Customer Reviews

Plot (Elements of Fiction Writing)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The simple one word title of this book - "Plot" - and its slim 170 pages do not adequately hint at the wealth of guidance that is packed into every one of its pages. This is the best book on the subject of writing that I've yet purchased.

If you're like me - a hopeful author-to-be, then you're probably, also like me, casting around for some desperately needed advice and guidance on how to turn the winning story that you know you have into a published and popular novel. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a magic formula that can be revealed, and the challenges in trying to define what is as much a creative art as a pseudo-science means that many "how to write a book" texts promise a very great deal more than they deliver.

By happy contrast, Ansen Dibell's book delivers a very great deal more than it promises. It not only gives extremely easy to follow, hard-hitting advice on plot construction and development, but it offers extra "bonus" material on just about every other aspect of authorship. Unlike some books which end up in a morass of generalities, she talks in easily understood specifics, and also uses some excellent examples of published material, while avoiding the temptation that other authors have suffered from of padding the book with many pages of unnecessary example.

To summarise, this is an excellent book that discusses most aspects of writing a novel, with Plot as its central unifying subject. It has my highest recommendation and I urge you to add it to your own collection accordingly.

I've read some 30 books on story craft and this is easily one of the least useful of the bunch. This author doesn't believe in Outlines but this book could have definitely benefitted from one. Not only is the information put forth in a confusing manner, the author compounds this by attempting such things as trying to make up new terminology for age old story elements (apparently in an attempt to sound original and to convince you she has some pearls of knowledge that no one else has thought of).

If you're looking for a useful source of story elements, this isn't the book. "Story" by McKee "The Writer's Journey" by Vogler and "Building Better Plots" by Kernen are FAR better, and more importantly, they are straight forward and easy to use in regards to your own work.

Look, the book isn't Shakespere, but for someone like me who smiled and nodded--and that's about it--when I head the term, "plot," there is good information to glean. However, even after finishing the book, I didn't feel like a master of plotting. Two of the best books on plots that I've read are "Scene and Structure," and the more recent, "Plot and Structure."

This book offers the best practical advice for writing I've ever found -- testing story ideas, selecting viewpoint characters, handling exposition and flashbacks and creating satisfying endings. This book is a real benefit to anyone seriously working on writing fiction. The clear and understandable specifics make it completely different from typical writing books filled with inspiring essays and hints on finding time to write. If you're already inspired and looking for a real advice for writing successful stories, definitely get this one!

Not only does this book contain an obvious wealth of experience and solid practical advice, it is also extremely well written (which I guess shouldn't be too surprising) and even funny in many spots ("...like reading by strobelight," "...exciting as watching a puddle," etc.). This lady is really, really good. Techniques like The Rule of Three and Mirroring never occurred to me before when reading fiction (maybe because I never had formal training, which is why I buy these books!); these are the types of things Dibell (who is she really?!) describes well. She has good examples for the things she discusses. It is obvious she has spent many, many years studying and teaching (she was the president of a university, as well as a published author!) the art of fiction. I'm going to begin reading the book again tonight!

This is one of the best books on plotting out there... Ansen Dibell's approach is very helpful in trying to discover the real story one is trying to tell. Her use of relevant examples (both what to do and what not to do) drive her point home especially. I also appreciated the fact that she delved into subjects that not all plotting books cover--in particular, her discussion of symbolism and patterns helped me tremendously.

I've bought/read just about all the fiction technique books out there, and this is one of my all-time favorites!

This book, which purports to be about plot, is about anything but plot. In this book, which lacks any recognizable structure or internal organisation, the author shares a number of tidbits about the creative process in general and writing in particular. While some of the information conveyed is helpful - in the same way that an open-minded and interested person might glean advice from pretty much anything written on writing -, much of it consists of platitudes, clumsily camouflaged as the wisdom imparted by an experienced author. The latter cannot be verified, however, given that the book is published under a nom de plum.

