If stories are made up of scenes, what are scenes made up of? According to Jack Bickham in his book, Scene & Structure, scenes start with a character’s stated goal and rumble through an evolving conflict until they reach … a disaster. In this episode, we examine each of these elements and test Bickham’s assertions using Real Book examples. Then, for true illumination, we Bickhamize our own scenes. But before we delve into the nitty gritty, we have a delightful interview with Susan Tunis of Bookshop West Portal.

This episode is all about cause and effect, what it is, why it is critical in fiction despite being largely absent in real life, and how it works line by line as stimulus and response. In chapter 3 of his book Scene & Structure, Jack Bickham has some hard rules about applying and ordering stimulus, internalization, and response. We examine our own writing to see if it follows the proscribed format.

And, as a bonus, we start the episode off with interviews we did at the San Francisco Writers Conference that we’re calling “Confessions of Craft Book Addicts.”

In this podcast we give our first impressions of our new book, Jack Bickham’s Scene and Structure, and, being the enthusiast students that we are, we begin by identifying his central thesis. Then it’s onto Chapter 2, where we answer some novice novelist questions and discuss Bickham’s approach to a story’s first page. To further our understanding, Kim “Bickhamizes” the beginning of her new fantasy novel.

As a bonus, Renee has a special message for any former Border employees who worked the late-night Harry Potter release parties back in the 90’s.