Jack M. Bickham (1930–1997)

Scene and Structure by Jack M. Bickham is a non-fiction title for writers, covering proven techniques used to write a compelling story.

The Cover: The cover works well for this title. The image reflects a non-fiction book and the title links it to the craft of writing.

The Good Stuff: At my stage as a writer, when I read books on the craft of writing I often find that there is very little to be learned from the content. This book was very different. It could be that I have not delved deeply enough into the topics covered here before, or maybe for some reason I have just not connected with the concepts, but I found that I learned a great deal from this title. It covers a great deal of content and does not go over the same ground repeatedly, using different words, as some books tend to do. The information is written in a logical way that I found really easy to understand. I also love the fact that there are further examples held back for an appendices, with a line by line breakdown that explains how the techniques have been applied.

The Bad Stuff: While I did skip read some small parts of this book, I can’t say that there was any bad stuff in it. More-so it was techniques I am familiar with and did not feel the need to go over, or one example too many that I didn’t wish to read through.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and can say I have learnt a good deal from it. This title gives a detailed, yet easy to understand, explanation of structure and form, cause and effect, stimulus and response, scenes and sequels, and chapters and plot. Well worth the money and time invested. I’m giving this book a well-formed, purposely crafted, 5 out of 5 golden bookmarks.
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I enjoyed this all the way through. It may be, in part, that it reinforced many of the things I've learned in other books. Often when I get advice I've seen before, it seems more profound.

There were some nice practical tips. For example, he recommends re-using some minor characters in your novel, therefore making it less complex. I am going to go through my book and see if I can take advantage of this.

He also warns about critique groups, noting that you will get conflicting advice. That's exactly what I've noticed on CritiqueCircle.com. That advice will help me to ignore advice from critiquers who *sound* like they know what they're doing.

I would have preferred more examples, but I rarely get enough examples. At one point he says "I'll spare you an example of this ..." Argh--I really needed an example, because I wasn't clear about what he meant.

This book is short and sweet. Although written in 1992 it seems current.… (más)