Elements of Fiction Writing - Scene & Structure [Paperback]

Jack Bickham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0898799066 | ISBN-13: 978-0898799064

Using many examples from his own work, Jack Bickham shows writers how to construct solid, believable narratives that keep editors and readers anxiously turning the pages.'

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books (March 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898799066
• ISBN-13: 978-0898799064
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looks like it'll be dull--it's anything BUT!, May 6, 2000

By 

Teri Tasker (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elements of Fiction Writing - Scene & Structure (Paperback)

Where was this book when I was writing my first three novels? Halfway through this book, I threw out everything after chapter two of my current book (and I had 13 chapters already written!) and started rewriting feverishly. Powerful stuff. If you haven't read this book, you probably don't know enough about how to write captivating scenes and what to do with the characters AFTER the scene is over. I only put this book down long enough to apply what I was learning. It's worth every penny. A heartfelt wish Jack Bickham had written much, much more about the art of writing...

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nuts and bolts for your creative engine, June 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Elements of Fiction Writing - Scene & Structure (Paperback)

With due respect to other reviewers (below), I think they overlook the central strengths of Bickham's "Scene & Structure" and home in on peripheral weaknesses.

An absolute prerequisite to success in any craft is acquiring its vocabulary. If you go in for graphic design, you'd better know how to use concepts such as contrast, repetition, proximity and alignment. And if you go in for fiction-writing, you'd better be able to use concepts such as scene, sequel, conflict, stimulus-response, and so on.

You might have a layman's understanding of what a scene is, but from the writer's standpoint, exactly what is a scene? What is its purpose? What work does it do in the overall structure of a story? What are its elements? What sorts of variation are possible? How do you control the pace of a scene? How do you effectively connect one scene with another?

These are the kinds of questions Bickham answers in useful detail and with comprehensible illustrations. If the excerpts from his own writing in the appendices aren't masterpieces, as some reviewers complain, they do serve to illustrate specific principles and techniques discussed in the text, and these are what make the book worth studying. To mention just one example, before encountering this book I had never grasped -- never even heard of -- the distinction between a scene and a sequel. Yet it's an essential distinction that a fiction-writer must know how to use. Bickham tells you, shows you, how to use it -- and many, many others.

Bear Bryant was no Joe Namath. Bob Fosse was no Fred Astaire. The best coaches and teachers are rarely top-notch practitioners of their arts. Jack Bickham is no Charles Dickens, granted. But he is an insightful teacher whose book can be of value to any writer who approaches it as a source of instruction rather than a model of artistic excellence. And as for "rules" about ending every scene with a disaster or explicitly stating the goal of every acene, if these strike you as wrong, vary them. If you aren't creative enough to think of exceptions to an "all or nothing" rule, are you really creative enough to write fiction?

152 of 177 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Formulaic and patronising, March 3, 2002

By 

HLT (Wales, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elements of Fiction Writing - Scene & Structure (Paperback)

This is the third "Elements of Fiction Writing" book that I've read. The previous two ("Characters and Viewpoint" , and "Beginnings, Middles, and Ends") are truly excellent, and I have no hesitation in recommending them as both readable and usable.

Unfortunately, this work falls far short of the standards set by the previous two books.

Here's an example of Bickham's writing, excerpted from one of his novels and presented in this book as an example to be emulated:

"A sound like air gun pellets loudly peppered the front wall of his cabin."

In my world, air gun pellets might pepper a wall, but a sound cannot. Perhaps that's just his style? If pulling the reader up short and making him say "huh?" is style, then fine - but personally, I'd expect his examples to be cleaner than this.

As for the assertion that every scene must end with a disaster (OK, he means setback perhaps, but disaster is the term he uses), once again: huh? I've carefully checked several popular novels on my shelves - the sort of work I'd be proud to write - and it just ain't so. That's not to say I've never read novels that follow that formula to a large degree, but they've been just that: formulaic. Perhaps there's money to be made down that road, perhaps it's a way to get published, but it's not for me.

He actually goes further than that. Every scene must begin with a clear statement of goal ("most of the time, the character states his immediate goal in obvious, unmistakable fashion"), to be followed by development of conflict, and finalised by failure to reach the goal. Then there must be sequel - again precisely structured (Emotion, Thought, Decision, Action).

I also found the writing style problematic. The two books I mentioned above were fascinating and engaging, and I finished each in a day or two, but this one is a slog.

As you can probably tell, I'm irritated with this book. If it was a case of Bickham offering guidelines, it would be one thing... but he's implying that this has to be the rule, and that exceptions must be carefully justified. ("Once every hundred scenes, maybe you can get away with allowing the goal to be implicit"). Perhaps that's appropriate for particular genres, but few of the (mainstream) writers whom I admire follow these recipes.