by Pat Bertram
Member since:
October 4, 2007

Scenes -- No Whine, Just Champagne Writing Discussion #183

April 12, 2012 03:35 AM UTC
views: 0 | 5 people recommend this | comments: 20

Scenes are the basic unit of a story. One could argue that words or sentences or even paragraphs are the basic unit, but those are just the tools. Scenes, on the other hand, are stories within the story that advance the story. Scenes show us more about the characters, show us how the action changed the hero, or show a change in the relationship between the participants. Scenes are always about change, about action, and reaction.

So, tonight let's talk about scenes, how we write them, why we write them, what we hope to accomplish with our scenes, how scenes work together to create the whole.

As always, any topic that will help us improve our writing is fair game in these discussions, so feel free to bring up any of your writing concerns.

Let's talk.

The group No Whine, Just Champagne will meet here at this article for a live discussion about writing and the writing life on Thursday, April 12, 2012 at 9:00pm ET (8pm CT, 7pm MT, 6pm PT). Hope to see you, but if you can't make it then, the discussion will continue during the days afterward, so please stop by and tell us what you think.

Comments: 20

L V Gaudet Apr 12, 2012, 9:04pm UTC
Scenes can do so much more than just set the stage. And that is basically what a scene is, the stage setting for that act.

In movies, the scene is set with lighting, backdrop (location and whats around), and music, all putting the viewer into the mood whether it's funny, romantic, or frightening.

We have to do that all with just words, but when a reader loses themself in those words they can have a powerful impact that can make the reader imagine the effects on all their senses.
Pat Bertram Apr 12, 2012, 9:07pm UTC
What made me think of this topic is that I'm writing a chapter on sex scenes for a writing handbook Second Wind is putting out, and my premise is that a sex scene is basically a scene, something that is intrinsic to the story, not something thrown in just because it's time.
Pat Bertram Apr 12, 2012, 9:08pm UTC
An effective scene—sex or not—serves multiple objectives. Scenes advance the story, show us more about the characters, show us how the action changed the hero, or show a change in the relationship between the participants. Scenes are always about change, about action, and reaction.
Pat Bertram Apr 12, 2012, 9:08pm UTC
Once you know the objective, you can write a fitting action/reaction sequence (which is the basic building block of a scene). If comfort is the objective, you can show the couple together at the beginning, close the door during the action, and show them cuddling afterward. If tenderness is the objective, you can show a bit of the action in addition to the before and after. And of course, if their desperation for each other is the objective, you will need to leave the door open during the scene. As with all resonating scenes, when it is over there must be some reaction, some change to the character or the direction of the story. And the objective dictates that reaction. If the scene was about bringing comfort to the characters, we need to know whether they found comfort or failed to find it, and we need to know the characters’ emotional response to the success or failure of that objective. This reaction, in turn will help set up the next scene.
L V Gaudet Apr 12, 2012, 9:17pm UTC
Sex scenes, probably more than most other scenes, need to have a purpose other than just being there for show. It's not movies where the nipples through the shirt shot, nearly naked butt shot, and cleavage are tossed in just to get the 12 year old boys and like-minded men to watch.

Readers are involved on a deeper level and will likely be turned off by a sex scene that serves no purpose beyond getting the characters sweaty.
Pat Bertram Apr 12, 2012, 9:20pm UTC
Sex scenes are really good for showing what characters are like in a moment of vulnerability. And they are good for showing the ebb and flow of human connection. For example, you could have three scenes spread throughout the story. In the first scene, perhaps, the man climaxes, feeling connected to the woman. When he immediately goes to sleep, she feels disconnected. In the second scene, he can’t get it up, leaving him feeling disconnected, but since he tries to make it up to her by cuddling her, she feels connected. In the third scene, they climax together, perhaps cuddle afterward, so they both feel connected.
Pat Bertram Apr 12, 2012, 9:21pm UTC
Actually, that's a good outline for a short story. Hmmm. I'll have to remember that if I ever need to do a love story.
L V Gaudet Apr 12, 2012, 9:31pm UTC
It can definately be used to say a lot about the characters. Are they selfish or giving by nature, cruel or tender, rushed or easy going and taking their time, anxious or confident.

