Novelist's Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes

by Raymond Obstfeld

Writing page-turning fiction depends on your ability to create rock-solid, believable scenes. Scenes act as dynamic structures that thrust both your characters and readers forward through conflict,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898799732
• ISBN13: 9780898799736
• Release Date: August 2000
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Good Resource For Writers

Whether you are a beginning writer or a veteran, this book can be a big help. Raymond Obstfeld points out common mistakes writers make, while at the same time gently guiding the reader down the path to better writing. From knowing how long to make a scene to creating the right mix of action and suspense in a chapter, this book is full of usefull tips and absolute rules of the trade. The book is easy to read, easy to comprehend, and full of great advice. There are TIP highlights and Instant Workshop assignments that make the book a lot like a college course in writing. Some writing books try and hit you with so much advice that you feel overwhelmed by the advice. Not so with this book. Raymond Obstfeld manages to give us just enough of what writers need to understand and work on. I found the book to be extremely helpful. If you want to know how to make a scene more memorable, keep the action moving without ignoring too much detail, or create cliffhanger endings that keep a reader engaged in your work, you'll want to purchase this book on writing. It's fifteen chapters of good advice for all writers. See ya next review.

An outstanding help for all writers

It is difficult to imagine a more helpful and concise book for writers than Obstfeld's "The Novelist's Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes". As part of a series from Writers's Digest, this book covers the critical component of any novel: writing encounters, chapters, and scenes that have the ability to grip the reader and keep them turning pages.Though the book is trade paper sized and only 211 pages, it is simply jammed with helpful ideas. Each chapter covers an essential aspect of writing scenes expertly. There is information on:* Beginning a Scene* Length* Point of View* Setting* Ending a Scene* Character, Plot, & Theme Development* Writing the Payoff* Character Meetings* Finales* Structure* RevisingPlus there are chapters that discuss how to write genre-specific scenes (sci-fi, romance, etc.) that are also compelling.A typical chapter within the book starts with quotes from others on the art of writing. Obstfeld then lays out general concepts and cites examples from novels and movies that support his chapter topic. Excerpts from several award-winning novels raises the quality of the book as it lets beginning writers see how the "pros" do it. Some chapters include workbook-like assignments to help readers flesh out their scenes.While all the chapters are developed well, the one covering character, plot, and theme development is particularly enlightening. The author elects to write an encounter scene with an emphasis on each aspect. It is amazing to see how a scene can change as it is written to the characters rather than plot and vice versa.Obstfeld has taught writing professionally in addition to having published more than two dozen novels and it shows in his style. He can quickly and directly address a topic and elucidate it easily. As a result, writers of all varieties and levels of talent can benefit from "Crafting Scenes".Highly recommended to all writers and truly worthy of a five star rating.

Actual Techniques You Can Use

If you want to move beyond books that merely encourage you but don't provide actual tools, then I recommend this book. If you merely want to be cheered from the sidelines, go elsewhere - but this book is excellent, very insightful, extremely useful. Well worth the money.

Absolutely fantastic

This book is written by a real writer who had written, and sold, numerous works, insluding screenplays. He knows what he is talking about and it shows in the book. It is eminently practical and offers a look at how to make scenes work from a writer's perspective. You won't find old, hand-me-down, paint-by-the-numbers schemes in this book. What you will find is an approach that will let you write "from the inside"--the way a real writer does.If you want to write well, this is the book to buy.

Writing brilliance in 224 pages or less.

After struggling with my own writing endeavours for two years now, I've found a refreshing guide to the world of fiction. The sections in the book are clearly listed, which enables me to find examples quickly for the problems that I'm experiencing in the moment. The examples are clearly articlulated and address almost all of my writing porblems and short-comings (and I hear there are a lot!) This book's largest contribution to my writing is it's motivational quality. Along with all of the examples and introductions to new techniques, I've found the student references a source for insparation, and in a world where insparation doesn't fall through the ceiling, I'll take it where ever I can get it. And for me, these pages are plentiful. This is a soid buy, the kind that will keep you up late scratching yourself in front of a blank screen until it's fills.