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Book Review by Yunita Phillips
The book of Exploring My Ideas written by Fida Abbott is a
wonderful response to that situation. This book will guide the young writers to
resolve that problem.
Through its creative and informative presentation of this book,
Fida presents ten short stories as the examples of a writing which ideas have been
developed from simple daily events. Fida presents 15 sources of ideas that
writers can use and explore them. The writers are free to choose which source
they might use. Based on the ten short stories she has presented; the writer’s
personal experiences seem to be good source of ideas because they have strong
appeal and great impetus for writers to accomplish their writings. The writer’s
personal experiences contain elements that involve both writer’s emotional and
intellectual—which will enrich her writings more lively and powerful.
To add the personal experiences, the writers need to conduct
researches to provide accurate data or logic for the story. This is important
because writers are intellectually responsible for educating their readers by
presenting a good and trusty writing.
One of the main strengths of this book is how Fida wrote her
stories with a smooth, straightforward, and storytelling way. Once we read one
of the stories, we will be excited and look forward to continuing reading the
next story. We will be curious to know what kind of stories she will convey
next. The themes are varied, ranging from mystery, relationships in a family or
a workplace, mental health problem, horror, spiritual problems, etc.
In addition to providing technique how to explore ideas,
Fida provides ten guides to plot a short story. This methodology explains about
how to put the idea into a short story. It includes introduction of the main
character, story conflict, how the main character solves the problems, and how
the story will end with a satisfying way. There are also some examples on how
to apply that technique which is taken from one of the stories in the book.
This book is more valuable as there are some encouragements to the readers on
how to improve their writings and how to submit their stories for profit.
I strongly recommend this book to beginning-aspiring writers
as their helpful handbook. This book also helps us not to be afraid to write
and not to be doubtful of our ideas. No matter how simple the ideas that arise
in our minds, it is valuable, and we need to appreciate it. If we immediately
take steps to work on it, it will become an interesting and enjoyable story to
read.(*)
Profile
Yunita D. Harahap was born in Jakarta, Indonesia on June 14, 1966. She started to write stories and articles for children and youth since she was in High School. Her writings mostly were published in national mass media such as Sinar Harapan newspaper, Suara Pembaruan newspaper, Bobo and HAI Magazine. She graduated from Jakarta Science and Political Institute (IISIP), on Journalism faculty. She also served as an editor and writer at Kompak Magazine (GKI Kebayoran Baru church magazine for youth in Jakarta). In 2000 she wrote a series of children stories manuscripts for children program at YASKI broadcast, Tangerang, Indonesia. Before moving to Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A., she worked at Yayasan Komunikasi Bina Kasih publishing house. To obtain more knowledge and skills in writing for children, she got several scholarships to attend some international writers’ conferences (especially for children’s books), held by Highlights for Children Foundation in Pennsylvania, Cook Ministries International in Colorado, and Media Associate International in Illionis. (*)Read more...
