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jetrent's review
5.0
Worth every stinking penny!
If I ever have a book make it to the New York Times bestseller list, it will be a direct result of what I learned by reading this book.
If I ever have a book make it to the New York Times bestseller list, it will be a direct result of what I learned by reading this book.
rosinawrites7's review against another edition
I did find this book helpful in understanding genre, but my God, the man’s tone is so sexist and condescending at times. He frequently refers to hypothetical authors, characters, writers etc. as ‘he’ (occasionally uses ‘she’ and ‘he or she’). I struggle to believe that someone who has worked in publishing for 20 to 30 years does not know that the personal pronoun “they” exists.
I would also argue he could have shortened the sections I read a great deal to get to the point. (In fairness, I find this is often the case with books on writing - too many analogies explaining the method when maximum 2 would do and not enough examples of the method being put to use).
Ultimately, I found this process over complicated plotting for me and actually made it feel even harder and demotivated me from writing. I fully appreciate this method does wonders for other people, just not for me. Now reading ‘Save The Cat’ and I find that a more reasonable level of complexity for plotting - just enough to guide and not overwhelm.
I would also argue he could have shortened the sections I read a great deal to get to the point. (In fairness, I find this is often the case with books on writing - too many analogies explaining the method when maximum 2 would do and not enough examples of the method being put to use).
Ultimately, I found this process over complicated plotting for me and actually made it feel even harder and demotivated me from writing. I fully appreciate this method does wonders for other people, just not for me. Now reading ‘Save The Cat’ and I find that a more reasonable level of complexity for plotting - just enough to guide and not overwhelm.
emmalthompson85's review
3.0
This is a weird one. I think I'm going to go with three stars. What this book basically does is take everything from "Story" by Robert Mckee and tell you how to make it into a spreadsheet. Now, I don't know about you, but I can figure out how to make a spreadsheet on my own. In fact, I have. Many things in this book I found very familiar because they're ideas taken directly from story of things I extrapolated myself from that (putting it into a spreadsheet, mapping the change in values on a graph). So I'm not sure he gets any credit for most of this book as it's something anyone who read "Story" and was moderately intelligent could do on their own. To be fair, he does credit all the actual theory he's using.
But, let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say most people can't generate a spreadsheet for themselves and need someone else to guide them through the process. Okay. Coyne claims putting possibly upwards of three weeks into this spreadsheet can make you a better author and help you identify problems with your story's plot. The thing is, he doesn't demonstrate this. He demonstrates the method on a very successful book. This is fine for showing you how to physically plot of the graphs and I found a lot of his analysis of "The Silence of the Lambs" and how it was constructed compelling (if not always tightly tied to the ideas he laid out in his spreadsheet). The problem is, he didn't then show how putting three weeks into this spreadsheet helps me see the problems with my plot. I honestly thing that taking a less successful novel and plotting it would have allowed him to point and say, look, this is a problem, you could identify that too. Perhaps it would be obvious when I generated my spreadsheet where the problems are so I wouldn't need the example but the fact is he doesn't show us how it works so I can't know that. Essentially, he proves that we can make a spreadsheet but not how doing so will add value to our work.
Spreadsheet aside, there were two other things I noted in this book. The first is the idea of a genre having obligatory scenes. I'd more or less agree with this. An important part of writing in a genre is meeting audience expectation and having read widely in a genre to be aware of them and of the core value of a genre. A key failure in someone who comes in and writers in a genre they're not familiar with is that they'll not respect these scenes. There are two problems I had with this. The first is that no scene is truly essential. True, not putting a given scene in might make a novel more literary that genre but as long as you're aware of reader expectation and how you establish that expectation, subvert and fulfil it, that's important. For example, a happy ending is a key feature of a romance. You will get absolutely slammed if you write a romance without a happy ending. But people do. Brokeback mountain has a terrible ending. Now, some would argue that it's a literary story and not a romance but I think that's just messing about. It's a romance because it gives us that satisfaction we need not by giving us the scene of the happy ending but by showing us that the love both men have for each other is true and enduring and by signalling to us throughout the novel that this may well not end well. At the end of the day, I think that if you want to be clever and push the boundaries of a genre then nothing is off limits, you've just got to be a very good writer to do it and, ultimately, those books that push our understanding of what the genre is are the greats.
The other problem is, if we put my ramble aside and I accept that I'm not going to revolutionise the romance but I just want to write a solid romance so what are these scenes, he doesn't tell me. Now, there is a reason for this, but he doesn't give it. The reason is that what we think of as a genre and the conventions of that genre are constantly in flux. I can't write a romance novel using a template from twenty years ago, or even ten, it would be considered out of date. But Coyne doesn't explain this, he just tells the reader to read around in their genre and see what most people do. For me, he could have expanded this to give more direction on how, exactly, to get to know your genre and to understand where in it you can innovate and where you can't.
