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Product Description
Book Description
Craft your fiction with scene-by-scene flow, logic and readability.
An imprisoned man receives an unexpected caller, after which "everything changed..."
And the reader is hooked. But whether or not readers will stay on for the entire wild ride will depend on how well the writer structures the story, scene by scene.
This book is your game plan for success. Using dozens of examples from his own work - including Dropshot, Tiebreaker and other popular novels - Jack M. Bickham will guide you in building a sturdy framework for your novel, whatever its form or length. You'll learn how to:
- "worry" your readers into following your story to the end
- prolong your main character's struggle while moving the story ahead
- juggle cause and effect to serve your story action
As you work on crafting compelling scenes that move the reader, moment by moment, toward the story's resolution, you'll see why...
- believable fiction must make more sense than real life
- every scene should end in disaster
- some scenes should be condensed, and others built big
MENTION WORDS SUCH AS STRUCTURE, form, or plot to some fiction writers, and they blanch. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Stay away from this book!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Elements of Fiction Writing - Scene & Structure (Paperback)
"Scene and Structure" by Jack M. Bickham is not about writing quality fiction or novels. It is for money-driven hacks who want merely to churn out garbage that follows a formula for "success," in the hopes that some editor will pay for it and publish it. It is for those who want write for the people who think that "A Tale of Two Cities" and such literature is boring -- for the millions of people who have been victimized by the dumbing down of America. This book provides all the stereotyped formulas and rules for such authors and their fiction. It results in such gems as the author quotes, like As he spoke, Simpson took a .45 automatic out of the drawer and aimed it at Hero's head. If you want to learn to write fiction that has any lasting value, get such books as "Crafting Scenes," by Raymond Obstfeld, "Building Better Plots," by Robert Kernen, "Stein on Writing, by Sol Stein, "The Art and Craft of Novel Writing," by Oakley Hall, etc. Don't waste your money on "Scene and Structure" and other books like it -- unless you're interested in producing trash and know an editor who owes you big time for something.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bickham teaches writers to build compelling story,
By CASSANDRE LEE (ROSEDALE, MD United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Elements of Fiction Writing - Scene & Structure (Paperback)
In Scene and Structure Bickham says that, to propel a story forward, every scene must end in disaster. By "disaster" he doesn't mean natural disasters or brutal deaths, but that the viewpoint character should have his attempt to pursue a goal thwarted again and again until his desperation pushes him to risk everything in a final attempt. At first, this seems simplistic, and it doesn't describe all stories, but reading this book raised my awareness of what makes some stories compelling while others seem diffuse and uninvolving.Bickham also dwells on the aftermath of every confrontational scene and, in laying out the total pattern, provides the most useful analysis of story I've yet seen.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great and Sloppy,
By Reader and Writer "Chris" (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Elements of Fiction Writing - Scene & Structure (Paperback)
If you subscribe to the school that says the Wizard of Oz is the greatest plot ever, with a character who at ever turn is diverted from her initial and all consuming goal, then this book is right up your alley. It's a wonderful and concise book about plot and action, cause and effect. For these it's terrific and you'll find yourself making lots of notes and planning, unfortunately, ways to completely revise the work you already thought you had a jump on. Yes it's that strong a thesis. But at times it begins to seem a bit formulaic, as though this simple formula can produce great results. It won't of course and the contemporary novel proves you can play with a wider range of plot structures than found here. Bickham as a writer is not very strong, so don't trust his own examples. He's like a cheapo crime writer. His examples have gross errors, and he even does what he suggests writers don't do. But not writers are both great teachers and writers. Bickham is probably a terrific teacher, if he makes his students pay attention like he does in this book. A word aside, I've looked carefully at other books in this series and none of them are close to the usefulness of this one. A definite bookshelf requirement for the writer.
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