Novelists Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes

by Obstfeld, Raymond

• ISBN13: 9780898799736
• ISBN10: 0898799732
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-07-01
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books

Summary

The core dramatic unit of any novel is the scene. Writers use scenes to contain a novel's action and explore its characters. In the Novelist's Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes, novelist and collegiate writing instructor Raymond Obstfeld vibrantly explains every aspect of constructing these vital elements and shows how to apply those techniques to create specific types-action scenes, comic scenes, sex scenes and more. He then reveals how to link these scenes to form powerful novels. Obstfeld delivers advice born from years of writing and teaching experience in a fresh, witty voice perfectly suited to today's busy reader. Writers of any type of fiction will find quick remedies to their prose woes with his unique exercises and his generous use of examples from contemporary novels and films. Accessible to beginning writers, yet also appealing to more seasoned authors, the Novelist's Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes will be the next classic writing manual all novelists will want on their shelves.

Author Biography

Raymond Obstfeld has written twenty-seven novels in myriad genres, published in eleven languages. Four have been optioned for movies. He's sold ten screenplays, thirteen nonfiction books and numerous short stories, poems and nonfiction articles. He lives in Tustin, California

Table of Contents

What a Scene Is---and Isn't	1	(9)
Jump Right In---The Words Are Fine: Starting a Scene	9	(21)
Size-Wise: Determining Scene Length	30	(8)
He Said, She Said: Deciding on Point of View	38	(13)
You Are Here: Using Setting	51	(9)
Fond Farewell or Good Riddance: Ending a Scene	60	(12)
Shape to Fit: Focusing a Scene on Character, Plot or Theme	72	(14)
The P3 Equation: Making Payoff Scenes Work	86	(8)
Hello, Stranger: First Meetings	94	(10)
When Characters Collide: Action & Suspense Scenes	104	(23)
What's So Funny? Comic Scenes	127	(17)
Love & Lust: Romantic & Sex Scenes	144	(17)
The Long Good-Bye: Final Scenes	161	(21)
From Mess to Masterpiece: Structuring	182	(14)
From First to Final Draft: Revising	196	(16)
Index	212