Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time [Paperback]

Jordan Rosenfeld (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 23, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1582974799 | ISBN-13: 978-1582974798

Write Scenes that Move Your Story Forward

In Make a Scene, author Jordan E. Rosenfeld takes you through the fundamentals of strong scene construction and explains how other essential fiction-writing techniques, such as character, plot, and dramatic tension, must function within the framework of individual scenes in order to provide substance and structure to the overall story. You'll learn how to:

• Craft an opening scene that hooks readers and foreshadows supporting scenes
• Develop various scene types - from the suspenseful to the dramatic to the contemplative - that are distinct and layered
• Tailor character and plot around specific scene types to better convey the nuances of your storyline
• Create resonating climactic and final scenes that stay with readers long after they've finished your work

Editorial Reviews

Review

In Make a Scene, Jordan E. Rosenfeld magnifies with intelligence and insight the underpinnings of powerful story making. Demonstrating in a step-by-step manner why a scene works, Rosenfeld shows how fiction writers can apply this knowledge to their own work. The astonishing depth and breadth of this guidebook, which utilizes a wide range of narrative styles to underscore a point, make it a vital tool for writers serious about their craft. -- --Jessica Keener, fiction editor of AGNI Magazine

Make a Scene is one of the clearest, most pragmatic books about writing fiction I have ever come across. Refreshingly lacking in ego and full of useful examples and discussion. -- --Maryanne Stahl, author of The Opposite Shore and Forgive the Moon

Make a Scene will answer all the questions you might ask--and some you won't think of asking--on the scene. In clear and concise language, using innumerable examples from James Joyce's "The Dead" through Joseph Conrad's The Secret Sharer and on to Harry Potter, with explanations of terms from "the reveal" to the epiphany, Jordan Rosenfeld explores all the secrets of the scene. For the beginning writer, as well as one who thinks he/she knows it all. -- --Sheila Kohler, award-winning author of Cracks, Crossways, and Bluebird: Or the Invention of Happiness

About the Author

Jordan E. Rosenfeld (www.jordansmuse.blogspot.com) is the creator and host of the literary radio program Word by Word: Conversations with Writers on NPR-affiliate KRCB radio. Her essays and stories have appeared in literary journals and magazines such as Night Train, Pedastal Magazine, the Summerset Review, the Red Hills Review, and the Dickens Literary Journal. Her articles and essays have appeared in such notable publications as Writer's Digest, The Writer, The St. Petersburg Times, and she contributes book reviews to KQED Radio's California Report.

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books (November 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582974799
• ISBN-13: 978-1582974798
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.9 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jordan E. Rosenfeld learned early on that people prefer a storyteller to a know-it-all. She earned her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and is the author of the books, Make A Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time (Writer's Digest Books) and Write Free! Attracting the Creative Life with Rebecca Lawton (BeijaFlor Books). She has contributed to two anthologies: Zebulon Nights, and Milk & Ink. Jordan's essays and articles have appeared in such publications as AlterNet.org, Publisher's Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, The St. Petersburg Times, The Writer and Writer's Digest magazine. Her book commentaries have appeared on The California Report, a news-magazine produced by NPR-affiliate KQED radio. She lives in Northern California with her Batman-obsessed son and Psychologist husband. www.jordanrosenfeld.net

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 66 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent practical advice, easy to put to use November 28, 2007

By susan_d

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm a published writer who already knows a few tricks of the trade. But I was thrilled to read this book and learn so much more. Rosenfeld deconstructs all the different elements of scene writing in a very easily digestable manner, gives examples and reasons for what can work, and what can't. Most importantly, her focus is always on how things will affect the reader, which means that it can help other writers to keep their audience in mind and is a great guidebook to help us edit/trim/revise for maximum impact with our audience. This book is comprehensive, but very well laid-out so it makes for a great quick reference quide. I'm quite sure it's going to help me get more oomph out of my storytelling.

35 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Make A Scene December 25, 2007

By Stephanie Anagnoson

Format:Paperback

Rosenfeld's Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time is an extremely useful book for writers, both fiction and nonfiction. She has divided the book into four parts:

Part I Architecture of a Scene;
Part II The Core Elements and the Scene;
Part III Scene Types; and
Part IV Other Scene Considerations.

After reading the book cover to cover a month ago, I've turned to it three times in the past month to look up issues including trying to identify what worked so well in Jim Shepard's short story, Love and Hydrogen, locating a specific scene type for a memoir that I'm writing, and trimming narrative summary in a piece that I'm editing.

