Hi everyone,
I’m fairly new to fiction writing. I’ve read quite a number of writing guidebooks over time.
I recently finished Elements of Fiction Writing - Scene & Structure by Jack M. Bickham. Many of the methods in this book have cleared up a lot of my long-standing writing confusion. The stimulus-response unit in scenes, the proper narrative sequence, and other concepts feel incredibly practical and down-to-earth.
I’m curious if anyone here has read this book?Have you ever applied its methodology to your own creative writing?
I’m wondering: can I actually write a full novel following its stimulus-response scene framework? Or is this book just like some other writing guides—full of theories and techniques that sound good on paper, but turn out to be almost useless when you actually try to put them into practice?
There is a quote that comes to mind here. Judith Tarr said this to me when I was talking about one of my far fetched stories where I ‘played games’ with the usual structure. She said…
“There are no rules, only a code. And it’s a Pirate’s Code at that.”
Finding a good book to help with the nuts and bolts of creative writing is good, especially when the book speaks to the way your mind works. It sounds as if the one you mention does.
YES! Full stop. You have the ability to write a novel. whispers from offstage Oh, right, you want to know if you can use that method. I dare say you can.
I have not read that book, but I have read others that speak about the stimulus-response rubric. It’s often called different things, but its one of the pillars of storytelling. Set a scene, supply the hook, something, something, profit!
The thing about a Pirate’s Code is that the Pirate’s only follow it when they want to, and only as far as they want to. What Judith Tarr was trying to tell me that afternoon years ago was that you are the best judge of which rules to follow, when to break them, and why.
Of course, if you want to do some rule-breaking, it helps if you know what the rules are.
As a matter of curiosity, the oddball story was written with this unusual feature. Only minor characters were given proper names. All of the major characters use Archetype Titles as nominatives.
The thing to remember about writing guides (all writing guides) is that they are descriptive, not prescriptive. They describe how some writers structure their work some of the time. They do not – even if they claim to – describe how you personally should structure your work. Only you know the answer, and you can only discover it by writing and observing what works (and doesn’t) for you.
You’ll never know unless you try – so try to write a handful of scenes. Say about 5-10 pages. See how it feels. Experiment. Many new writers actually try to avoid writing, when a lot of writing is exactly what they need.
Generally speaking, when there is a question or a problem with writing, the solution lies in doing more writing.
I appreciated the Bickman book … it is loosely based on Swains book “Techniques of the Selling Writer” where he talks about them as Motivation Reaction Units (MRU).
I appreciated Bickmans micro vs macro perspective.
Mike Klaassen in his books refers this as “scene and sequel”. I am a huge fan of Klaassen’s books.
Weiland refers to this as Chiastic Mirroring especially plot points.
Bell refers to them as setup and payoff.
To me, they all are a reminder that something you talk about earlier in a story deserves some reason or use for it later on… I believe it was Chekhov who said something like “if you describe a gun above a mantle you better make sure to use it later”.
Swain goes into tremendous detail about the nuance. If I recall he and Bickman were peers at University of Oklahoma.
Regardless, each one of these have a particular slant and excellent examples. Weiland refers to movies alot. Swain and Bickman refer to older literature. They each resonated with me for different reasons. I believe strongly that it keeps readers engaged and me on my toes.
In my written notes I use red for scene (beat) and green for sequel.
Yeah, it’s actually useful.
The stimulus-response thing works because it’s basically how stories naturally flow: something happens → character reacts → that leads to the next thing.
You can write a full novel with it. Just don’t follow it so rigidly that everything feels formulaic.
Use it as a guide when scenes feel off, not a rule for every line.
One simple “cheat” to see if your story works is to read the draft backwards (not letter by letter backwards!). If there are causes without effects… that’s a red flag, that’s not how the universe prefers to operate. Doesn’t mean that the reader needs to know what it is (at this point), but it better makes sense in the end!
Agree and key is to make sure events and reactions have in a linear order. Ie don’t open the door before someone knocks (unless your on a soap opera)
Depends on genre. In mysteries, those are called “red herrings.”
Yes, of course. That’s not what I meant.
We’re all blind to our typos and that falls in the same category. In our head, there may not even be a plot hole. We just forgot to write it down. And that’s the stuff you catch when reading scenes in reverse order. The same mechanism that helps spotting typos easier using a different font (or printout).
As is well-known, every writer has a different process. Thus, every book about writing is either conveying the author’s method or a distillation of the methods of others. What works for them, might work for you. Or it might not.
However… you say you are new to writing fiction, so my advice would be to just write, as @popcornflix suggests. A novel is a series of scenes. One of those is the beginning, one is the end, and all the rest are in between. Write them, and then examine.
By simply writing, you will discover the things that really excites you about storytelling. Until you write for yourself, you won’t know what these are. But once you have, you will know where you need help.
On a personal note, I found my first edit nigh impossible – complex story, many arcs, range of characters. Every time I changed a seemingly small thing, it rippled through 140,000 words, and I could not cope. Help came from an off-hand comment from a famous author and a book I found – I cannot remember how.
tl;dr; write first, take advice later.