Scene and Structure (Elements of Fiction Writing)

Media:	Paperback
Author:	Jack M. Bickham
Publisher:	Writer's Digest Books
Release date:	01 April, 1999
List price:	~~$12.99~~
Our price:	$10.39 that is 20% off!

Scene and Structure (Elements of Fiction Writing)

Average rating: Stars

The Doctor is In!

An excellent book. Should be about your fifth or so book read on how to write, for the not quite so beginning beginner.

When I read this I had already written about five or six chapters on my book. Some of the chapters were boring and seemed to be missing something. This book explained why.

One theme of my prospective book is boy meets girl. One chapter was on how the guy has an idea to improve the dates the girl has. He tries his idea with her, and it works. Oh well, they go back home afterwords. Boring. To keep the interest of the reader the tension has to mount.

Jack says you can violate his stated structure, it is just for starters or for a basic outline. That is you can go from scene to scene with no sequel between when things get tense. You can have the hero go from feelings to action during the sequel to show how strong the effect of the scene was on him. You can interrupt one scene with another, more intense unexpected one. Etc. This paragraph seems to be needed to be read by some critics of this book.

In short. All authors should read this book and keep it in mind as they write. Rules are always meant to be broken, even Bickham's. To break a rule purposely knowing the rule but realizing your story needs to step into the "wild side" is fine, but to break a rule out of ignorance and place your readers (or worse, prospective editor) to sleep is not fine at all.

Scene and Structure (Elements of Fiction Writing) - Jack M. Bickham

Follow this, and you will find yourself in problems

"Folks tend to believe that this kind of terminology [structure, form or plot] means writing by some type of formula or predetermined format as rigid as a paint-by-numbers portrait. Nothing could be further from the truth."

The problem is that this book is a complete paint-by-numbers kind of book, it teaches you to write common novels, novels that say nothing new. He states that is a lot better for the author, because once you understand the structure, you can be free to be creative in other things... What other things!? After all the rules he tells you to follow, there is little space to be creative...

According to this man, the reader is an idiot. He says that you must begin every scene with a clear statement of goal ("most of the time, the character states his immediate goal in obvious, unmistakable fashion"), and that the character must SAY it, and make it VERY CLEAR for the reader. Can't the reader understand the objective of the character without him saying: "Hey, reader, listen to me, I'm running from the killers because I don't want to be murdered! Got it? OK? Fine, then you know that my objective is not to be murdered!"?

Follow this and you find yourself in problems. I was in problems following it.

Damn, how the hell I am going to leave something to be surprising in the end if every action most have and inmediate reaction?

How can I hide a character's secret agenda if every character must state his goal clearly from the begginning of a scene?

If the protagonist must end in a worse situation with every scene for the book to be interesting, how does he explain the success of "First Blood", where is stated in every page that the protagonist will triumph over the cops?

Or what about the DaVinci Code, where the good guys are ALLWAYS a lot of steps ahead the bad guys?

How can I show scenes between the bad guys if this man tells me we must stick with the protagonist and his inmediate reactions to change all the time?

He NEVER adresses this kind of things.

Jack M. Bickham - Scene and Structure (Elements of Fiction Writing)

beware of oversimplified approaches and vague advice

First, this book is about scene, not structure.
Second, virtually every sentence is hopelessly vague. "Structure is nothing more than a way of looking at your story material so that it's organized in a way that's both logical and dramatic." Thanks a lot! This statement is true, of course. It has to be. It's a tautology. "Structure" and "organized" are synonyms. This sentence would be okay, if it were clarified by what follows. It isn't. Every sentence is equally vague. "Structure is a process." Wow! Would a statement like that raise some eyebrows on the people who have spent a lifetime thinking about structure and thinking about process!
Even the discussion of scenes gives very bad advice. "What is the pattern of a scene? ... Statement of goal. Introduction and development of conflict. Failure of the character to reach his goal."(p.23) Anyone who writes scenes like this will have a slow, plodding novel. Novel writers can learn a lot about scenes from watching movies. And from reading books on screenwriting.
Finally, some feel that you should worry about structure AFTER you've written your novel. This is very bad advice (except perhaps for people who have trouble getting anything down on paper at all). Structure should be done before the first draft. Otherwise, the seduction of the prose (one's own sacred prose) will prevent you from ever getting your novel into shape. Besides, designing a novel can itself be a creative process. It doesn't all have to be in the line-level writing. Of course, if you're writing academic-literary fiction, then it doesn't matter. The worse the structure, the better. But for most writers, creating a good structure will make writing the first draft easier, not harder. And you can--and should--always be willing to change the structure on the fly when a great idea comes along!

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