Reviewed by Hunter Reagan ||
Brian Kiteley’s The 4 A.M. Breakthrough: Unconventional Writing Exercises that Transform Your Fiction is a godsend for those experiencing writer’s block. It is a book full of prompts, from one-sided telephone calls to nostalgic time travelers, with examples from respected authors in the field and even Kiteley’s own experiences with the subject. If that is not enough to get your creative juices flowing, he invites you to steal from the book as, in his words, “Nobody will know.”
It is also incredibly relatable. Kiteley starts the book off by addressing procrastination, those frantic all-nighters to turn in a story on time, because he believes that is when authors “often write beautifully.” Though he tempers that advice by encouraging readers to always revise their work, Kiteley shows that he understands the struggles of a writer. In this fashion, by having a series of well-explained exercises, other writer’s passages for inspiration, and advice on how to fit it all together, The 4 A.M. Breakthrough is a must-read for struggling authors or those on the hunt for fresh ideas.
With the writing prompts, Kiteley believes they are best used as seeds for later stories. By putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, authors are training their writing ability. While you can achieve success by pushing yourself, like writing a five-page paper in an hour or lifting a massive weight, it comes at the cost of consistency. You would be hard-pressed to write those multi-paged papers hour after hour, or lift those weights, and so one’s writing ability should be improved through constant practice.
That is where the exercises come in. From 250 to 1,000 words, or roughly one to four pages, Kiteley gives you a plot to follow as well as cliches to avoid while doing so. For example, the first prompt has you use short sentences without connecting words (and, but, yet) as you describe a woman begging her mother not to remarry her father or a teenage boy leaving his ex-girlfriend messages on the phone.
When I personally tried it, the choppy sentences fit better with a spurned boyfriend who was venting his anger by harassing his previous lover over the phone, until it became obvious that he meant to go further.
Now, after just one exercise, I have: the beginnings of a story about a female protagonist hounded electronically by an old flame; practice with a type of one-sided scene; and a piece of writing to draw inspiration from later. And that is the seed that Kiteley is trying to cultivate. By having writers immerse themselves in these unfamiliar writing styles, they not only gain more confidence in the craft but also build a vault of ideas to “cannibalize” when they are stumped.
And that is without mentioning the patchwork nature of the exercises, which Kiteley reiterates from his previous book, The 3 A.M. Epiphany. “The individual exercises in this book might sometimes feel like isolated problems… [but] By combining them… my students have achieved wonderful results.” He encourages the reader to follow the exercises, but only as far as to get them writing and get them thinking. If your gut has you combining three or more of the prompt’s plots, or utilizing a style from one in another, go with your instincts. Who says a story from the perspective of an ox can’t involve two brothers witnessing a car crash? Or writing one made-up of the most frequently used words in your other stories as you describe the memory of four Thanksgivings mixing into one?
Similarly, Kiteley’s own asides and the inclusion of other authors is simply to give advice. Whether it be in the form of a writer describing how they view dialogue in literature, an example of the current prompt to give you a frame of reference, or Kiteley’s instructions on how to use certain elements, all of these can be absorbed or cast aside based on how useful they seem to you. Or ignored, like I did for a few.
In the end, the point of the advice, and why Kiteley wrote the book, is the idea that “you should ask questions of the world.” Why does this author believe dialogue is more important than setting? Why would a woman ask her mother not to remarry her father? Why do I refuse to go to bed before 4 a.m.? If you are questioning why people do what they do, yourself included, you will always have new material to work with and ways to improve.
Finally, in my own experience with the book, the most important part is that it gets you writing. You try forms and scenarios you may have never dreamed of, or ones you were too scared to start for fear of failure. It can be hard to start a story when there is no time constraint or authority forcing you to complete it, but I found that the absurdity of the scenarios made the whole thing fun. I am sure my grammar was terrible when I wrote about a cult of Lovecraftian tongues, and I would die if my professor saw my story about stealing from criminals that runs in reverse, but because there is no threat of criticism I could just practice in peace.
All of that to say, I heavily recommend this book or any like it. Whether it be to practice on your own time, steal story ideas, or just laugh at the hundreds of ridiculous prompts the author came up with, you will not be disappointed in checking them out.
