Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time

Jordan E. Rosenfeld's Make a Scene sculpts future writers on the right path. But, the writing will scare novices. The work packs on the information at a heavy pace and often reads more like textbook than teaching. Point to fact: It can overwhelm the reader with information.

To get everything this work offers, readers must pace themselves. Read the work at a slow pace despite wishes to get everything it offers. The temptation will urge you to rush it because some passages snap with dryness.

Even so, the book will teach laypersons valuable information. For experts not as much, but insight comes to even the jaded.

The cited material sometimes dates itself or sample tasteless prose. For example, I found myself intrigued with the focused passage from House of Women. But on further reading the excerpt here on Amazon, I found myself wondering what happened to the rest of the stellar work? Passive voice, back story, and worse invaded the book despite its praises from Ms. Rosenfeld.

Other than those two flaws, I can still recommend Make a Scene for those who wish to improve their writing. The knowledge within will improve your technique. On that, the book guarantees.

Wolfe

Great! There are many good (and not so good) books available to improve one's writing skills - and I've read a mountain of them. This is one of the best. 'Make a Scene' gives concise, enjoyable understanding to the many character, plot and scene elements necessary for a truly satisfying story. You'll soon recognize the trouble-spots in your manuscripts, and have the tools to correct them. You'll find your writing sessions are much more productive. I'll never write (or read!) a book the same way again!

A well-done book of instruction on creating scenes. Breaks scenes down into types, shows you their elements, suggests approaches to creating each type of scene. Very comprehensive and highly recommended. You supply the creativity and sweat while the book gives you the tools.

I have a lot of writing reference books in my library--A LOT of writing reference books--and I'm rather picky when it comes to adding another one. But after reading MAKE A SCENE, I happily made room in the easy-access "favorites" section of my bookshelf. This is one of those rare a how-to books that not only makes me feel sharper as an editor, it inspires me to dive back into the creative phase of the process, not to mention the humor and flowing prose made it a true pleasure to read. The book is a great resource not just for scene-building but for all the fundamentals of good writing, with checklists, or "muse points," to help make your characters more compelling and your plot--even if you write literary fiction!--into the foundation of a page-turner. Beginners will get lots of new information (check out "Architecture of a Scene," and "Core Elements"), while experienced writers will benefit from stepping back and examining why they do what they do from instinct. This book is invaluable for the editing phase of novel writing--remember, each scene has to earn its place--and I know I'll be referring to it often!

Make A Scene by Jordan E. Rosenfeld attempts to focus on how to create great scenes for a written work. She delves into many different types of scenes in an attempt to pick apart the elements that make these scenes memorable, engaging and keep the reader reading.

If you enjoy "literary" or "character-driven" books as opposed to "commercial" or "plot-driven" books (in reality the distinctions are far too artificial to be useful) then you will likely be familiar with many of the sources Rosenfeld uses. That is largely because with few exceptions literary works are all she draws from. The only commercial reference she uses is from "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" when Vader uses those stunning four words that we all know by now.

And if you are a man, you might find reading the examples she provides to be a bit like watching a long series of previews of most of the movies on the "Lifetime" channel. Most if not all of the stories Rosenfeld picks from are stories where the man is abusive, controlling, usually addicted to alcohol and uses his fists to communicate to his wife. One was about a naive young woman who is warned by her oppressive mother that men "only want one thing" and she goes off with a man against her mother's wishes only to find out that this man really DOES only want one thing and is abusive to her.

She is also a fan of symbolism. Now I am not saying symbolism is bad, but the ultimate goal of writing a story is to craft a work that allows another person to experience something that they may know themselves a little better. If the author wishes to include a symbol, then it should be there because it somehow contributes to the aforementioned end, not because the author can feel clever and sly. I felt as though more than a few of the authors Rosenfeld quoted were only throwing symbols into their work for its own sake, although to be fair I have not read those stories.

Those writing commercial fiction may benefit from her suggestions, but there are many aspects that would feel out of place if not in a literary work.

One that comes to mind is her surprisingly strong suggestion of writing in second person. So instead of:

"My hands were shaking as I approached the door. What would be waiting for me? A dead body? My killer? Worse? Was there worse?"

Or:

"Joe's hands were shaking as he approached the door...." etc.

Instead she recommends writing this:

"Your hands were shaking as you approached the door...." etc.

She also recommends writing in the present tense, second person or no. So instead of:

"Susan grabbed her purse and found her cell phone inside. She frantically dialed 911 hoping she wasn't too late."

Rosenfeld recommends this:

"Susan grabs her purse and finds her cell phone inside. She frantically dials 911 hoping she isn't too late."

I for one find either style of writing to be very jarring and disengaging. I do not find narrating a story in the present tense to "blur the line" between reality and story, as Rosenfeld suggests, although she does point out, correctly, that anything that disengages your reader from your story is a sure way to kill your work.

The book also ends rather abruptly. I knew I was getting close to the end of the book, so I was expecting to get to the last page. What I was not expecting was what was the final paragraph on the final section to then see the index. No real conclusion or final wrap up. It just ends.

With all of the other really good books on how to craft a story, it's very hard to recommend this book, especially to people who want to craft stories that focus more on plot and less on character. For $15 one could do worse but there is precious little that makes this book a "must-buy."

Instead, I would recommend Todd Stone's "Novelists Boot Camp", Stephen King's "On Writing" or the "Write Great Fiction" series.