Want to Make Great Scenes? Do these four things.
Write a novel with me
I’m trying for a more content-clicky headline there? Did I do it? Headlines are completely my weakness.
My other weakness (not counting fried potato products):
Dictums.
You know, those “YOU MUST DO THIS” tips that other people who create content/coach/teach insist on.
This is because I truly believe there is no one-size-fits-all way to create. That said? There are some things that our culture expects right now in novels and if you do these in each and every scene? Your book tends to get picked up and people tend to read it and like it.
What are those magical things?
There are four:
You want to make something happen.
That something happening needs to involve some interesting characters—be they humans, zombie hamsters, or manatees.
You want to hold the reader’s attention by drawing emotion and/or fascination from them. Both is awesome.
You want the reader to care about what is happening and what MIGHT happen next.
All of these elements usually come from just two things:
The character has a goal and a reason for that goal.
There is conflict that’s keeping them from easily and instantly getting it.
Easy peasy, right?
Then you want these things to be key in every scene and every chapter of your novel.
So, how do you do that?
Make a list.
I know! I know! It’s so simple. But when you have your story done and you are doing your first revision (read-through/rewrite), you can make a list and check in each scene that these things are happening.
If not? Make a note and when you revise, put those things in there!
I shorten my list (because I like to be efficient to this:
Character goal
Conflict
How I want the reader to feel here.
Conflict is what creates dramatic stories. Dramatic stories are the ones that readers get involved in. You want that conflict in all the scenes. If it’s not there? The pace slows down. Sometimes the reader will—gasp!—stop reading.
It’s all about conflict and goals and emotion.
And that means you have to put it there. And you have to check your drafts scene by scene to make sure it’s there. And you have to check scenes again after you make changes to the story to ensure that not only is conflict present in every scene, but that the conflict is different from scene to scene.
Repetition in conflict—the same people involved, the same issue involved, the same level of conflict, the same proposed solutions—is every bit as big of a problem as having no conflict.
Each scene’s conflict must be examined in relation to the conflict of surrounding scenes.
Conflict issues can be revisited throughout a story, of course, but every story needs more than one type and source of conflict.
QUOTE I AM INTO RIGHT THIS SECOND
“Life is not a PG feel-good movie. Real life often ends badly. Literature tries to document this reality, while showing us it is still possible for us to endure nobly.”
―Matthew Quick, The Silver Linings Playbook
A SONG THAT IS IN MY HEAD RIGHT NOW
I’m sharing this because:
I always have a song stuck in my head
Sometimes it’s cool (and causes a writing epiphany) to listen to a song that you might not normally listen to.
AN EXERCISE
For 3:48 minutes, listen to this song and write and only think of one thing: What is the conflict going on here and the emotions that go with it?
Stop.
For five more minutes write about that conflict and emotion in scene. What are the details? The setting?
Stop.
Feel damn proud of yourself. You wrote for almost ten minutes with focus. How cool is that?