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When I bought
Scene & Structure
by Jack M. Bickham, one of the books from the
Elements of Fiction Writing from Writer's Digest Books
, I got an even better resource than I expected.
As the author of more than 80 books , including Twister (on which
the recent movie was based) and The Apple Dumpling Gang (who
doesn't recognize that title?), Jack M. Bickham was more than
qualified to write an instructional book on writing. I didn't
realize all this about the author until I started reading
Scene and Structure.
With chapters such as: planning and revising scenes for maximum effect,
scene-sequel tricks to control pace, and common errors in scenes and how to
fix them, Jack M. Bickham has written a comprehensive guide to the structure
of a novel's most important part -- the scene.
In my opinion, a quote straight from Chapter 1: The Structure
of Modern Fiction sums up the entire purpose of the book.
"[A] thorough understanding and use of fiction's classic structural patterns
frees the writer from having to worry about the wrong things, and allows her
to concentrate her imagination on characters and events rather than on such
stuff as transitions and moving characters around, when to begin or open a
chapter, whether there ought to be a flashback, and so on. Once you
understand structure, many such architectural questions become virtually
irrelevant -- and structure has nothing to do with 'filling in the
blocks.'" (p.1)
Jack Bickham goes on to outline in detail how to structure your novel. He
devotes an entire chapter to plotting with scene and sequel, and in that
chapter (a chapter I considered one of the best in
Scene and Structure)
he discusses how to maintain rising action in your story. From
this chapter alone, I learned enough to feel like I got my money's
worth out of
Scene and Structure.
Many people have written reviews and recommended this book. I have to say
that I agree with the recommendation.
Scene and Structure
is a book that I would recommend to any writer, whether a romance,
science-fiction, fantasy, or mystery writer. Before his death,
Bickham was a creative writing professor. His expertise shows.
Scene and Structure
covers its subject clearly and thoroughly. I highly recommend
this book to all fiction writers.
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