The price for plotting? You must search for meaning within your scenes.

Bob and Alice meet up at the local Tex Mex restaurant, and argue about welfare. That’s a plot.

Let’s say Bob is against it, and Alice is for it. You can sit down and just write it, and let the scene develop a life of its own. But without more character dirt, that’s going to be hard to do. You may end up writing a few lines, and just staring at the page. The mere plot may not be enough to sustain your writing.

You need reasons for why the characters believe the things they do. It’s the ultimate question of “Why?”

Let’s say Bob is against welfare because his family was on welfare when he was a kid, and he saw how the ‘free money’ made his Mom too lazy to apply for a job anywhere. As an adult, Bob is a go-getter, a breadwinner and proud of it. Maybe he bootstrapped a small business and made a name for himself.

Let’s also say Alice has four kids and can’t afford day care. She relies on the support of her family, and welfare. She knows without it, she’d be doomed.

When Bob and Alice meet, they are at polar opposites of the spectrum in their belief on welfare. Maybe the scene starts with them talking about something harmless, and then a homeless person walks by the window of the restaurant, hassling people for money. Bob makes a comment how bums should get jobs, and so should people on welfare. Alice becomes offended. They argue.

Maybe the overall story plot has Alice storming off upset at the end of this scene. Or Alice can’t afford to pay for the meal, and has to drop hints that Bob should pay for it, only further incense him on the topic of paying other peoples’ way in life.

As the writer of this story, you’d now move on to other questions:

“What is the point of putting Bob and Alice in this kind of disagreement?”

If they are dating, maybe this is just relationship conflict. Or maybe Bob needs Alice to sign off on something, like selling some land she inherited to Bob so Bob can use it for his business. This probably would have been dictated in the overall plot, but the connection is important. There’s a dramatic need for a scene like this. If Alice just gives Bob the deed to her family’s land, then there wouldn’t be a story and Bob would get exactly what he wants from page one.

I’ve found that this is where scenes can get difficult to write. Some of these thematic connections and meanings may not be obvious. You may have plotted a scene on paper, perhaps even months before you started writing. But now you’ve got to formulate reasons for everything.

The scene isn’t just a bunch of events — it’s a search for meaning. The events within the scene have to mean something not only to Bob and Alice, but also to the writer — it’s the only way they’ll mean something to the eventual reader. Each scene positions the story for the next scene, and the overall development of the story.

Sometimes it’s difficult to dig down deep and mine some meaning out of a scene. But if writing didn’t involve a search for meaning, would it even be worthwhile?