Scenes

What is the pattern of a scene? Fundamentally, it is: Statement of goal. Introduction and development of conflict. Failure of the character to reach his goal, a tactical disaster.

--Jack M. Bickham.

Scenes are capsules in which compelling characters undertake significant actions in a vivid and memorable way that allows the events to feel as though they are happening in real time. When strung together, individual scenes add up to build plots and storylines.

OR, Scenes are those passages in narrative when we slow down and focus on an event in the story so that we are "in the moment," with characters in action.

The recipe for a scene includes the following basic ingredients:

• Characters who are complex and layered, and who undergo change throughout your narrative;
• A point of view through which the scenes are seen;
• Memorable and significant action that feels as if it is unfolding in real time;
• Meaningful, revealing dialogue when appropriate;
• New plot information that advances your story and deepens characters;
• Conflict and drama that tests your character and ultimately reveals their personalities;
• A rich physical setting that calls on all the senses and enables the reader to see and enter into the world you've created;
• A spare amount of narrative summary or exposition;
• Dramatic tension, which creates the potential for conflict in scenes;
• Scene subtext, which deepens and enriches your scenes;
• Scene intentions, which ensure characters' actions are purposeful;
• Pacing and scene length, which influence the mood and tone of individual scenes.

Each new scene has a responsibility to the idea or plot you started with, which is to communicate your idea in a way that is vivifying for the reader and that provides an experience, not a lecture. Scene launches pave the way for all the robust consequences of the idea or plot to unfurl. Each scene launch is a reintroduction, capturing your reader's attention all over again.

You want to start each scene by asking the following questions:

• Where are my characters in the plot? Where did I leave them and what are they doing now?
• What is the most important piece of information that needs to be revealed in this scene?

The Different Types of Scene Launches:

• Character Launches: Get your characters on the page sooner rather than later. The majority of scenes should involve your main characters. Don't let your scene launch go on for too many paragraphs in passive description or narrated ideas without characters coming into play; if your character isn't present by the second paragraph in any given scene, you're in danger of losing the reader.

SET SCENE INTENTIONS FOR CHARACTERS.

• Action Launches: The sooner you start the action in a scene, the more momentum it has to carry the reader forward. If you find yourself explaining an action, then you're not demonstrating the action any longer. To create an action launch: Get straight to the action; Hook the reader with big or surprising action; Be sure that the action is true to character; Act first, think later.
  
• Narrative launches: A scene launch is actually one of the easier places to use a judicious amount of narrative summary, so long as you don't keep the reader captive too long. The afternoon before I planned how I would tell her. I would begin with my age and maturity, allude to a new lover, and finish with a bouquet of promises: grandchildren, handwritten letters, boxes from Tiffany sent in time to beat the rush. I sat in my apartment drinking Scotch and planning the words. Amanda Eyre Ward's novel How to Be Lost.
• Setting Launches: Sometimes setting details--like a beach that's going to be hit by a tsunami, or moonlight sparkling on a lake--are so important to plot or character development that visual setting must be included at the launch of a scene. To create an effective scenic launch: Use specific visual details; Allow scenery to set the tone of the scene; Use scenery to reflect a character's feelings; Show the impact of the setting on the character.

If you grabbed the readers attention with an evocative scene launch, the middle of your scene is the proving ground, the opportunity to hook the reader and never let her go.

UP THE ANTE: COMPLICATIONS.

Techniques to up the ante:

• The withhold--emotions, information, and objects;
• The Element Danger--put the protagonist or someone he loves in danger;
• The Unexpected Revelation--he was adopted, his wife cheated on him, wrongly accused of a crime.

Techniques to increase Dramatic Tension:

1. Thwart the protagonist’s goals—delay satisfaction.
2. Unexpected changes (the reader doesn’t know the reason for them).
3. Constant shift of power from one side to the other.
4. Pull out the rug, throw in some plot information that changes the character.
5. Create tension in atmosphere.

SCENE ENDINGS.

