Plot & Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot That Grips Readers from Start to Finish

The best book on how to write I ve ever read Novelist and screenplay writer James Scott Bell has won awards for inspirational fiction I say he deserves awards for inspirational non fiction So many of his books are how to write guides and even if only a small portion of them are as helpful as this one, he s a bloody writing guru Plot Structure is part of the Writers Digest series, Write Great Fiction Most writers are quite aware of Writers Digest Before the internet, WD published the would be aut [...]

This is a great book to explain what you probably already knew about plot but you just need someone to smack you over the head with it so you can get it right for once.My biggest compliment to this book is explaining plot in simple terms And he actually does a good job After reading this book, I was Coraline in theatres and was able to trace just about every element of plot as I watched the movie Which is weird for me because I ve never been able to do that before.And you know what It didn t rui [...]

Can t hurt, from time to time, to think again about things I should already know, but maybe don t.In 10 minutes I ve decided to write a character essay for both Berthold and Anna Where did they start How have they changed What caused the changes Were there surprises and then, looking forward, how do I currently think they will change from 1936 on What will cause these changes What surprises yet lie ahead I have of course thought about these things, but I have not written them down.So I got my mo [...]

A great resource if you aspire to be a writer of formulaic bestsellers Less useful if you re looking to write misunderstood, avant garde literary masterpieces If you fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum, you will likely find the book useful in that it will teach you the formula so that you can use as much or as little of it as you would like.It s also a very readable book, not as dry as some books on how to write.Here are some of the highlights Successful books need four elements, abbre [...]

If you re going to read a book about Plot and Structure, entitled, helpfully Plot and Structure, don t be shocked when the author spends most of his time discussing Plot and Structure It may surprise you to learn that most commercial fiction is written to a tried and true formula that sells a shocking number of badly written books If you read a lot of commercial I.e genre fiction, you should know this If you don t you should know this Either way it s terribly depressing, but James Scott Bell is [...]

4.75 StarsI have no words to describe this book It is one of the best book I ever read It makes me feel like, Nobody born a writer, everybody can write The only thing there is need of Tips, Techniques and Confidence which this book haveINGS I LIKED In the beginning, this book clears out every lie which we have been hearing since from the beginning of our first day like Writing could not be taught, Writers are born It tells us the following The meaning of plot and structure How to generate plot i [...]

James Scott Bell s approach is very welcoming, very encouraging His introduction, for example, tries to put to rest the big lie, that writing can t be taught His chapter on generating plot ideas is absurdly obvious, yet also pleasing If you doubt you can achieve an acceptable level of competency as a fiction writer, Bell may be able to prove you wrong, so if you have a story to tell, I believe this will help, most especially if you are somewhat a beginner.I benefited for other reasons, I think, [...]

A decent discussion of three act structure, but Bell peppers his prose with marketing advertising cliches, such as various acronyms that promise the formula for a successful novel One of them, ending with K, emphasizes the need for a KNOCKOUT ending At various points in the book, he expresses contempt for the ambitions of any authors who would lean to a poetic style, thus deviating from his formula Good thing that neither Joyce nor Faulkner ran into him at an impressionable age.Mr Bell doesn t [...]

Hats off to Mr Bell Of all the books on writing I ve read, this is by far the most helpful in terms of crafting one s story, whether it be a short story or a novel.The most helpful part of it comes from its simple model of story Lead, Objective, Confrontation, Knock Out True, this model has been expounded on by other books, like Robert McKee s Story, James Frey s How to Write a Damn Good Novel, and Jerry Cleaver s Immediate Fiction, but none of them broke it down to the right level of detail tha [...]

If you re looking for a book that will teach you how to write better stories with multidimensional, memorable characters and believable and exciting dialogue, this book is not for you It s not about the writing or the characters quirks or the dialogue This book is about the fundamental building blocks of storytelling plot and structure.Bell provides techniques that will help you build a solid foundation to your story, even if you re a pantser Even if you ve already written a draft or two Althoug [...]

I ve binged on writing books in recent weeks and this is by far my favorite It s not the first one to cover plotting and structure, but something about this one resonated with me than the others It s partly Bell s voice that was so effective for me he s delightfully unassuming He offers plotting systems for both outliners and non outliners and leaves the whole process feeling very modular It s easy to pick and choose and experiment with the systems he suggests That sort of experimentation is ke [...]

Excellent how to manual on writing fictional novels My Take Wow Bell has created an amazing work that gets right down to business in explaining plot and structure for your novel Without going into a great deal of theory, he provides the framework to get you started, keep you writing, and polish it up from soup to nuts with plenty of suggestions for hooking the reader, the need for and the basics on how to create the hero heroine of the story and the requirements for their Opposition character, a [...]

