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A review by rachel_menard
Writing Deep Scenes: Plotting Your Story Through Action, Emotion, and Theme by Jordan Rosenfeld, Martha Alderson
3.0
Let me start by saying this is probably the first non-fiction book I've read since college, and even back then, I did my best to skim. Non-fiction just isn't really my thing, and this book has a very technical voice.
Plot is how the dramatic events (action) in a story change and/or transform the main character (emotion) over time in a meaningful way (theme.) The degree of character change or transformation can vary dramatically depending on the genre.
I can't even read that without hearing a professor voice in my head. That being said, I'm glad I read this. Once you pick through the technical jargon, there is a lot of good advice, and while reading through it from front to end, I was able to highlight my favorites, which turned out to be 38 pieces of note.
I found the types of scenes and developing the theme of your novel especially helpful and I'm sure I'll be going back to read those again. I think, though, this book would be better in that sense. To just pick through the parts you need and not read the entire thing. But then again, how do you know what you'll need until you read through it?
Plot is how the dramatic events (action) in a story change and/or transform the main character (emotion) over time in a meaningful way (theme.) The degree of character change or transformation can vary dramatically depending on the genre.
I can't even read that without hearing a professor voice in my head. That being said, I'm glad I read this. Once you pick through the technical jargon, there is a lot of good advice, and while reading through it from front to end, I was able to highlight my favorites, which turned out to be 38 pieces of note.
I found the types of scenes and developing the theme of your novel especially helpful and I'm sure I'll be going back to read those again. I think, though, this book would be better in that sense. To just pick through the parts you need and not read the entire thing. But then again, how do you know what you'll need until you read through it?