CRITIQUING SCENES

From Sandra Scofield’s The Scene Book: A Primer For the Fiction Writer (Penguin)

What is a scene? Scenes are those passages in narrative when we slow down and focus on an event in the story so that we are “in the moment” with characters in action. Or we can say that a scene is a segment of a story told in detail, the opposite of summarizing.

Four basic scene elements:

• Every scene has an EVENT.
• Every scene has a FUNCTION in the narrative.
• Every scene has a STRUCTURE: a beginning, middle, and end.
• Every scene has a PULSE.

There is a driving desire, need, or question that runs through a story… Each scene should contribute to the intensity of the driving need or question.

MORE TIPS & QUIPS

Each scene is like a little lily pad, moving a story from one part of the pond to the other. Each scene has to have its own energy and dynamic, reflected in dialogue and language. Each scene has to carry a different emotional register, so each one varies in weight. Otherwise, the reader isn’t sure when to care. — Award-winning short story author Gina Ochsner in Writer’s Digest  

A scene is like a single member of a family: It is loved for its own individuality, but its greatest power is its contribution to the larger group. — Raymond Obstfeld, Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes

Each scene is like a ministory: It has a beginning, middle and ending...[and] a “hot spot,” a point in which the action and/or emotions reach an apex. — Raymond Obstfeld, Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes

A scene is memorable because it catches the reader offguard. It’s like playing peekaboo with an infant: As soon as he figures out the pattern..., he gets bored. — Raymond Obstfeld, Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes

In a scene, you set your character in motion. — Josip Novakovich, Fiction Writer’s Workshop

It’s not good enough to open your story with your character becoming embroiled in a first-rate, complex, mind-boggling conflict. If you do not remind the reader of this complication at frequent intervals and ratchet up the intensity of those complications in multiple scenes, you will lose the momentum in the story. — Nancy Lamb, The Writer’s Guide to Crafting Stories for Children

Set up your scenes so obstacles are confronted in one scene, but not resolved until future scenes... Use the two steps forward, one step back rule... Overcoming one obstacle after another without a setback makes for dull reading. — Nancy Lamb, The Writer’s Guide to Crafting Stories for Children

Think of a memorable scene as an inner tube designed to keep the larger work afloat. — Raymond Obstfeld, Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes

[Treat] the beginning of a scene... as if it were a blind date. The reader is... your dream date. — Raymond Obstfeld, Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes

Rarely do scenes of chapters stay in the same order you thought they’d be in. I don’t think I’ve ever written a novel in which I didn’t rearrange scenes for greater impact. — Raymond Obstfeld, Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes

When contemplating a scene, if you can’t clearly establish the purpose for a scene, don’t create that scene. Use narration to make your point and convey your readership to the next scene. — James V. Smith, You Can Write a Novel

When scenes are linked by cause and effect, each scene is meaningful to all other scenes. — Martha Alderson, Blockbuster Plots

Each scene needs an immediate goal. — Martha Alderson, Blockbuster Plots

Much more [should be] at stake in Scene 10 than in Scene 1. — Martha Alderson, Blockbuster Plots

Understand scene and you begin to understand the essence of plot. — Martha Alderson, Blockbuster Plots

Every scene has a “hot spot,” the moment that the rest of the scene is built around... read the previous [paragraphs to see if they contribute] to that hot spot. — Raymond Obstfeld, Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes

An argument doesn’t end when someone makes a witty or stinging comment—it keeps going to the point where people are uncomfortable, frustrated, at a loss for words. So must the scene. — Raymond Obstfeld, Novelist’s Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes

Each scene has a mini plot structure—a tiny arc, with a step made toward the main character’s goal. That step precipitates tension or conflict... — Leslie J. Wyatt in “Do Make a Scene”; Children’s Writer

In scene, readers live. In summary, readers learn. — Leslie J. Wyatt in “Do Make a Scene”; Children’s Writer

The final scene is a snapshot of your protagonist in the aftermath, or at the very end of the significant situation. Final scenes should reveal that your protagonist has changed. — Jordan E. Rosenfeld, Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time

  Enroll now and see how our workshop can help you
craft and critique effective scenes.

« Tips Directory