Review: Having trouble with your plotting? Get this short ebook!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2013
I'm sure I'm like most writers and wannabe writers, in that I have a collection of how-to books. The problem is, who has time to read them all? Or remember everything they impart?Enter this book.Ms. Yardley has gathered ideas from the various books *she's* read over the years and encapsulated the best of each one (of course, that's always subjective, but still...). She must have been collecting and reading the same ones I've bought. :-)Anyway, I always had problems understanding the whole thing behind Scene and Sequel, which Dwight Swain and his student, Jack Bickham, were trying to explain. I had both of their books, and I guess my brain is wired differently or something, because it made no sense.Again, enter this book.FINALLY, someone made me understand how the Scene and Sequel worked! And the great thing is that Ms. Yardley has already prepared a spreadsheet for you to put that into practice, so you don't have to do it on your own. (Thanks for contributing to my laziness, lol.)Anyway, she goes through a bunch of different books that I hadn't heard of that helped her, and while I thought one was a dud for me, the other turned out to add more and good details (GMC: Goal, Motivation and Conflict: The Building Blocks of Good Fiction).I ditched the novel I was writing when it read boring even to me and decided to jump back in after I put down everything in the GMC spreadsheet. What a great help - and it's just a guide, folks, not etched in granite, so changes can always be made (it's your story, after all). :-)My suggestion is to have at least these 2 books on hand, so you can get more details as to what Ms. Yardley is talking about:Elements of Fiction Writing - Scene & StructureGMC: Goal, Motivation and Conflict: The Building Blocks of Good FictionAnother book that may be of help (altho I don't think Ms. Yardley touches on this one):Techniques of the Selling WriterHe actually touches on the Scene and Sequel thing as Bickham does, but Mr. Swain came up with it and taught it to Bickham (and others of his students). The selling techniques are sometimes dated, but there is still a lot of wisdom to be gotten out this particular book.What are you waiting for? For the small price you'll pay, you'll be able to get that novel written and make it interesting for everyone to read it - including yourself. :-)