building a scene

Building a scene

Story scenes: What they do and why they matter

Each scene of your novel has multiple jobs to do. Among other functions, scenes move the story forward, keep the reader engaged, and establish character motivations and cause and effect. For example, a scene might begin with a character missing a train. As a result, the character may be late for meeting someone. Depending on how your story is structured, this could cause minor ripples, or the consequences could be catastrophic. For example, the meeting might be a job interview, and the character could not get the job as a result. It could be a meeting with someone who is fed up with the character’s lack of reliability, and this lateness might be last straw. It might be an important final meeting with someone the character is in love with but has no further contact information for and may never see again. That person might leave the meeting spot thinking they have been forgotten. These scenarios all have high dramatic potential.

Catching your breath: Scenes and Sequels

You may have read about the three-act structure and thought about how you would structure your own book with plot and character arcs. However, you might not have considered that individual scenes have their own structure as well.

Dwight Swain, who wrote the book Techniques of the Selling Writer, divides scene structure into two separate approaches that he calls scenes and sequels. Both scenes and sequels as described by Swain are actually scenes, so this terminology is a bit confusing. According to this approach, a scene has a pattern of goal, conflict and disaster while a sequel is composed of a reaction, a dilemma and a decision. A scene must always be followed by a sequel for pacing reasons. You cannot have one goal, conflict and disaster after another. The idea of having a sequel is that between scenes the your characters (and your readers) have time to catch their breath and reflect on what has occurred.

Swain breaks down scene structuring on a smaller scale into what he calls Motivation-Reaction Units or MRUs. These MRUs consist of the character’s individual motivations and reactions as they lead into one another.

The rigidity of this approach to creating scenes is one of its shortcomings as is the complexity of Swain’s terminology. Furthermore, not every writer works in such a linear and restrictive fashion. While it is a model that a writer might find useful sometimes, there are less complicated ways to think about and plan out scenes.

Building scene structure visually;

It can sometimes be easier to structure your scenes using visual aids instead of relying on a list in a notebook or on a computer. The visual approaches listed below may spark your creativity and will give you the ability to move your ideas around and see how the parts of your story fit together:

Mind mapping is one of the best tools for learning how to write a novel using visual aids. You can mind map in a notebook, on a whiteboard or using a computer program. Simply put, a mind map begins with an object in the middle of the page. For example, you might know that a scene starts with a couple arguing about something. That is your beginning point. Write this down in the centre of your page in a box or bubble From there, you can add more shapes branching out containing ideas about what happens next, the emotional mood of the scene or anything else you think is relevant. The particular incident you start with might be only one in a much larger mind map for a chapter or an entire novel.

Index cards can be colour coded to mark different types of scenes or sections of your novel. You might choose to include specific information about each scene on the index cards. For example, each card might describe the scene in a sentence or two and then name the primary element that this scene deals with such as advancing the plot or developing the character. You could also use the index card approach to ‘troubleshoot’ your first draft. On each card, you can indicate what a corresponding scene accomplishes and note whether the scene achieves its purpose or needs something additional, whether this is more dialogue, character development or some careful cuts.

Story-boarding is a common approach to scene-writing used by filmmakers, comics writers and other storytellers who work in visual mediums. In story-boarding, you literally sketch out the big moments of your scene. Don’t worry if you can’t draw; this is for your eyes only, and it’s fine to use stick figures to represent your characters. Your only concern is making sure you can tell your characters apart on your storyboard. As is the case with using mind mapping and index cards, story-boarding gives you the opportunity to see how scenes link with one another and the larger story.