This is truly a comprehensive, compelling, and fun read. The exerpts that she uses as examples are all interesting, not all classic but perhaps soon to be. I highly recommend it to people who write.

155 of 201 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Make Another Choice For a Book on How to Write April 27, 2008

By Christoph B

Format:Paperback

Make A Scene by Jordan E. Rosenfeld attempts to focus on how to create great scenes for a written work. She delves into many different types of scenes in an attempt to pick apart the elements that make these scenes memorable, engaging and keep the reader reading.

If you enjoy "literary" or "character-driven" books as opposed to "commercial" or "plot-driven" books (in reality the distinctions are far too artificial to be useful) then you will likely be familiar with many of the sources Rosenfeld uses. That is largely because with only one exception literary works are all she draws from. The only commercial reference she uses is from "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" when Vader uses those stunning four words that we all know by now.

And if you are a man, you might find reading the examples she provides to be a bit like watching a long series of previews of most of the movies on the "Lifetime" channel. Most if not all of the stories Rosenfeld picks from are stories where the man is abusive, controlling, usually addicted to alcohol and uses his fists to communicate to his wife.

One was about a naive young woman who is warned by her oppressive mother that men "only want one thing" and she goes off with a man against her mother's wishes only to find out that this man really DOES only want one thing and is abusive to her.

Edit - Saturday Sept 6, 2008

Another example of this involves a story about a daughter going to see her estranged father. She notices her piano teacher and it's obvious her father doesn't want to talk about it overmuch. The mother has long since died and was branded an insane woman. The father at that time was quick to hop right on the bandwagon. After some probing, the father is forced to admit that during his wife's "insanity" he was having an affair with the piano teacher. Suddenly the protagonist realizes that her "insane" mother was right the whole time, as she accused her husband of adultery, and the whole community, including her father was against her mother.

And there aren't any counter examples of this either. There are NO instances where the man is good, is trying to become good, is trying to redeem himself from a previous incident, or even cares if he ever becomes good. Just like in the vast majority of Lifetime movies, the men in the stories Rosenfeld quotes from are EVIL, EVIL MEN who must die. Obviously this is sexist, sexist against men, but sexist nonetheless. And if there's one thing a person should know about writers, it's that the things they read influence what they write, so man-bashing stories in, man-bashing stories out.

End Edit

She is also a fan of symbolism. Now I am not saying symbolism is bad, but the ultimate goal of writing a story is to craft a work that allows another person to experience something that they may know themselves a little better. If the author wishes to include a symbol, then it should be there because it is a natural byproduct of the story itself and thus somehow contributes to the aforementioned end, not because the author can feel clever and sly. Artificially throwing in symbols for their own sake is just as convoluted as it sounds, and thus waters down even the strongest work considerably. I felt as though more than a few of the authors Rosenfeld quoted were only throwing symbols into their work for its own sake, although to be fair I have not read those stories.

Those writing commercial fiction may benefit from her suggestions, but there are many aspects that would feel out of place if not in a literary work.

One that comes to mind is her surprisingly strong suggestion of writing in second person. So instead of:

"My hands were shaking as I approached the door. What would be waiting for me? A dead body? My killer? Worse? Was there worse?"

Or:

"Joe's hands were shaking as he approached the door...." etc.

Instead she recommends writing this:

"Your hands were shaking as you approached the door...." etc.

She also recommends writing in the present tense, second person or no. So instead of:

"Susan grabbed her purse and found her cell phone inside. She frantically dialed 911 hoping she wasn't too late."

Rosenfeld recommends this:

"Susan grabs her purse and finds her cell phone inside. She frantically dials 911 hoping she isn't too late."

(All of these examples are mine.)

I for one find either style of writing to be very jarring and disengaging. I do not find narrating a story in the present tense to "blur the line" between reality and story, as Rosenfeld suggests, although she does point out, correctly, that anything that disengages your reader from your story is a sure way to kill your work.

The book also ends rather abruptly. I knew I was getting close to the end of the book, so I was expecting to get to the last page. What I was not expecting was what was the final paragraph on the final section to then see the index. No real conclusion or final wrap up. It just ends.

With all of the other really good books on how to craft a story, it's very hard to recommend this book, especially to people who want to craft stories that focus more on plot and less on character. For $15 one could do worse but there is precious little that makes this book a "must-buy."

Instead, I would recommend Todd Stone's "Novelists Boot Camp", Stephen King's "On Writing" or the "Write Great Fiction" series.