Any story that you write—whether it’s
a 500 word flash piece or a 300,000 word epic—needs to have scenes. But what is
a scene? You’ve probably heard various things from various sources. What I have
to say on the matter may not be what you think a scene is, but it is what I
consider a scene to be. This is how I write scenes, and I think it’s the most
effective construction.
A scene must have three things: a
goal, conflict, and change. These three aspects of a scene are equally
important. Without one of them, the scene fails to be effective. Without two,
the scene falls flat. Without any of them, it ceases to be a scene. Most short
fiction comprises of very few scenes. A novel can have anywhere from a few
dozen to a hundred scenes. Scenes can vary in length. I’ve written scenes that were
less than 500 words and others that were over 4000 words. As long as the scene
accomplishes the three things mentioned above, then it doesn’t matter how long
it is.
When writing a scene, the first thing you need to figure out is what the main character wants. What is their goal? What do they hope to accomplish? By the end of the scene, the main character will have either succeeded or failed their goal. For example, in my novel The Clockwork Giant, the first scene follows the main character Petra as she attempts to apply to the University in disguise. Her goal is to successfully fool the applications supervisor. The scene ends shortly after she fails.
Once the scene has a goal, you need
to introduce conflict. There must be two opposing forces, something that the
protagonist needs to overcome. This can be an actual person, the main character’s
conflicting opinion or feelings, weather, time, etc. For example, in the first
scene of The Clockwork Giant, the
applications supervisor is Petra’s antagonist. He quashes Petra’s hope of
applying to the University and sends her on her way. Because of him, she fails
her goal. The first scene of this book has a clear antagonist for the conflict,
but that is not always the case. Think of the first scene of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Mr. Dursley is the protagonist. His particular goal is to maintain normalcy.
The conflict exists between his goal of normalcy and the occurrence of abnormal
things in his daily life—the cloaked men, the owls, the shooting stars on the
news, the cat reading a map. These are subtle antagonists, attackers on Mr.
Dursley’s normalcy. By the end of the scene, Mr. Dursley’s normalcy is vanquished
with the arrival of his magical nephew, Harry.
As you can see, conflict and goal should
be closely related. If your conflict does not match your goal, then your scene
isn’t living up to its full potential. Shape the conflict to meet the goal.
The final thing a scene needs is
change—a shift in the status quo. This can be emotional change, new knowledge,
a change of stakes, anything that changes
the course of the story. The best scenes incorporate all of these changes, and
the more extreme the change, the better. Though, subtle changes work well too,
as long as there is another, stronger change present. For example, in the first
scene of The Clockwork Giant, the
scene starts with Petra confident that she will be successful in fooling the
applications supervisor. As the scene progresses, and the supervisor rejects
her application, Petra’s confidence transforms into hopelessness. She learns
that fooling the University into letting her apply isn’t going to be as easy as
she thought. The scene finishes with Petra sad, returning to her normal life,
her dreams shot—the opposite of what she had hoped for in the beginning of the
scene.
Change very heavily relies on goal
and conflict. This is why the lack of one of these aspects can cause a scene to
fail. And if the three aspects of the scene are not synchronous with one
another, then the scene will not be as effective as it could be. Remember: change
comes from the conflict, and conflict comes from the goal.
A story is a sequence of scenes, a series
of goals, conflicts, and changes. Just remember the three aspects of a scene
while you are writing, and you shouldn’t have any problems. If you do come
across a problematic scene, reexamine it. Is the goal clear at the beginning of
the scene? Does my conflict reflect the goal? Am I missing conflict? How does
the story change by the end of this scene?
Do
you have any questions about scenes? Do you have any other advice concerning
scenes?
No questions, just gives me something to think about as I beging the process of revising/editing my first draft for my WiP.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this.