I just finished the fourth major revision of my WIP (Work In Progress). Before I went into this version of the book, I read some of the craft books by my virtual mentor, James Scott Bell. He writes great thrillers, but also some fantastic books on the craft of writing. His writing style is light and humorous, and he gets his ideas across clearly. And an added benefit is that he writes for both Plotters and Pantsers, so no matter what your writing method is you’ll get a lot out of his books.
Here are the books I read, in the following order.
Plotman to the Rescue
This is Bell’s latest craft book. Chapters are set up as plot problems, like “My plot is starting to drag”, “My plot isn’t interesting enough”, and “I think my plot needs a prologue”.
Each chapter suggest a number of possible solutions to the problem. For example, in the chapter “My plot has no heart”, Bell lists “10 ways to get to the heart”: Ghost from the past; Open wound; Blind spot; Personal stakes; Fatal flaw; Inner demon; Stunted desire; Passion for a cause; Stunning loss; and Ultimate meaning. Most chapters have exercises you can try out in your story to see if they can get you past the problem.
Write Your Novel From the Middle
In this book Bell says that he realized that in most books and movies the LC (Lead Character) reaches a critical point where they have to look at themselves and either change, or die. He calls this the “Mirror Moment”, and he explains that death can be physical, professional, or metaphorical. When I read this book I went to the midpoint of my WIP. This was a climactic scene that I had never been happy with. After reading Bell’s book I realized why: there was no Mirror Moment. And furthermore there couldn’t be, because my LC was sidelined! I had put her in a situation where she couldn’t take any action in the scene. MAJOR REWRITE TIME!
I talked to my LC and she told me a lot about herself that I didn’t know. With that information I was able to add some structure—backstory at the beginning and resolution at the ending—and completely rewrite the central scene to bring everything together.
When you’re reading a craft book and you realize that you have to tear your story apart—that’s a good book!
The Last Fifty Pages: The Art and Craft of Unforgettable Endings
The fist chapter in this book is “Endings Are Hard”. A lot of writers have problems with endings. For example, take a look at Mary Gillgannon’s article, Into the Mist… And Off the Cliff. This book offers suggestions for tackling this problem, with chapters like “The Shape of Your Ending”, “The Meaning of Your Ending”, “Brainstorming Endings”, and “Resonant Endings”.
As usual, Bell give a lot of approaches and exercises to help you nail your ending. For example, in “Resonant Endings” there are approaches like “The Twist in the Tail” (a secondary, unexpected climax) and Foreshadowing. In “Avoiding Common Ending Problems” he covers Deus Ex Machina; Loose Ends; Only a Dream; and The Talkative Villain.
Super Structure: The Key to Unleashing the Power of Story
Super Structure pulls a lot of the previous three books together, plus a lot more. It covers the classic three-act structure, along with The Fourteen Signposts that build on that structure. These include The Disturbance; The Argument Against Transformation; Doorway of No Return #1 (and #2); The Mirror Moment; and The Q Factor.
The Q Factor refers to the scene in every James Bond movie where Q gives Bond a bunch of tech gadgets, one of which will save his ass later in the story.
Revision and Self Editing for Publication
You’ve finished your first draft, yay! You also know that it’s going to need a lot of work, boo! Where do you start? This book gives you an approach to tackling your revisions. It’s in two parts. The first part, “Self-Editing”, covers topics like Characters; Point of View; Dialogue; Show vs Tell; and Exposition. The second part, “Revision”, brings those concepts together in discussions of A Philosophy of Revision; Before You revise; The Fist Read-Through; Deepening; and The Ultimate Revision Checklist.
A lot of the ideas presented here, like Characters, Scenes, and Voice and Style, are things that you should be applying while you write. That’s a great idea, if you can do it! Most, if not all, of us have to take a sober look at our first draft and realize that we need to go back and add those things to produce a solid book that readers will want to read.
If you read all the books
You’ll find a lot of familiar examples in all the books that Bell uses to illustrate the concepts in the books. He refers frequently to The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, and a few other classics. There’s a reason that they’re classics: they do things right, and they’re good models. And they provide some continuity across all the books.
Most of these books are relatively inexpensive on Amazon or other online stores. Try one of them out—I recommend Plotman to the rescue—and if you like it pick up some of the others. They have helped me a lot in getting my first book ready for publication, and I think you’ll find them useful too.
Thank you for the review of James Scott Bell. They sound like fantastic books and I like Bell. I took a workshop from him about 15 years ago I think.