The only thing I really got out of this that I'm not going to argue with even a little and actually thought was quite clever was the expansion of the value from "Story". So, Mckee says a story should have a value shift from, say, happiness to sadness, to be trite. Coyne suggests expanding that, putting a state in the middle and a worse one at the end. So we might expand this to happiness - uncertainty - sadness- despair. You then plot them onto a three act structure so the first act moves from happiness to uncertainty, the second from uncertainty to sadness and the last from sadness to despair. Thinking about it that way helps to pace the emotional growth of your story and also grounds that idea that, with everything, things must become more extreme as the plot progresses. I actually found that idea helpful.
I think, on balance, I'm going to have to give the book a three. It didn't do enough for me that made me think or that I feel I can take away and apply to my own work for me to be willing to rate it any higher than that. I'd not recommend it to a friend, I'd recommend them story and teach them how to make a spreadsheet my own damn self.
But, let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say most people can't generate a spreadsheet for themselves and need someone else to guide them through the process. Okay. Coyne claims putting possibly upwards of three weeks into this spreadsheet can make you a better author and help you identify problems with your story's plot. The thing is, he doesn't demonstrate this. He demonstrates the method on a very successful book. This is fine for showing you how to physically plot of the graphs and I found a lot of his analysis of "The Silence of the Lambs" and how it was constructed compelling (if not always tightly tied to the ideas he laid out in his spreadsheet). The problem is, he didn't then show how putting three weeks into this spreadsheet helps me see the problems with my plot. I honestly thing that taking a less successful novel and plotting it would have allowed him to point and say, look, this is a problem, you could identify that too. Perhaps it would be obvious when I generated my spreadsheet where the problems are so I wouldn't need the example but the fact is he doesn't show us how it works so I can't know that. Essentially, he proves that we can make a spreadsheet but not how doing so will add value to our work.
Spreadsheet aside, there were two other things I noted in this book. The first is the idea of a genre having obligatory scenes. I'd more or less agree with this. An important part of writing in a genre is meeting audience expectation and having read widely in a genre to be aware of them and of the core value of a genre. A key failure in someone who comes in and writers in a genre they're not familiar with is that they'll not respect these scenes. There are two problems I had with this. The first is that no scene is truly essential. True, not putting a given scene in might make a novel more literary that genre but as long as you're aware of reader expectation and how you establish that expectation, subvert and fulfil it, that's important. For example, a happy ending is a key feature of a romance. You will get absolutely slammed if you write a romance without a happy ending. But people do. Brokeback mountain has a terrible ending. Now, some would argue that it's a literary story and not a romance but I think that's just messing about. It's a romance because it gives us that satisfaction we need not by giving us the scene of the happy ending but by showing us that the love both men have for each other is true and enduring and by signalling to us throughout the novel that this may well not end well. At the end of the day, I think that if you want to be clever and push the boundaries of a genre then nothing is off limits, you've just got to be a very good writer to do it and, ultimately, those books that push our understanding of what the genre is are the greats.
The other problem is, if we put my ramble aside and I accept that I'm not going to revolutionise the romance but I just want to write a solid romance so what are these scenes, he doesn't tell me. Now, there is a reason for this, but he doesn't give it. The reason is that what we think of as a genre and the conventions of that genre are constantly in flux. I can't write a romance novel using a template from twenty years ago, or even ten, it would be considered out of date. But Coyne doesn't explain this, he just tells the reader to read around in their genre and see what most people do. For me, he could have expanded this to give more direction on how, exactly, to get to know your genre and to understand where in it you can innovate and where you can't.
The only thing I really got out of this that I'm not going to argue with even a little and actually thought was quite clever was the expansion of the value from "Story". So, Mckee says a story should have a value shift from, say, happiness to sadness, to be trite. Coyne suggests expanding that, putting a state in the middle and a worse one at the end. So we might expand this to happiness - uncertainty - sadness- despair. You then plot them onto a three act structure so the first act moves from happiness to uncertainty, the second from uncertainty to sadness and the last from sadness to despair. Thinking about it that way helps to pace the emotional growth of your story and also grounds that idea that, with everything, things must become more extreme as the plot progresses. I actually found that idea helpful.
I think, on balance, I'm going to have to give the book a three. It didn't do enough for me that made me think or that I feel I can take away and apply to my own work for me to be willing to rate it any higher than that. I'd not recommend it to a friend, I'd recommend them story and teach them how to make a spreadsheet my own damn self.
gijs's review
3.0
How to painstakingly dissect a story’s anatomy; by an experienced editor. The author lays out his particular process in minute detail, which peaks interest at first but it takes a bit too long to deliver the message in full.
k80bowman's review
5.0
This book has completely changed the way I plan my books. Not only has it saved the book I'm currently working on, I've been able to go back and think about past failed books and figure out how to fix them.