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| Author: James Scott Bell
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $11.55
You Save: $5.44 (32%)
Rating:  75 reviews
Sales Rank: 1561
Media: Paperback
Edition: 5
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 158297294X
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.394
UPC: 035313109423
EAN: 9781582972947
Publication Date: October 6, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Bell is a great teacher! You will learn how to structure your novel August 29, 2006
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
Plot and Structure is a Writers Digest Book by James Scott Bell. While he touches on many topics, the focus of the book is how to structure your novel to hook your readers and how you can create a riveting plot by giving it structure. Bell peppers this book with examples from literary greats Stephen King and Dean Koontz and many other popular authors.
As with most writing books, this book won't teach you everything and some things you'll find helpful and some things you won't. Some of the lessons I took away were how to structure your book in three acts, how each scene must contain suspense, and of course how you should show, not tell. Also, your hero and villian must have adhesive, ie, there must be a reason the hero can't just walk away from the villain. Bell also emphasizes the importance of constantly looking for ideas to make your plot original and to not be afraid to let your mind wander and fill your story with some crazy, outrageous ideas. You can always cut them out later.
Bell is a strong advocate that you can learn to write well. While some people are born great writers and some aren't, even the best writers have to hone their craft and develop their potential. So, if through trial and error or rejection slips has caused you to think you weren't born to be a great writer, you may be wrong. This book will help you evolve into the great writer you were born to be, or at least improve upon your current meandering novel.
This is fun book to read and Bell is a great teacher.
Warning Label July 27, 2005
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
All of James Scott Bell's novels are very hard to put down, but, I wondered, could that be possible with a writing book? I usually struggle through books on writing, knowing I need to learn more but fighting it all the way. Not so with Plot & Structure.
There needs to be a warning label on this book:STIMULANT! DO NOT READ BEFORE GOING TO BED!
You will be torn between reading more and whipping your mauscript out for immediate resuscitation.
JSB Dispels The Lie! August 29, 2006
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
There are a lot of books out there whose author claims they'll teach you how to write a novel. It's been my experience that most of them are full of fluff.
Not this one.
In the book's introduction Bell speaks about The Lie. I've heard. I know you've heard it. Or at least felt it as you looked at your writing and that of published authors.
The Lie is that writers are born. In other words you can't be taught how to write. You either can do it or you can't. End of story. Bell confesses that he burned ten years of writing time in belief of this lie.
That comforts me. I've always written something. It started with what we now call journaling. Then went to poetry and song writing. Then short stories and scripts. Finally novels.
But somewhere along the way I bought The Lie. I didn't know any of the techiques and methods. I didn't know what to do with a manuscript once I finished one. So I never did.
Until this year. I have one completed novel manuscript and two more in the works. I own this accomplishment, in part, to James Scott Bell's Plot & Structure put out by Writer's Digest.
He wanted to make things simple and accessible for the average Joe. I believe he accomplishes this goal. I now understand things that for a long time eluded me. Things like Character Arcs and the Three Act Structure. I'd read other books claiming to explain these things and came to the final page of said books scratching my head.
That one novel I've finished? I was writing it when I picked a copy of P & S. One piece of advise changed my manuscript immediately. I had a good idea. I just didn't start the thing in a way that would compel must folks to want to continue after the first paragraph. With Bell's advice in hand, I rewrote the first chapter and saw a whole new novel and greater potential.
And that was just one piece of advice. He covers everything I could think to ask if I could sit with him for a couple hours and pick his brain. And more I never thought of.
He explains what a plot is. Developing plot ideas. Stong beginnings. Continuing middles (arguably one of the most difficult things about writing a novel). And ending well so that you and the reader resolve the plot.
He provides several pieces of advice to help you learn plot. He explains a simple way to develop plot, The LOCK system. He talks about characters, settings, dialogue, action, reaction. He discusses various plots that are used over and over again successfully. He shares what he calls the BELL Pyramid in the chapter on ideas. He covers hooks to keep your reader turning those pages. He explains scenes in detail; the different kinds and how they work.
