Having decided that writing scenes was an are where I was particularly weak, I decided to find a book on the subject and found a recommendation for The Scene Book.
Overall, I think it would be a very useful resource to anyone who reads and writes literary fiction. As a genre fiction author? Not so much.
The author does give a lot of advice about scenes, and from what I could understand of it, there was quite a bit of useful information in there. But her examples were hopelessly esoteric and it was clear that she was a creative writing professor at a university and writing at a time when there was little to no respect for independent publishing and genre fiction. Almost without exception, I could not see how any of the example passages she included showed what she was talking about. They were all so hopelessly boring (literary fiction) that I eventually gave up and just started skipping them.
This review might say more about me than about the book, and that’s fair. But I simply do not have the time or inclination at this point to try to figure out how to take advice designed for literary fiction writers and apply it to a story that is supposed to be interesting and full of action, rather than an exploration inside a character’s head. This is exactly the kind of stuff that led me down the path to ruin in my first attempt at the Book 1 Project.
As a genre fiction author, I need to take all of that internal character journey and represent it with external action, while exploring a rich and exciting world.
Where can I find a craft book designed for people like me?