Review: THE WRITER'S TOOLKIT by Paul Kalburgi, Nick Hern Books

Practical guidebooks for writers come a dime a dozen these days, but writer and producer Paul Kalburgi approaches the subject from a different path. As he taps into meditation and wins the ever-occurring battle with procrastination, he paints an honest and down-to-earth picture of the craft of scriptwriting and delineates what it takes to build a solid story.

Functional advice sits right next to musings on his own routines, creating an amicable atmosphere that feels like a jovial chat rather than a formal lecture. Kalburgi pushes the readers to explore their potential with exercises tailored to the genre while also giving a range of online resources to draw from.

He gets down to the nitty gritty of the writing process without discouraging the next Mike Bartlett or Alejandro Iñárritu, breaking it down and drawing a clear map of everything a good script needs. Every bump in the road - from lack of inspiration to faltering confidence - is addressed as he unveils the tools to tackle them and move forward.

The Writer's Toolkit is titled perfectly. Kalburgi manages to achieve more than a theoretical manual on the art of scriptwriting; he invigorates his creatives, cheers them on, and urges them to dust off their notebooks and start scribbling, stirring his reader's imagination with well-calibrated pointers.

Unafraid to show tough love to his pupils, he can be brutal and ruthless in his guidance, but a clever writer will immediately understand why certain steps need to be taken. While the experienced might find the book mostly useful in its practical activities, it's going to be a goldmine for the uninitiated in its entirety.

Writing is a sport. The more you practice it, the easier it gets. The journey to an exceptional script isn't easy and there might be plenty of drawbacks, but Kalburgi's enthusiasm and vivid passion for the craft are bound to cement every writer's dream.

The Writer's Toolkit is published by Nick Hern Books.

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