There is so much to this amazing book. I haven't given you half of what's in there. I want you to find out for yourself.
By this book!
If you've ever dreamed of writing a novel, this book will give you the tools and teach you how to use them properly.
After reading Plot & Structure I emailed JSB to thank him for writing such a wonderful, practical book. He responded, that same evening I believe, with a very kind note of thanks and well wishes for my own writing. I heard he was a nice guy. Now I know it's true. :-) Not that I've ever doubted it. Too many authors I know have said so.
Excellent resource December 1, 2006
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
Two novel ideas ago, I had to put that one aside because I stuffed it to the point where the story made no sense. I intend to go back to it at some point, but for now, it's collecting dust.
Also collecting dust is my more recent idea. I started with an outline (of sorts), wrote and rewrote it a few times...only to get stuck on Chapter 8 or so. I didn't know where to take the story. This one will probably never get resurrected...but you never know.
Which leads me to one of the best things in this book: outlining with index cards. There's at least one other book touting this, but I'm sure there are others that do. What sets this one apart, in my mind, is his suggestions on how to set it up. This doesn't comprise a huge part of the book, but it made enough sense to me that I decided to give it a whirl.
Almost 50,000 words later, I'm still chugging along, taking into mind his ideas (I'd never heard it put quite this way) about doorways of no return (more on that in a moment). Sure, I've made some changes, throwing out cards, rearranging cards, adding cards. That's the beauty of this system: it's not set in granite. If your muse takes you in a way that's different from what you originally wrote, go for it!
Mr. Bell explains the doorways simply, at first, as transitions - from beginning to middle and then middle to ending. The first doorway gets your Main Character from beginning to middle; the idea is to create a scene where the MC is thrust into conflict in a way that keeps him/her there. With the second doorway (middle to ending), something has to happen to set up the final confrontation. It's usually a huge clue, a big piece of information, or a major crisis that sends the MC hurtling towards the conclusion. Mr. Bell explains these in greater detail, and I found his explanations quite understandable.
But there's more to this book than that. Mr. Bell gets into how to come up with plot ideas, character arcs, revising, plot problems and cures, scenes, and tips and tools. I wasn't bothered by his reusing some of the same good writing examples, but it may make you cringe or roll your eyes.
Other than that minor quibble, I think everything else about this book makes it shine as a writer's resource.
Comprehensive, Understandable, and Interesting July 5, 2005
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
Like a lot of aspiring novelists, I've collected, read, and reread a lot of books on fiction technique. I've read many of the books that Bell lists early on in his book as worthwhile how-to manuals for author wannabes. I've learned enough through study and writing experience to become rather choosy of any new books I buy, since so many principles of good writing are to be found over and over in a lot of previously published good writing books. Plot & Structure was not only interesting and encouraging, but original in ways too numerous to mention here. Bell is quite obviously a Dean Koontz fan, and frequently cites Koontz's work as examples of good plotting and structure. I've never read a Dean Koontz novel, but I've recently acquired two to read in the near future. Bell is also a big believer in prologues or in first chapters that serve the purpose of a prologue to the rest of the story. For beginning, intermediate, and advanced students of fiction technique, I wholeheartedly recommend Plot & Structure. I am planning to read the other three books in this series (Write Great Fiction), even though Mr. Bell did not write them. I appreciate his reference to both classic literature and noteworthy recent novels as examples of what makes a story hold the reader and make them want more of the same. When you've read this book, you will no longer wonder what makes one book a bestseller and what makes another book do poorly. You will be able to judge your own work much more objectively and know how to improve it without guessing what it lacks. I most appreciate Mr. Bell's statement that a writer should continue to study and improve his craft for as long as he or she intends to write. If you read only one book on plotting and structure (and you should certainly read more than one) I recommend this one for scope and clarity. Five stars, very well deserved!
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