look at one's fiction.
The book is brief but packed, short enough to be easily readable and long enough to cover his tools with examples. He does not propose an elaborate theory of story, but gives spectacles to look at any story and understand it better.
Thanks, Harold
One person found this helpful
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Joy Livingwell
5.0 out of 5 stars Write better stories faster -- it works!
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2015
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Reading this book and doing the (very fun) exercises got my NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) project unstuck. And improved my fiction-writing, plotting, and story-building skills and speed more than all the other writing books I've read combined.

Professional fiction writer M. Harold Page provides a comprehensive suite of easy-to-use tools for figuring out, outlining, and fine-tuning your story FAST. Flexible tools that you can use in whatever ways work FOR YOU. No cookie cutters here.

Following the examples and then doing the exercises allowed me to quickly understand the tools and build the skills to use them. Now plotting, outlining, and writing are SO much easier and faster. Instead of writing myself into a corner and having to throw away thousands of words, I find and fix story problems before I even start writing. And my scenes and stories come out much better, too. All this from a couple afternoons of reading the book and doing the exercises.

I had no idea fiction writing could be this fast or easy. Highly, highly recommended.
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M. Lussier
5.0 out of 5 stars M. Harold Page has written a concise, informative and entertaining guide to the craft of writing.
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2016
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I imagine that every fan of M Harold Page's 'Swords Versus Tanks' series has probably marveled at how he is able to quickly produce such exciting, imaginative, and high quality adventure stories. Wonder no more, dear friends. In Storyteller Tools, Page lays out a series of creative and realistic techniques which will allow any fledgling author to transform the spark of an idea into a fully formed book.

I highly recommend Storyteller Tools to any writer who wishes to hone and focus their plotting skills. This is great stuff.
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Guy Windsor
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, concise and effective
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2014
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This is a superb book, which provides any aspiring (or experienced) fiction writers with a set of tools for creating completed novels from a core idea, efficiently and fast. You think you know how to outline already? I doubt you do it like this. And this is way more than just outlining.
It's a short book, for people who want to write their own stuff, not just sit and read about what they should be doing. No fluff, no wasted words, just a goldmine of usable tools, expertly conceived and described, to get that story out of your head, onto your computer, and out into the world.
Buy it already!
13 people found this helpful
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B. Bergquist
5.0 out of 5 stars Nuts and Bolts
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2016
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Considering all the books on craft I've read, this has been one of the best and is underrated in my opinion. The author adds a lot of helpful examples and his methods make a lot of sense. Not a lot of theory here which was refreshing. Just the nuts and bolts of getting the story down. Also, if you dislike editing like I do, following this approach should result in a very clean first draft.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Client
5.0 out of 5 stars Instructif
Reviewed in France on April 15, 2021
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Déroutant et instructif.
Malgré le prix, je ne regrette pas du tout cette lecture
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Tony Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars Great little book with genuinely useful ideas
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2019
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I bought this book some years ago and (confession time) forget to read it. I eventually got round to it recently and while I won't pretend it's changed my life, I can see occasions over the past few years when it would have helped me with my own writing.

There's an overall process (somewhere between pantser and plotter if you use those labels) and two key tools. The first is the conflict diagram (which I will use on future projects) and QABN tool for writing good chunks of story (depending on where you are in the process this might be a scene or a whole chapter). It's all about ensuring narrative flow with appropriate entry and exit while moving a story element forward.

What I like is how clean the writing is, the obvious enthusiasm for the topic and accessible example.

I wonder what else is lurking on my Kindle I should remember to read!
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Ken Ward
5.0 out of 5 stars Storyteller Tools
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2016
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I am a bit addicted to buying fiction writing books. This book is probably one of the best I have bought. After a few weeks of writing nothing, it got me writing again. Called the Muse back.

While this book covers the range of skills needed to write fiction, it seems most important because it deals with writing at the pen and paper level. Probably, most books on fiction writing are written by critics who may give good advice about criticizing your book after you have written it, but are of little help when it comes down to putting pen to paper and creating something from scratch.
This book stands out as being a pen-to-paper book that helps writers create stories from scratch. I really hope that M Harold Page continues his work increasing the competition in the fiction writing world by getting more wannabe authors actually producing works.
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Sylvia
5.0 out of 5 stars there was a lot of very good ideas and information here
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2017
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While this may not be a system that I use in its entirety, there was a lot of very good ideas and information here. The book does use one diagram, which is not for me, but the ideas are really helpful. If you don't like historical/fantasy/sword fighting books, it doesn't matter the structure/story building ideas in the book are useful for any writer. I will be using the QABN . This book goes beyond structure and takes you right up to the first draft. Read Mr Page's book and it will not take you years to get a first draft done. I particularly like the idea of getting the story structure down in days rather than months needed with some systems. I book I can recommend.
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Alan Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy read, powerful tools
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 11, 2014
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I've read a number of books on writing, and this is one of the most succinct, and easy to read and absorb. It's based on a couple of simple ideas, but Page really brings them to life through working examples and showing how he'd apply them to go from an idea to a novel.

His examples are great - very real examples of how stories might be built - and while they focus on the sort of story he might write himself, he takes enough time to point out how they might apply in any situation. As a result, you really get a feel for some useful additions to your writer's toolkit.
2 people found this helpful
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