STRUCTURING A SCENE
When creating a story, we often start out by picturing key scenes in our mind. Here's how to turn those short clips you have tucked away in your memory into a flushed-out story.
When I tell people about my books, I almost always get the exact same response. "Wow, how do you just sit down and write a whole book? I could never do that." I laugh and shrug, because they're never really looking for an answer. But in all honesty, neither could I. Neither could anybody. Nobody just sits down and writes a book. As an author, I just write scenes. One scene after the next until one day, I've got a book's worth of scenes sitting in front of me.
Breaking a book down into scenes is critical to the writing process. If I were to sit down and just start writing, I would probably end up with a long, drawn out, painful piece of literature that wouldn't flow well and most likely wouldn't be worth the effort to read. Regardless of how good your overall story is, if your reader cannot get sucked into your story because of its flow, pacing, and structure, they aren't going to get invested the way they will if you focus on mastering the structuring of each scene.
Scenes are so important because the human attention span is limited. We like digestible, fast-paced, easy-to-understand information. Books are long, yes, but letting your reader take them in bit by bit, without really realizing that is what they are doing because each scene blends into the next so well, keeps them engaged for longer than if you just droned on with no real breaks in your story.
Think of it this way, people are more likely to binge watch seven seasons of a television show than they are to watch the same amount of time in separate movies, right? A big part of this is because people may feel a larger sense of commitment to a two-hour movie than they do a 45-minute episode. Digging a little deeper, we see that episodes move faster, finish with a cliffhanger that makes the watcher want to click the next episode, and provide a break between episodes for their viewers to pause, mull over what they just saw, and raise their own anticipation for the next one. While a movie takes a much longer time commitment to one arc, episodes are several quicker arcs of the same larger story. Now, do movies have their own set of scenes, absolutely. But TV shows have mastered the manipulation of scene structure to hook their audiences.
In our case, think of scenes like episodes. Each should have their own structure that leaves your readers with a sense of anticipation and offers a moment of pause that only raises that level of anticipation. Yanking them abruptly out of a story with a great flow at the height of climax and taunting them with the option to leave only when it is most inconvenient is what has kept generations of readers shirking off their bedtimes in favor of "just one more chapter." But how exactly does one do this?
First of all, lets discuss what a scene really is. Scenes are the building blocks of your story. Each scene has its own structure within your larger plot that helps shape the book and keep it moving forward. Constructing each scene dynamically will prevent the overall story from dragging along, feeling forced and awkward, or leaving readers confused about what is going on.
In short, each scene should have significance to the overall plot and keep your novel flowing forward. Structuring your scenes well is the difference between leaving a reader on the edge of their seat and leaving them bored. So, here are my tips for crafting memorable scenes.
Before you start writing your scene, make a list of what you want to happen in that scene. This will keep you from getting sidetracked or lost while writing, cut down on your writing time, prevent unnecessary scenes and dialogue that eat up your word count, and keep your story moving forward according to your outline. There are three things that this list needs to include; the characters involved and the roles they will each play in that scene, your driving force, and your cliffhanger. Let's dissect each of those.
The Characters
Each character needs to have a reason to be there. They each should have a role to play that will either help or hurt the protagonist. Each needs to have their own agenda, way of responding to things, and unique purpose in being involved. Planning this beforehand will help you keep your characters dynamic and prevent you from dragging one or more characters along throughout your entire plot for seemingly no purpose. The conflict between each of the characters will help drive your story as each one makes decisions, pulls through, falls short, voices their opinions, etc.
Your readers need to feel like they know your characters to be invested in their story. You do that by letting them into each character's head, and that requires giving them time to debate, confess, talk things out, and question each other because of the conflict occurring in each scene.
Have you ever had something big and nerve-wracking coming up that you just couldn't stop talking, thinking, and worrying about until you had turned it into something even bigger than it was to begin with? That's exactly what you want to have your characters doing. The more seriously they take it, the more serious it will become.
2. The Driving Force
Speaking of conflict, let's talk about your driving force. Now, as mentioned above, sometimes your driving force comes from your characters and their interpersonal conflicts themselves, but it is important to note that your characters need to have a reason to come to these breaking points. They need hard decisions to make, reasons to reveal baggage and doubt, and a reason to overcome. That is where your driving force comes in.
In each scene, you need something outside of the protagonist's control for them to wrestle with, therefore moving the plot forward. You need to give your characters a reason to move, a situation in which they are presented with the choice to be the protagonist they are supposed to be, or to fall short. Sometimes they will fall short, that is an important part of the story. But ultimately, each scene should have some unavoidable force pushing your main character, and your plot, forward.
3. The Cliffhanger
The cliffhanger is arguably the most important part of each scene, so make sure you spend some time on this. If not at the end of each scene, at least at the end of each chapter, you must have your driving force come to some sort of head. This is the moment where there is a choice that needs to be made. There is no more time for debating, no more room to prepare. It is now or never for your protagonist. Everything is up in the air, and after building that anticipation throughout your entire scene, your reader should be anxiously awaiting your protagonist's decision.
Basically, don't give it to them. Not until the next page, the next scene, the next chapter. They should constantly be in a state of wanting. That is what will leave your readers hooked.
To summarize, your scenes, chapters, and ultimately, your novel, should all follow the same pattern. First, a big show of your driving force. Then, a taper down into exploring the complexities of this problem and how each of your characters is choosing to deal with those complexities. A slow build of conflict rising through those interpersonal relationships, internal conflict within each character, and the growing external conflict pushing them ever closer to the edge of their perceived capacity. Then you go out with a bang, bringing everything to a head with a hundred loose ends and seemingly no way out.
Stop your scene there, and you'll have your readers turning the page for more.
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