how to make a bread starter

Peter Reinhart's books have instructions for starter that produce a manageable quantity; many of the other bread books I have read leave you with quarts of starter, which is too much for the average home baker...plus, I hate throwing anything away! I agree with Kristin that rye will help revive a dormant starter, but you may have to feed it daily for a few days so it's good and lively on baking day.
A good website for baking info is www.thefreshloaf.com, and you can find more info there. Good luck!

Ken Forkish's book Flour Water Salt Yeast has instructions for creating a starter from scratch as well as restoring a levain (starter) that's been stored in the fridge for up to 1 month. Restoration process is: #1 put 200 g levain in your levain bucket, let it come to room temperaure for 30-60 minutes, then add 100 g wheat and 400 g white flour, plus 400 g 95º F water (he does 80% hydration levain, if you do 100%, go ahead and add 500 g water). Mix until incorporated, then cover and let rest in a warm area overnight. #2 Discard all but 100 g (or a bit more in winter) then add 100 g wheat, 400 g white, and 400 g 85-90º F water. Mix until just incorporated. Cover and let rest, until ready to mix dough 8-ish hours later.
If you want instructions for starting a levain from scratch, message me through the site.

Adding rye flour will increase its odds of bubbling again since rye flour ferments easier than wheat flour. Good luck!

Check out Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail cookbook, his bakery chef utilizes starters and "old dough" and has a great descriptive and interesting few pages on the topic.

Are you talking about a sour dough starter? If it's been in the fridge for a while, you could try taking it out of the fridge and adding a mix of half flour and half water and let it sit for a day and see if it gets bubbly again.