Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Rating: 5 out of 5

Everyone needs a refresher course on Plot and Structure and this is just the book to give it to you. Well written. Easy to understand and absorb, I highly recommended Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure.

What I like most about this book is how easy it is to understand and actually learn from. I’m also reading many of the books Bell mentions in his acknowledgments and many of them just haven’t grabbed me. I find myself rereading to grasp the concepts and then I have to put the book down to digest what I’ve read.

I like the layout of Plot & Structure. There are fourteen chapters covering everything from What is a Plot, Anyway? to Common Plot Problems and Cures. There are lots of bolded headings, lists, and charts, which makes for easier reading. And did I mention great examples.

All of those plot questions you have… you’ll find the answers in here. All the words and phrases you hear other writers mention, you’ll find them explained. In fact, you’ll find things you’ve never heard of and they’ll make that lightbulb above your head light up.

I really like Bell’s list of Twenty Ways to get Hundreds of Plot Ideas, because all of us need fresh ideas from time to time. And once you have those ideas, there’s a chapter covering the beginning of your novel, the middle (including how to keep the plot moving) and the ending.

Along the way and in the Appendix you’ll find excerises to help you craft your story. But if you’re anything like me, the whole book will have you examining every inch of your own work.

Based on Plot & Structure, I’ll be checking out all of Bell’s books.

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I got a newsletter in my inbox yesterday from Writers’ Digest. They had an article/interview with Sue Grafton (you know, the author who writes the A is for, etc. books) and she shared a piece of advice for writers that I thought deserved highlighting.

Writing is really hard to master. You learn by failing over and over, but a lot of people don’t care for that, thanks. Read the whole piece here.

So just in case anyone in the audience doubted it, there you have it from a bestselling author. Writing is hard work and difficult to do well.

Raise your hand if you’ve heard this before: start your book in the middle of the action?

I see a whole bunch of hands. Mine’s raised too.

One of the blogs I read (sorry, can’t remember which one) pointed me to this blog post about bad writing advice and how you shouldn’t start your story in the middle of the action, but rather, start with conflict.

Start with conflict. Now that sounds like good advice.

Highlight: So what you should OPEN with is a HOOK, something that isn’t necessarily huge dramatic action involving explosions but that leaves the reader with a question (or questions) that keeps him or her turning the page to find out the answer.

Read the whole post.

That sounds like a movie title doesn’t it?

I have some linky goodness for the writers in the audience. A friend sent me this first one:

Adding Power with Rhetorical Devices By Margie Lawson – this one is loooong, but good! seekerville.blogspot.com/2009/10/margie-lawson-welcome-to-seekerville.html

I found this article on scenes when I was contemplating a particularly “blah” scene in chapter nine of my current WIP. Five Steps to Writing a Difficult Scene in Fiction by Ricky Cole: www.plotcafe.com/five-steps-to-writing-a-difficult-scene-in-fiction/

While I was contemplating that blah scene, I came across this worksheet. It’s for highschoolers. You know what they say about getting back to basics. This one really helped me out: ywp.scriptfrenzy.org/files/scriptfrenzy-ywp/sf_ywp_08_scene_ws_hs.pdf

Something to think about… I came across this passage while looking something up on google.

Publisher’s Lunch quoted a large New York publisher as saying it cost them an average of $75,000 to produce one print run. Would you pay $75,000 for your book? Why or why not? Source: www.drakevalleypress.com/workshops/rewriting.htm

It got me wondering, would I pay $75,000 for my book? Would you pay $75,000 for your book?

I know publishing is changing, and this is perhaps on the high end, but nevertheless, it puts the true cost of publishing in the spotlight. There’s real money behind each book on the shelves and the publishers are gambling that they’ll make that money back and then some. Do you have the goods to make them money?

I came across an article on Yahoo recently about the army and how they’re changing basic training. Instead of running five miles a day, they’re working on strengthing the core.

This is the first change in routine from the army in 30 years. And when you read the article and why they’re making the changes, it makes since.

The article goes into all the details but it had me wondering if I’m going about my exercise in the wrong way.

I love riding my bike, I walk on the treadmill, I occasionally do aerobics. Sometimes I life weights and if I’m feeling particularly balanced, I give the balance ball a go. But as a writer who sits on her fanny a majority of the day, well, what types of exercises should I be doing to build a better me?

I’m not really sure. I think it’s time to consult the experts. Stay tuned.

I recently came across this interesting blog post by Justine Lee Musk that discusses what it really takes (according to some) to become a successful author. I love this quote by Malcom Gladwell: “When we look at any kind of cognitively complex field — for example, playing chess, writing fiction or being a neurosurgeon — we find that you are unlikely to master it unless you have practiced for 10,000 hours. That’s 20 hours a week for 10 years. ”

Some would argue that good writers are born, others argue the plot and craft can be taught. For the record, I agree with both statements. Some people are born with a knack for the written word. Some folks just grasp grammar and “the rules.” But others, the dedicated ones, are certainly capable of studying the greats, dissecting the classics, learning from everything and everyone around them.

And I think that is precisely what Gladwell means. Just like a degree, writing takes time and dedication. At a recent chapter meeting writer Tami Brother’s delivered a presentation on what she knows now that she wishes she’d known back when she started writing. One thing that really stuck with me was when she said learning to write takes time or money. Sometimes it takes both.

It takes money in the form of buying how to books, a computer, perhaps workshops and conferences, contest entries, and postage. Then there are the books you buy that you’re passionate about and learn from even though they’re purely for enjoyment.

Writing takes time in that you must pay for all of the above and then scour those books, listen in those workshops, take notes at conferences. Networking takes time. Building an author platform takes time. Research takes time. Writing…takes time.

Musk goes on to remind us that 10,000 hours equals 10 years. Ten years of study, networking, and practice. Even if you have five books under your bed gathering dust, those were still good practice. I’ve heard more than one author say that each book they write is better than the last. And I imagine that’s true. Most of us cringe when we look back on that very first manuscript we ever wrote.

Here’s a secret about my first novel…I wrote it long hand in a journal, and I never gave dialog it’s own line. It had quotation marks, but everything wrapped into the paragraph. Honestly, I did that to save space. There were only so many pages in that little notebook. But now when I try to go back and read that story, the lack of proper formatting drives me crazy.

So, lesson learned. There’s a reason why they say practice makes perfect. And if that’s the case, well, I’m on…year 14, so… well on my way to perfection, and past my 10,000 hours.

I’ve been reading several “how to” books recently and one thing that I’ve noted in two of them in particular is that characters should be extraordinary. They should be more handsome than the average man, more beautiful than the average woman. Smarter, wealthier, etc.

Plain, dull characters should be extremely plain and dull.

Kim Llewellyn recently said something similar on twitter. She continued “The reader will identify with a unique character more than a generic one.”

In some ways I agree. On the other hand, I don’t think a character should be so unique that a reader has a hard time relating to the character. I doubt you’d want your character to be so quirky that the reader has a hard time following along, understanding the character, or finds them unsympathetic.

It’s a fine line to walk, making characters memorable without making them memorable for the wrong reasons.

Thanks to Kim for the inspiration for this post.