The Observation Deck: A Tool Kit for Writers [With Cards]

by Naomi Epel

Book Overview

This may be the most useful tool for writing to come along since the computer. "The Observation Deck" is a 160-page book by Naomi Epel presenting the writing secretsinsights, tips, exercisesof today's most talented writers. It's paired with 50 inspiring flash cards to break the spell of writer's block and overcome hurdles to creativity. Great for both beginning and seasoned writers, "The Observation Deck" offers encouragement and ingenious strategies...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811814815
• ISBN13: 9780811814812
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 5.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Nice, excellent condition, but missing the cards.

A bit disappointed. :( I was expecting the cards to be with the book, but just got the book.

Handy and useful

... my husband heard Naomi Epel interviewed on NPR right after The Observation Deck was published. He ordered it for me as an I-love-you present, and I've used it ever since. The cards are a little ratty and dirty at the edges now from so much fingering and fiddling.Of course, not all of the suggestions for unlocking the Writer Within are useful to a specific individual, but I found at least 75% of them to be applicable to writers of all genres, both fiction and nonfiction.The success of The Observation Deck is proof of the adage: Writers write - because sometimes it's not so much what you write as it is the fact that you're writing at all...

How Cool Is This!?

Brilliant concept to jumpstart and flood the creative consciousness with ideas, energy and direction. Always seeking the quick and efficient fix, THE OBSERVATION DECK, delivers by opening the gates with a nugget. Within a few moments of opening the pack, browsing the booklet and reading just one card, I'm already deep into a new project with joy and courage. Thanks Naomi for being so generous for our sake too!

An invaluable tool

I'll make this brief: after struggling with writer's block, lack of inspiration, and listless attempts at writing for months, I picked up The Observation Deck in the hopes that it might jump-start my creative fires. The same night I opened it up and read the book, I sat down and penned three thousand words, with ideas for many thousands more swimming around in my head. I have a feeling I'll soon be wondering how in the world I got along without this little deck of cards. I wholly recommend this deck if your creativity is suffering, you need a fresh perspective, or just want to put a new spin on your writing. I have found it to be an invaluable tool -- some of the best money I've spent in quite a while.

Innovative tool for right-brained, attention-deficit scribes

I don't read software manuals. I also don't take much to lengthy, sequential how-to tomes. And I certainly don't have the patience for most of the windy, eliptic BS that passes for writing advice these days.I'm like a lot of people who sling words for a living, I think. Right brained, non-linear, and intuitive. (Or as my better half would put it: illogical, disorganized, and flaky.)Imagine my curiosity when I read about THE OBSERVTION DECK...and then my delight when it turned out to be as downright useful as I suspected it might be.Do what I just did. Take the leap and get this book. Yank a card...any card...and feel those tenuous abstract notions take perceivable form. Maybe not right away...but the subconscious river will be flowing a little more freely...and productively.A very cool way to hammer writer's block. Expend a minute or a few hours. What works for those more renowned others seems to work for me...somehow.I'm guessing that it will for you too.

Great for established as well as beginners

While The Observation Deck is a great tool for getting unstuck, I think it also offers wonderful tips for established writers for whom getting unstuck is not such a problem. I've been virtually a full-time writer for about seven years now. I just completed a book that is a better book for my having read The Observation Deck. I was having trouble getting the right sort of smart alek but lovable voice for the narrator. Thanks to Naomi Epel's book, I learned that John Steinbeck wrote East of Eden as if it were a letter to his two sons. The voice I wanted for the narrator was the voice I used to use in letters to an old college friend. So I began my days typing "Dear Berta" at the top of the page and pretended I was telling my old friend the story via letter. The missing voice soon followed. I also tried the "Read Aloud" tip. Listening to my own words, which Naomi Epel explains other writers do, proved extremely valuable in testing that voice and editing rough spots which I didn't catch in silent reading.