EXPLANATION OF A SCENE:A scene is the smallest unit of story. Characters come onto the “stage” inonetime and place, and action/dialogue/interaction occurs. As soon as you switch location, time, or point of view, you are switching the scene. Your job is to write ONE scene that lasts roughly three pages.
Every high point in a story must be played out in scene on the page, moment-by-moment in real time. The technique of slowing things down forces the stakes in a story ever higher. At the same time, the stakes also rise for the writer. Many beginning writers hide from the pressure of creating scenes by relying on summary. These same writers hold the mistaken belief that they can control things better by “telling” what happens rather than by “showing” what happens in a scene. Consider, instead, the idea that by breaking down each scene to its smallest parts you retain control.
Essential Element #1: Time and Place
The first layer of every scene deals with time and setting. Often this layer is implied or understood from the scenes and summaries that precede it. Either way, be sure to ground your readers in the “where” and “when” of the scene. The last thing you want is for your reader to awaken from the dream you have so carefully crafted due to disorientation or confusion.
In the scene from Ava’s Man, the time is established in the earlier part of the scene – “They were getting ready for supper just a few weeks later when”
Essential Element #2: Character Emotional Development
If conflict, tension and suspense drive the reader to turn the page or send the viewer to the edge of her seat, the character emotional development motivates them. Readers read stories and viewers go to the movies to learn about a character’s emotional development. The word development implies growth or change. Therefore character becomes a layer.
Essential Element #3: Goal
The protagonist has a long-term goal for the duration of the story and smaller goals for every scene. They may or may not reach the scene goal by scene’s end, but viewers and readers who know what is at stake for the character are more apt to cheer for the character’s successes and mourn his failures.
Essential Element #4: Dramatic Action
Dramatic action that unfolds moment-by-moment on the page makes up the next layer of scene.
Essential Element #5: Conflict
Embedded within dramatic action lies a layer or two of conflict, tension and/or suspense. The conflict does not have to be overt, but it must be present in some form. Fill a scene with tension or suspense or something unknown lurking in the shadows and you have yourself an exciting story. Remember that setbacks and failure create suspense, conflict and tension, not success or good news.
Essential Element #6: Emotional Change
Just as the action in every scene affects the overall emotional growth of your characters as a reflection of the entire work, the action also affects your characters emotional state at the scene level. In other words, the character’s mood changes because of what is said or done in that specific scene.
Essential Element #7: Thematic Significance
Thematic significance not only creates mood, it also creates the final layer of scene and the overall spirit of your story. Your reason for writing the story, what you want your readers to take away from having read it holds the key to your theme. When the details you use in scene support the thematic significance you have an intricately layered scene that provides meaning and depth to the overall plot.
Remember to include proper dialogue format, setting elements, characterization, and anything else on the Starkey Checklists for fiction.
BUILDING AND LAYERING A SCENE:
I think you can tell the sophistication of an author by the amount of layering going into a scene. We don’t want too little or too much…there’s a subtle balance to find. (I know there are tons of articles about this on the internet and I think the most important thing to remember is to find what works for you.) Some people layer as they go, others write a scene and then go back later to layer it.
Layering helps to REVEAL your characters.
So what is layering? It’s adding the texture, the personality to the scene, and personality to your characters. To build and layer a scene, there are seven things to think about adding.
1) Dialogue. What your character says…or doesn’t say is where a scene starts. The interaction, how characters relate to each other verbally shows so much about them. Do they watch their words? Are they brutally honest? Do their actions and reactions seem in line with the actual words? But then we need more, or all we have is a couple of talking heads.
2) Action. Action breaks up the dialogue. What types of action might your character be doing while she’s telling her ex-boyfriend to jump off a cliff? Maybe she’s reaching for a bat, which might hint to the reader that she’s got a bit of a temper. Or maybe she’s inching away, which hints to the reader that maybe the guy’s a bad guy…and hits.
Or…maybe she’s sliding into a fighting stance, subtly and naturally. Showing the reader that this guy may hit…and this gal knows how to fight.
Make the action a natural one for your character.
3) Reaction. We all react differently to situations. So will your characters…internally and in dialogue. If a guy comes at me with a bat, I’d probably hold up my hands and try to talk him out of smacking me. NOT the best defense. But my kick-ass heroine..well now. She’d go for the jugular. (I need to take a karate class, I think.)
4) Emotions. What are they? Characters can feel more than one emotion at a time…someone dumping their boyfriend might feel both relief and sadness. And our bodies react to emotions. What’s fun, is often the dialogue completely contradicts the emotions. Our heroine needs to keep her chin up, after all.
5)Senses. Use them all. But here’s a key: notice only what your character would notice. If your hero is color blind, there’s no reason to describe the sparkling blue of the heroine’s eyes. He can’t see that. He can see her lush hips, tilted chin…etc. And smell her natural lilac scent.
6) Setting/Atmosphere. Same thing here…your character might see a room differently than you do. I walk into my husband’s den, and I see it needs to be vacuumed and I left my favorite socks on the couch. He would see the pillows goofed up on the couch and know I let the dogs in and didn’t watch them. One of his buddies might walk in and let out a whistle at the ridiculously large television. A Broncos fan would walk in and snarl at all the Oakland Raider goodies. I don’t even see that stuff. You reveal your character by what they see, hear, smell…
7) Backstory. If you’ve done it right, numbers 1-6 have created your backstory for you. There’s no big info dump needed…you’ve spread it throughout. For example, my heroine walks into my home office. She immediately spots the fairy figurine on the desk, reminding her of the one her boyfriend Joe won at their small town’s fair last year. (Oh yeah, a bit of backstory WHILE the setting is being described.)
To sum up: Layer to round out your scene so the reader might as well be your character. Don’t layer to: Add word count…or describe a room. Your reader doesn’t care what the room looks likes. Your reader cares about what the room means to the character…and what he or she sees. And how what they notice reveals more about them.
