Mastering Your Scenes by J.A. Cox Book Review

Welcome to my review of Mastering Your Scenes by J.A. Cox. This is another book I picked up around learning how to write. I am finding that there are millions of resources available. They all provide some different bits of information, tips, styles or references, which adds to a lot of information to pick from.

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This book was written with one main purpose, to help give authors and writers a creative boost in their scene writing and toss writers block into the oblivion of the abyss. In order to accomplish this each chapter is written in a workbook like format so that the steps provided can easily be implemented after they are explained. For each element of scene writing that is presented J.A. Cox explains the How, Why and When of its use along with his own description so that the information is easy to assimilate. He provides copious examples from his own writing of these elements in action as well as from shows and movies.

Here are the elements that you will be learning about:

• Sketching
• Location
• Time
• Characters
• Perspective
• Resistance
• Objective

His purpose is not to force some new-fangled way of writing but to help you realize things that you are likely not seeing as you struggle to come up with ideas to prime that creative pump. He is persuaded that as you make your way through these pages and consider these elements that you will end up in a state where it is difficult to shut down the tsunami of ideas that will come your way.

Last but not least, J.A. Cox provides a completed outline format that can be used over and over for every scene you write to keep that creative pump primed. Therefore, you will no longer have to fuss over figuring what prompts or hooks to use to start that chapter as it will come to you as you outline your scenes from the various questions he provides for you to ask with each element.

It is his aim to revolutionize the way you look at your scenes in the future.

J. A. Cox is a husband, father and disabled veteran. He is passionate about Jesus Christ and has a desire to allow God to use his writing to bring glory to his name and reach others for him. His other passions lie in: 1) Empowering people by teaching about things that he is knowledgeable in in a simple and fun as well as interesting manner. 2)Inspiring others that they may realize how the true potential to overcome their perceived dilemma lies right between their ears and how they allow it to manipulate what their eyes behold. 3) Helping people to realize that being healthy truly begins with realizing how important it is for them to be intimately acquainted with their own body in order for others to help them resolve its maladies that beset it. Along with those, he enjoys entertaining with fiction based on the concept that fact is stranger than fiction and then stretching it just a tad to create some memorable page turning moments that you will likely recall for some time to come.

I enjoyed this book which focuses only on mastering your scenes. This is a small book at just 97 pages but is packed full of ideas, examples and information on scenes and how you could improve your scene writing. Each chapter, all of which are short, includes information on what it’s about, when, why and how to use the information, along with a guide to practical application.

This is really helpful for working through some ideas and fleshing out some scenes, especially when you are very new to writing. Towards the end, several worked examples are beneficial and give you ideas on what kind of things you might be looking for in your own written scenes.

This is a great quick guide for new and perhaps older writers alike to help flesh out mastering your scenes and adding more detail.

Title	Mastering Your Scenes
Author	J.A. Cox
Series	N/A
Format	eARC
Page Count	80 Pages
Genre	Non-Fiction
Publisher	BooksGoSocial
Release Date	27th August 2020