Jack M. Bickham (1930–1997)

This book is twenty years old and it's showing its age. Bickham spends a large portion of the message dedicated to slowing a story down. I've never heard of doing that. That's not a problem these days.

This is a good book for those people who have read other books on writing, and are looking for more advanced techniques or more specific approaches. More than the simple "show, don't tell" and "don't use adverbs". This books takes more detail into the "kill your darlings" message and how to show more structure a novel piece-by-piece, scene by scene. This book breaks it down to its molecules and restructures it back up.

The problem was I kept drifting off in the middle. Maybe the book was too detailed? Maybe it was trying to give too much information, too specific. The entire last chapter is a formula/outline for a novel, with things like "the main character attempts to solve his problem here but ends in disaster" or "POV of the romantic interest, the thing stopping her gets bigger" and "this chapter is where the good guy lays it all on the line". At that point, if you write every novel this way, don't you lose the spontaneity of the story? Doesn't it restrict the craft? show less

To be honest the title of this book made me think that it was going to be some ghastly jump-on-the-band-wagon, make-money-at-home type book.
I was totally wrong. Every point in this book is gold dust for people like me that are still on the long path of learning the craft of writing. I have been guilty of most of the mistakes this book points out at one time or another.

Jack's explanations are so short and concise that they make you laugh out loud. The fact that the book is so short is no show more accident, he practices what he preaches and gives the facts, without bullshit, in clear and easy to understand terms. This book is spot on and worth every penny for those who take their fiction writing seriously. show less

What the police (and readers) need is "motive, means and opportunity". The motive in this book is absurd. Not just absurd in relation to the real world, but absurd on its own terms. There are, however, some good scenes of suspense with the protagonists (a knockout geneaologist (!) and a two-fisted ex-Ranger librarian (!!!)) pushed to their limits in a hostile nightscape.

Scene & Structure, by Jack M. Bickham is part of the Writer’s Digest Elements of Fiction Writing series. I’ve read nine of the books from the series, and this is my least favorite. The information provided is very detailed, but the writing style is a chore to read. Still, I do recommend this book. There is a wealth of detail relating to the structure of stories, scenes, and sequels. But, the treasure of information is buried. I had to slog through much of the book to find the gems. But, show more the gems were worth the effort. show less