What happens through the bulk of a scene is not really something which can be easily taught, because, as I mentioned earlier, the bulk of a scene relies heavily on other aspects of writing. However, there is one aspect of a scene which belongs in its own category, which is how the scene ends. You might think that how a scene ends is just as difficult to generalize as what happens in the scene, but in fact there are only four possible ways for a scene to end, all in relation to a character’s goals in the scene. The four results are: “Yes”, “Yes, but…”, “No”, and “No, and furthermore…”.
Essentially, there four possibilities depend on two aspects of the scene. The first is whether or not the characters achieve their goals. Obviously, if they do, then the scene ends in a “Yes” or “Yes, but…”, and if the don’t, then the scene ends with a “No”, or “No, and furthermore…”. However, there is another difference between these endings, depending on whether or not the characters actions have resulted in some other consequence which they must now react to. If the characters are not forced to react, then the answer is a straight “Yes” or “No”, and if something occurs which the characters must respond to, the scene ending is a “Yes, but…” or “No, and furthermore…”. Read more…
The emotional reaction is the first part of the sequel, which I introduced here. I want to go over some good questions to ask yourself about this part as you are revising. I would suggest that you avoid thinking about these questions until you start revising, because there are few ways of derailing your writing faster than getting ahead of yourself and allowing your critic to come out too soon.
How emotionally invested was the main character in the previous scene? – The answer to this question affects not only the type of emotion your character feels, but also how long you will spend on their emotions in general. It is possible to skip over a character’s emotional reaction entirely, but beware: if you ignore your character’s emotions without good reason, you risk readers believing that your character is a heartless bastard. Most characters will feel something, even those not directly involved in a scene. Just a mention of exhaustion of some kind is often enough. However, what doesn’t make sense is for a character with little at risk in a scene to then respond with some incredibly powerful emotion, like grief or fury. If you want to get your character that worked up, you have to invest them emotionally in the outcome. Read more…
Having already discussed sequels, I want to talk a little about their counterparts, scenes. The simple definition of a scene is the part of the story where the “action” of the story takes place. That said, this doesn’t really tell us much. In particular, we need to know what kind of action actually makes a scene a scene. Sequels can contain action, just like scenes can, but they have other defining qualities that set them apart. The question is whether there is a similar way to distinguish scenes from the rest of a story. If anything, I would argue that scenes, considered broadly, contain a particular kind of action, where characters pursue the goals they established in the previous sequel.
Scenes themselves are not really subject to many problems, but they are often greatly affected by other aspects of a story, such as pacing and motivation. The only severe problem has to do with the essence of a scene, the goals of characters. One of two things can go wrong with a goal. First, the writer can fail to actually give their characters goals to pursue. This sounds really basic, I know, but every writer falls victim to this occasionally, including myself. I also think that this is often the cause of writer’s block. When a writer feels blocked by a story, it is usually because they don’t know what their characters should do next. The only way to solve this problem is to get to know your characters better so you understand what is at stake for them in the story. Read more…
I want to start with something basic, but something which many writers invariably don’t know about, and that is the sequel. For this I am indebted to Jim Butcher, and his blog here. I would suggest reading the whole thing, but I have a few notions I want to develop sequels differently than he does, although this post is mostly repetition.
All stories can be thought of as a line of bricks, which have been mortared together. The bricks are scenes (which you’ll hear me talk about often) and the mortar between two bricks is a sequel. Thus, quite obviously, sequels are the transition between two scenes in a story. However, simply calling them a transition, which I have seen people do before, doesn’t do sequels justice. In fact, I don’t particularly like the brick and mortar analogy, because in some works, the sequels are actually longer than the scenes are, but it will do for our purposes now. Read more…
