PRIEST: Novelist | Astonishing Scenes

Most beginners start writing with the entire novel in mind – that is to say, with the entire concept in mind. They write furiously with the intention of getting from Page One to Page Four Hundred. This is rather like inhaling a steak – you’ll choke. And they always do.

Soon thereafter, the job simply becomes “too big”. This is because the writer sees the novel as one story, an indivisible whole. To eat that steak, you must chop it up into bits you, and your audience, can chew. We call these bits Chapters and Scenes.

So, why isn’t this section called “Chapter” instead of “Scene”? Let me answer that with a question: Do you remember entire novels, or do you remember particular moments in the novel? Precisely. We remember scenes, not whole chapters or novels. We have vague imagery of an entire work, but we have more detailed recollection of particular scenes we favor or dislike. Scenes are the essence of novel writing. Master the scene, and you master the novel. Chapters organize scenes within a novel.

A scene can best be illustrated by the analogy of dreams. You might never remember the specifics of an entire dream – the “novel” your mind has created – but you can recall bits and pieces of some significance. Those are your scenes. Films are dependent upon scenes, even more than stories. You are drawn to see them by clips and trailers depicting particular scenes. You pay for your ticket and sit down in the theater hoping for more scenes like the ones you saw previously. Sometimes you are satisfied; other times, you’re not.

We talked about films that have “no plot”. Often the scenes aren’t constructed well, thus failing to illustrate the plot, thus leading to the audience wondering if there ever truly was one. One more thing: We tend to remember the bad ones equally as well as we remember the good ones.

Scenes have structure, just as novels do. They serve a purpose, and keeping the purpose in mind helps you avoid writing bad scenes. It helps you organize your novel according to themes and moods instead of a progression of events. You must separate life from fiction – in fiction those events tend to mean something in the long run. This gives us hope that life is the same way, even if we can’t figure out what it means just yet.

There are several ways to begin with scenes:

Look at your Plot: Your plot isn’t just a good idea. Read the plot outline and ask yourself, “Does this scene address the plot?” If so, then make a note of what it addresses in the plot. In the section called Scene Construction, you can fill in a form that contains that very question and many more.
Look at your Theme: Is the scene illustrating the theme of the piece? Is it answering a key question or asking one? This is a good time to check and see if you want to change the theme or alter the mood.
Look at your Characters: What are they doing? Should you address something regarding their actions or who they are? A character’s actions produce consequences – what are those consequences, and how do they relate to the plot or the theme?
Look at your Setting: Every event has a time and a place. Has the time or place moved dramatically? Does the pace change? Do you need to reset the mood for the scene, or will it continue the one before it?
Look at Yourself: What the hell are you trying to say here? If you’re just adding an action scene to further the plot, you should know what you’re doing and stick to it. If you’re looking for a deep and meaningful scene, full of pathos and heartache, you might want to create it a bit differently from the obligatory action scene.

These are a few that come to mind, with regard to the overall scene. We will also look at the elements that make scenes work.