It took me a while to figure out what was wrong about this book at it's core, but finally in chapter 6 Ansen Dibell spells it out clearly: "As I've said before, stories - especially live, convincing stories - will change under your hands. That's the reason I've never been persuaded of the usefulness of outlines." (P. 72) Well, the point Dibell makes here is one that is, indeed, shared by some authors, and while there may be some strong arguments to support Dibell's point of view on the usefulness of outlines, how someone with such a dismissive attitude towards outlining and planning could have been chosen to write the book on plot in the "Elements of Fiction Writing", in which this book is published, is beyond me.

As with nearly everything else the author says about the writing process the above mentioned is an example of how the author presents her personal opinions as the ultimate truth about writing. In a book of that sort - which, again, appears in a series that claims to provide specific advice for writers - it's not only unbalanced not to talk about the pros and cons of having an outline for a longer piece of fiction, but it is also unprofessional and does not deliver what is promised by this series of books, namely even-handed, professional advice.

The sloppy and breezy style that the author employs throughout the book assumes an unwarranted familiarity with the reader and feels at times patronizing, especially given that the reader has no way of checking the author's other credentials, given that the book is published under a pen name. There is, of course, no rule that says that people who write about writing ought to be good writers themselves. As a matter of fact it is conceivable that someone writes very well about writing fiction without ever having published any fiction at all. But if a book is as badly and sloppily written as this particular book, it is rather frustrating not to be able to go and see whether at least the fiction published by that author has some merit to it. It is nearly equally frustrating to read through the raving reviews this book has received on Amazon.com - I cannot help but suspect that they are the product of some kind of manipulation.

I have read, with great attention, a variety of books on writing fiction, ranging from the superb - e.g. several books on the topic by John Gardner - to the less impressive, but still useful and practical - e.g. James N. Frey's How to write a damn good novel - and finally those books that are written in the manner and style of the mindless Self-Help books that give self-education via books such a bad name. Ansen Dibell's book certainly belongs to the latter category.

As the writer of several unfinished novels, I was looking for a new way to approach plotting--some concrete advice to stop me and my stories from petering out. This book might just be what I needed. The author presents a very clear and practical plan for structuring a story from beginning, through the middle, and to the end without resorting to an outline. Her (his?) advice about planning ahead to the next set piece has gotten me excited about trying again. The attempts to be relevent to "literary" fiction seem a little half-hearted, but if story is the center of your fiction, this book will help.

I've read this book twice, the first time several years ago, and just recently when deciding if I needed to keep it. From the time I first read it, I've had a couple novels published. If this book had been named "Some Stuff About Writing," it would have been okay. But unfortunately, it does not address the subject of Plot in a organized fashion, and was not useful to me when I was trying to learn how to plot. As other reviewers have mentioned, the author's use of some terms is unique. If I went to a meeting of writers and started talking about The Rule of Three, I would receive strange looks. Some neat things in the book, but it does not live up to its title.

Someone left this book in Starbucks and I devoured it with interest before giving it back to their lost and found; it didn't take long--moved right along. There is a lot of hard-won adviced distilled and served up in a straightforward way. (Parenthetically, I found Dibell had written a science fiction tale based on the myth of Orpheus--I just had a variation of this idea a couple of days ago: Greek myths seem a natural place to mine for strong plots!) I appreciated her comments on letting the plot come to life as opposed to the hackneyed advice of obeying a strict outline. Unlike an earlier reviewer, I found the concept of melodrama as used here comprehensible and quite helpful. I also like her analyses of beginnings and endings, and what she calls mosaic and collage novels. Dibell's use of examples from contemporary and historical fiction (e.g., Melville to Star Wars) convinced me she knew whereof she spoke. A good, easy-to-read book on the writing craft, although she apparently failed to recognize that the comment about happy families being boring is not just an old saw but derives from the first line of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina! (It also seems strange that someone would need a nom de plum for a rather tame book on craft!) A great set of guidelines and ideas from someone who knows what they are talking about.