Defining a Scene
As I’ve mentioned a few times before, I’ve been going through my work in progress scene by scene. Each index card represents a scene. The challenge here is you’ll run short of scenes pretty quick. And then you start thinking about the scenes you have. Some of them are actually two scenes. There’s a traveling scene where something happens, and then another scene that depicts the arrival, where something happens. It’s easy to think of those two as one scene, because you have a ‘traveling arrival’ — but if the focal point of each is different. If there is a different dramatic build up and conclusion to both of those, then you have two scenes, not one.
So this is what I’ve been dealing with lately. I’m about 20 scenes short of completing my scene arrangement. But when I look at my list of scenes, I’ve pretty much captured everything I wanted. I can’t add a lot more without going into B.S. land. On closer examination, it appears that some of my scenes are actually two scenes. Which explains why my scene count is so low.
If you end up working this way, don’t be surprised if your scene count comes up short. You’ve probably got a few scenes hiding within other ones. Do a second pass evaluation, and any scenes that have a multi-focus should probably be split into two or more scenes. That fixes two problems; One, it keeps scenes focused on one dramatic problem at a time. Two, it broadens your scene count and fills out your story.
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August 24th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
August 25th, 2006 at 4:00 am
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August 24th, 2006 at 10:15 am
Heh, you’re really organized about this. I write the scene first, then split it up. Which explains why I’m in Revision Hell right now. Good post.
August 24th, 2006 at 11:25 am
I find it interesting how everyone works. I do outlines. I know approximately how many chapters I’ll have and then as my story works itself out I fill in chapters (which are kind of like the ’scenes’ in a way)
Once I have the rough outline of the scenes then I start writing and that’s when I really start to fill things in. That’s when characters I didn’t have plans for suddenly tell me they have staying power…when initial ideas change…when I flesh out ideas or totally ditch them.
August 24th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
I do it this way because I’ve tried most the other ways and, as you point out Kathleen, they lead to revision hell.
I don’t think it’s impossible to make all the decisions that need to be made for a scene, before you write it. A lot of people bank on the ‘unexpected discovery’ and I’m sure as I rewrite further ideas will bubble to the surface. But the characters, setting, and conflict of a scene are something you can decide well in advance. HOW that conflict plays out in it’s various flavors or forms is what you can explore in the writing.
But I like to know the Who, When, Where, What, Why before I begin a scene. Otherwise I feel the scene is probably placeholder, filler, junk, or simply the wrong direction because I didn’t know where I was headed to begin with, etc.