I took a writing course this fall, and a fellow class member recommended this book by James Scott Bell I appreciated the author s straight forward direction on the basic plot structure It gave practical ideas mostly on the organization phase of certain plot elements, which is a problem I notice when reading I tend to pay attention to the writing, sometimes even than the story I also looked this author up on GR to see what his novels were rated and they had higher ratings So now I need to put hi [...]

Before taking a stab at my first real story I have decided to read two books on the art of writing fiction Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain, and the book I am reviewing now, Plot and Structure by James Bell While Swain s book was of an all inclusive manual on writing interesting fiction, Bell s book is focused strictly on, as the name suggests, plot and structure What this book is not This is not a how to write a novel book if you are going to just read one book on writing a fic [...]

Plot Structure Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot That Grips Readers from Start to Finish by James Scott Bell may be the best book for plotting and creating structure in fiction stories that I ve read.I have a few instructional writing books I reread this is one of them.Plot Structure works for writers who don t use outlines and for those who do Throughout Bell acknowledges and addresses how his ideas about plot and structure can be used by all writers This isn t a my way or the highwa [...]

Sometimes I hate myself and my need to finish reading anything I start, no matter how boring or how terrible it is This book is the absolute worst example of this.My experience with this book was akin to being told some mildly useful advice by someone you can t stand, find painfully boring, and have trouble taking seriously There is a lot of good, if basic, information here, but it s a boring and sterile read that makes writing seem soulless and mechanical and I find it hard to look past James S [...]

Lots of good, practical information The approach is somewhat functional and formulaic, geared towards commercial fiction movie scripts or thrillers that employ the standard structure of taking an engaging lead character, giving him her an objective, putting obstacles in her path, and ratcheting up the tension to an explosive finish This is what the author characterizes as the LOCK approach Lead, Objective, Confrontation or conflict ,and Knock out It is a tried and true storytelling approach and [...]

I can t say enough good things about this book I have so many sections highlighted and notes in the margin I m sure I ll be returning again and again to it to refresh my memory on how to write an engaging story.I didn t pay much attention to the exercises, although I m sure there are writers who will find them beneficial I was interested in the suggestions and truly practical approaches to writing The chapter on brainstorming was excellent How to plan a story when you re not a plotter yes, I m [...]

The information in this book is assembled in an accessible, enjoyable format Mr Bell breaks up the chapters with suggested exercises for improving ones writing techniques, all of which are useful The lessons themselves are conveyed in a friendly, conversational style, with anecdotes and personal examples I chose this book as a supplementary guide in an Independent Study course, and recommend it as a useful, applicable work to any serious writer.

A really quite superb book full of thought provoking examples, go get em ideas and compelling extracts An easy, accessible style makes this a joy to read.

Flawless and inspirational A must read for all fiction writers.

Lots of good material here, will need to read it again.

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Actual Rating 2.5This is a very lopsided book For those interested in writing commercial fiction e.g adult suspense thriller novels , this might be the book for you, especially if you like to write in a formulaic manner What does that entail A lot of graphs and chart usage, such as having things happen at 10%, 20%, etc within your story In addition, within the first half of the book, the author has a tone that continually warns writers to NOT think out of the box, then in the second half, the co [...]

If I could insert a miniature sized James Scott Bell into my ear as I write I think my writing career would be AWESOME His techniques and excercises for crafting plot is on point Seriously, I would totally buy a little clone of him and kept him in my pocket.

Plot Structure is a solid craft book which benefits from its dogged focus on a specific area of narrative Unlike many of the craft books I ve read, this one was neither overwhelming nor too general to be useful Bell has navigated the line between quite nicely, framing his discussions and exercises so that they are helpful to experienced writers and beginning writers alike Since a cohesive plot is one of the most difficult, but also essential, elements in a novel, I consider this book most helpfu [...]

Bell s book Plot Structure is based on the premise that good writing can be learned, and is not necessarily confined to those who are born blessed with the ability Bell calls this nature only perspective as the Big Lie and proceeds to explain some tenets of great writing In particular, Bell addresses the concepts of plot and novel structure His approach follows what he calls the LOCK system Lead, Objective, Confrontation and Knockout finish Following the LOCK system, a novel should have an inter [...]

I wish I d read this years ago It makes the process seem manageable.

This informative book is inspiring I m a structured person by nature, but I definitely have a creative side While many people pooh pooh the idea of structured writing and gasp a formula, I think having a box full of tried and true tools is not only helpful but necessary This book and maybe all in this series doesn t squash the creativity and inspiration that go along with writing a story.The trick is to find a balance between the structure and the creativity because they can live together on the [...]

This has all the same principles I ve read about in books on how to write a screenplay It once again addresses the merging of art and commerce, a thing I ve mentioned many times in my reviews It s just a fact of the business If you write a character driven book, you re going to have a smaller audience than if you write an action based book Don t be angry, just know that this is how it works, and make your decisions based on that knowledge I think you can use the plot elements in the action book [...]