Zoom-in endings--anything that invites intimacy or emotional contact with the characters and their plight at the end of a scene has a zoom-in effect on readers, drawing the readers closer;

• Character Summaries;
• Revelatory Dialogue;
• The Cliffhanger Ending.

Zoom-out endings--pull away from intimacy or immediacy. The reader often needs a bit of emotional relief from an intense scene, and pulling back provides him an opportunity to catch his breath or reflect on all that has just transpired.

• Visual Descriptions;
• Philosophical Musings;

The Conclusive Ending--there comes a time when a scene simply needs to end without anything fancy to get in the way; your ending doesn't need to portend any future event, or lend thematic resonance; its job is just to conclude something that has happened or to tie up a plot point.

Points to Ponder.

• The scene is a misunderstood element of writing; unlike other elements, it is not a singular thing, but a sum of all the parts of great fiction.
• If you can understand what a scene is, how all its elements collaborate to create a vivid and compelling snapshot, and how those moments add up to a story, you'll write your drafts differently and become a more self-assured writer with a page-turner on your hands.
• The audience is watching. Never forget this. Even though the audience isn't actually present at the moment of your writing, you should write (and especially revise) as if the reader is sitting behind your desk, awaiting your finished pages; i.e., it is your job to entertain and inform the reader through clear writing and powerful scenes; if you are using fancy prose or showy strategies to amuse yourself or prove something, you aren't keeping your audience in mind.
• The one thing in that list that makes a scene a scene is action--events happening and people acting out behaviors in a simulation of real time--but well-balanced scenes include a little bit of everything. Mixing those ingredients together in varying amounts will yield drama, emotion, passion, power, and energy; in short, a page-turner.
• Some scenes need more physical action, while others may require a lot of dialogue. Some scenes will take place with barely a word spoken, or with very small actions. Other scenes may require vivid interaction with the setting.
• Dramatic tension will make the reader worry about and care for your characters and keep her riveted to the page. Subtext can build imagery and emotion into deeper layers of scenes so that your writing feels rich and complex. Scene intentions help to guide your characters and take them through changes in as dramatic a way as possible. By pacing your scenes well and choosing the proper length for each scene, you can control the kinds of emotional effects your scenes have, leaving the reader with the feeling of having taken a satisfying journey.
• One of the benefits of writing in scene form is that the ending of a scene provides a place for the reader to comfortably take a pause.
• Generally speaking, if a scene runs to more than fifteen pages, it's on the long side. Long scenes don't need to be avoided, but they should be peppered in sparingly. Too many long scenes in a row will cause your narrative to drag.
• Use long scenes in the novel when you want to: Intentionally slow down the pace after lots of action or intense dialogue to allow the protagonist and the reader to digest what has happened, and to build new tension and suspense; Include a lot of big action in a given scene (fights, chases, explosions)--so the scene doesn't hinge on action alone; Add a dialogue scene that, in order to feel realistic, needs to run long.
• A scene that takes place in ten or fewer pages can comfortably be considered short. Short scenes often make readers hungry for more. But too many short scenes in a row can make the flow of the plot feel choppy, and disrupt the continuity that John Gardner said creates a dream for the reader.
• A short scene has to achieve the same goals as a longer scene, and in less time. It must still contain main characters engaging in actions based upon scene intentions. New information must be revealed that drives the plot forward. The setting must be clear. In the short scene, you have even less room for narrative summary.
• You're best using short scenes when you need to: Differentiate one character from another; Pick up the pace right after a long scene; Leave the reader hungry for more or breathless with suspense; Include multiple scenes within a chapter; Create a sense of urgency by dropping bits of information one by one, forcing the reader to keep reading.
• Each scene needs to have its own beginning, middle, and end. The beginning should be vivid and memorable, and help immediately draw your reader into the scene. Scene middles are the vast territory where the stakes must be raised, characters get caught in conflict, and consequences follow that keep your plot interesting. Scene endings, of course, set the stage for the scenes that follow, and leave a feeling or taste with the reader that should be unforgettable.

Bibliography.

• Jorden E. Rosenfeld, Make a Scene, Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time;
• Sandra Scofield, The Scene Book, A Primer for the Fiction Writer;