The thought of formulaic writing has always disturbed me and so my first job at visiting this scene and sequel process was to prove to myself that it isn't a rigid formulaic way of writing. Reading Jack M. Bickham's writing resource, Scene & Structure has helped me to get a better understanding of the Scene and Sequel method of writing. I recommend you pick up a copy of Jack M. Bickham's book or borrow one from a friend or your local library to study yourself.
As a disclaimer, please remember, these posts are just my understanding of this method, so please feel free to comment if you have a differing opinion. I'm all for further clarification and learning.
My current understanding is that Scene and Sequel is more representative of a logical way of making your story flow naturally so that the reader can experience the story at an optimal level, conducive to how people naturally think and process things.
The basic structure of Scene and Sequel encompasses all the needed criteria to help the reader feel for the characters, understand the dilemma's, and provides inspiration for the reader to want to read on. It's a compilation of basic elements to be included in your plotting and story telling that can or cannot be revealed in classic order, depending on the needs of the individual story and it's parts.
That's what keeps if from becoming a rigid formulaic writing process. There are so many permutations of how to write and place your scenes and sequels that your story will dictate the actual word count, flow, and even existence of each of those parts.
In the next installment of my Scene and Sequel blog postings I'll tackle deciphering what the Scene sections basically entail.
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