19 April 2011 So, looks like I've been out of the picture for a few months. Sometimes life gets in the way. But, as I begin the wind up to take another go at editing, I wanted to share my thoughts about Story Engineering by Larry Brooks.

I picked up this wee tome via Kindle because I heard all its hype. Some are calling it a trend setting book. I'm not quite finished with, but I've read enough to give you my few cents.

First, as the URL above says, there's a lot of Larry's other books on writing in there. I've not read the book, but I've seen some of his information online. So, I can only agree there.

The book spends a lot of time telling you why you're an idiot if you don't follow his approach. He also spends a bit of time telling you why it's such an awesome solution to your needs. He specifically targets pantsers—those who write first then discover the plot later. On the whole, I find that defensiveness overwhelming. He spends more time defending his approach than he does explaining it. The value of the information is almost worth the high noise to signal ratio.

He has some good points that aren't innovative. Novels are really four parts instead of three acts is one example. I've not published my first novel and I get that. The Marshall Plan says as much. What goes into each part is somewhat helpful, however.

He states a rigid set of 60 scenes, though elsewhere in his book he says the details are not carved in stone. Marshall Plan by contrast, says you need roughly one scene per 1,500 words—which scales well with the book.

Mr. Brooks fails to discuss the multiple plot lines in the book—perhaps something I'll run into in the last 18 percent of the work. No mention of roles of other traditional characters; confidant being one of them.

I have been highlighting things I thought were interesting or helpful. Then, I started noticing I was highlighting the same thing. So, he repeats himself.

Were this Amazon, I'd give him two stars. Minus one for being overly defensive and increasing the noise-to-signal ratio. Minus another star for repeating himself and not being overly original. Minus the third star for restating what he said in other books.

As they say: read four books and write the fifth. Mr. Brooks has done just that—and written that fifth book a third time. The Dummies Guide is as useful, as is the Marshall Plan.