And possibly the biggest - do they actually let their guard down and be vulnerable or act without emotion or thought, hiding behind their indifference.
Pat Bertram Apr 12, 2012, 9:32pm UTC
A sex scene is a good time to show a character confronting her essence, to play on her self-concept (the treasured idea the character has of herself). What if a character were making love to a person other than a spouse? Would this lovemaking enhance his or her self-concept, or would it go against it? If the scene enhanced the character’s self-concept, we would learn much about the character. Perhaps she sees herself as a great lover, in which case nothing mattered except the lovemaking—not her marriage vows, not her husband, not her children—and so we would learn kind of character she is. If the scene went against the character’s self-concept, then we have a character with inner conflicts. Perhaps the character sees herself as a faithful, till-death-do-us-part wife. In which case, no matter how exciting or tender the scene, it leaves her in turmoil.
James R. Apr 12, 2012, 10:24pm UTC
I'd agree that a sex scene is a scene at heart, but one where sex plays an important role. As noted above, it can show people at their vulnerable, but many other emotions are possible. In my WIP, there are sex scenes where the MC is involved with somebody other than their primary partner, which creates a wide variety of extra tensions, before, during and after the scene.
Pat Bertram Apr 12, 2012, 10:39pm UTC
A sex scene is a good time to show a character confronting her essence, to play on her self-concept (the treasured idea the character has of herself). What if a character were making love to a person other than a spouse? Would this lovemaking enhance his or her self-concept, or would it go against it? If the scene enhanced the character’s self-concept, we would learn much about the character. Perhaps she sees herself as a great lover, in which case nothing mattered except the lovemaking—not her marriage vows, not her husband, not her children—and so we would learn kind of character she is. If the scene went against the character’s self-concept, then we have a character with inner conflicts. Perhaps the character sees herself as a faithful, till-death-do-us-part wife. In which case, no matter how exciting or tender the scene, it leaves her in turmoil.
Pat Bertram Apr 12, 2012, 9:10pm UTC
Some writing coaches suggest removing your weakest scene, and then removing your next weakest scene. It helps strenghten the story. Too many weak scenes make a story seem trivial. Everything needs to be in service to the story, needs to show why the story is NOT trivial.
L V Gaudet Apr 12, 2012, 9:21pm UTC
Sometimes the hard part can be determining what are the weakest scenes. What the writer might think is weak and what another thinks is weak isn't always the same. Probably in large part because the writer is invested in every scene and you can't help but have your favorites, even if some of them are the runts of the litter.
Pat Bertram Apr 12, 2012, 9:26pm UTC
That's true -- we do have so much of ourselves invested that often it's hard to tell. Time helps. With A Spark of Heavenly Fire, it wasn't until about a year after the book was finished, when I was doing the final final final edits (I always thought my edits were the final edits, but somehow there were always additional edits) that the weak scenes jumped out at me. They were the ones I was skimming rather than reading. I was a bit bored by them or tired of them, so that's when I had a "duh" moment. If I found them boring, then so would a reader. Admittedly, my boredom didn't show up until the twentieth or thirtieth reading, but still . . .
James R. Apr 12, 2012, 10:27pm UTC
An interesting thought, getting Darwinian about which scenes to keep. I'm doing editing on scenes I wrote a few years back now. In some cases, I'm taking exposition and turning it into real time interaction; in other cases later in the book, I anticipate it will go the other way.
L V Gaudet Apr 12, 2012, 9:39pm UTC
Other scenes too can add to the story without obviously adding to the story. Scenes that are there to reveal bits of the characters personality and what drives them or pushes them back. Or gives a glimpse at their strengths and weaknesses that will be tested later in a more important scene, things you want hinted at for the reader to discover later without having to spell it out in the later scene.
Pat Bertram Apr 12, 2012, 9:44pm UTC
All good points. The only thing a scene can't do is to do nothing, to leave everything the way it is without any change. If there is no change, no disconnect or reconnect, no shifting of focus or twisting the plot, then it isn't really a scene.
James R. Apr 12, 2012, 10:20pm UTC
For me, writing scenes is at the core of writing a story. In many respects, a novel is a collection of scenes. As I got more comfortable writing scenes, the concept writing a novel that connected them all up became possible.
Pat Bertram Apr 12, 2012, 10:42pm UTC
Definitely, the core of the story. There are many elements to storytelling, but they all seem to come together in a scene -- character, objectives, motivation, action, reaction, change.
Sheila Deeth Apr 16, 2012, 8:01pm UTC
Scenes feel like the way the story grows, giving shape to it, like leaves on a tree.

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