Stop Writing Boring Scenes -- Use this Secret 9-Step Formula
Summary
TLDRThis video script outlines nine key ingredients for crafting compelling scenes in a book. It emphasizes starting scenes late and ending them early to maintain reader interest. The script also advises using a plot engine in each scene, ensuring scenes multitask by advancing plot, character, and theme, and playing with time to build suspense. It stresses the importance of conflict, character change, essential plot progression, prioritizing actions and dialogue, and asking three critical questions about each scene's necessity and impact.
Takeaways
- 😀 Start scenes late and end them early to keep readers engaged.
- 🚀 Use a plot engine in every scene to propel the narrative forward.
- 🛠 Make scenes multitask by advancing plot, developing characters, and exploring themes.
- 🎬 Play with time within scenes to vary pacing and focus on critical moments.
- ⚔️ Conflict is essential in every scene, even if it's subtle or internal.
- 🌱 Show character change or growth within individual scenes, not just over the entire novel.
- 🔗 Ensure scenes are essential to plot progression and contribute to the overall story.
- 🗣️ Prioritize action and dialogue over thoughts and backstory to keep the story dynamic.
- 📖 Ask three essential questions for every scene: Can it be cut? Does it change something? Does it move the story forward?
- 🔍 Analyze scenes from favorite books or movies to understand their multifaceted contributions to the narrative.
Q & A
What is the first principle of writing a great scene according to the script?
-The first principle is to start late and end early. This means starting the scene as close to the action as possible without unnecessary preamble, and ending it right at the climax to create a cliffhanger effect.
Why is it important to start a scene late?
-Starting a scene late is important because it eliminates unnecessary lead-up information and background details, diving straight into the action to engage the reader immediately.
How does ending a scene early contribute to the story's pacing?
-Ending a scene early contributes to the story's pacing by creating a sense of urgency and suspense. It leaves the reader wanting more and encourages them to continue reading to the next scene.
What is a plot engine and why is it necessary for every scene?
-A plot engine is a driving force that propels the reader through the narrative, such as love, mystery, or conflict. It's necessary for every scene to keep the reader engaged and moving forward in the story.
Can you provide an example of a plot engine from the script?
-Yes, an example from the script is the hidden identity of John Brown in 'The Good Lord Bird' by James McBride, which creates conflict and interest in an otherwise mundane scene.
Why should scenes multitask in a story?
-Scenes should multitask to further the plot, develop characters, and advance themes. This ensures that each scene is contributing to the overall narrative and not just serving a single purpose.
How can playing with time enhance a scene?
-Playing with time can enhance a scene by speeding up less interesting parts and slowing down the critical moments. This allows the writer to control the pace and keep the reader engaged.
Why is conflict important in storytelling and scenes?
-Conflict is important because it drives the story forward and creates tension. Even subtle conflicts can add depth and interest to a scene, making it more engaging for the reader.
How can a character change within a single scene?
-A character can change within a single scene through making decisions, learning something new, or experiencing an event that affects their perspective or behavior.
Why is it essential for a scene to contribute to the overall plot progression?
-A scene must contribute to the overall plot progression to maintain narrative coherence and keep the reader engaged. Scenes that don't advance the story may be interesting but can disrupt the flow and cause readers to lose interest.
What should be prioritized in a scene: actions, dialogue, thoughts, or backstory?
-Actions and dialogue should be prioritized over thoughts and backstory to keep the scene dynamic and focused on the present moment. However, thoughts and backstory can be used effectively when balanced properly.
What are the three essential questions to ask about every scene?
-The three essential questions are: 1) What would happen if I cut this scene? 2) What is changed by the end of my scene? 3) How does this scene move the story forward?
Outlines
📚 Crafting Dynamic Scenes
The paragraph emphasizes the importance of scenes in storytelling, suggesting they are the building blocks of a great book. It introduces nine key ingredients for crafting the perfect scene that resonates with readers. The first principle is to start late and end early, meaning writers should avoid unnecessary lead-up and background information, diving straight into the action. Ending early implies concluding the scene at its climax to maintain suspense. The paragraph also stresses the need for a plot engine in every scene to propel the reader through the narrative, using examples from the book 'The Good Lord Bird' by James McBride to illustrate different types of plot engines such as hidden identity, threat of violence, and character lies.
🔄 Multitasking and Time Manipulation in Scenes
This section advises writers to ensure scenes are not just single-purpose but multitask by advancing the plot, developing characters, and reinforcing themes. It suggests an exercise to analyze favorite movie or book scenes to understand their multifaceted contributions to the story. The paragraph also encourages playing with the pace of scenes, varying the speed to maintain reader interest and avoid monotony. It recommends summarizing less exciting parts and focusing on critical moments to keep the narrative engaging.
⏱️ Time Manipulation and Conflict
The paragraph discusses the exercise of summarizing parts of a scene to manage time effectively, allowing the reader to skip less interesting segments. It underscores the necessity of conflict in storytelling, arguing that even subtle conflicts can drive narrative tension. The text advises against scenes where characters are overly agreeable, as this can lead to a lack of conflict. It also suggests that information exchange should be infused with conflict to keep the scene engaging. The paragraph briefly entertains the idea that some scenes might lack conflict but emphasizes that these are exceptions and that most scenes benefit from some form of disagreement or tension.
🌟 Character Development and Scene Essentials
This section focuses on character development within individual scenes, not just over the course of the entire novel. It encourages writers to consider how characters evolve in subtle ways through a single scene, creating tension and conflict. The paragraph also stresses the importance of scenes being essential to plot progression, sharing a personal anecdote about a scene that, despite being well-written, had to be removed because it did not contribute to the overall plot. It advises writers to view scenes as interconnected components of a narrative chain, each pushing the story forward.
🗣️ Prioritizing Action and Dialogue
The paragraph advises prioritizing action and dialogue over thoughts and backstory to keep scenes engaging. It suggests analyzing the ratio of these elements in a scene and adjusting if necessary to ensure a balance that favors the present moment. The paragraph concludes with three essential questions for every scene: whether the scene is necessary, what changes by the end of the scene, and how the scene advances the story and character development. These questions help determine if a scene earns its place in the book.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Start Late, End Early
💡Plot Engine
💡Multitasking Scenes
💡Time Manipulation
💡Conflict
💡Character Change
💡Essential to Plot Progression
💡Action and Dialogue
💡Three Essential Questions
💡Cliffhanger
💡Pacing
Highlights
Start late, End early: Scenes should begin as late as possible to avoid unnecessary lead-up information and end at the climax to maintain suspense.
Use an engine: Every scene should have a driving force, or 'engine', to propel the reader through the narrative.
Examples of plot engines include hidden identity, threat of violence, and characters lying.
Make your scenes multitask: Scenes should not only advance the plot but also develop characters and themes.
Play with time: Scenes can speed up or slow down to create tension and interest.
Supercharge conflict: Conflict is central to storytelling and should be present in every scene.
Make your character change: Characters should undergo subtle changes within a single scene.
Ensure scenes are essential to plot progression: Each scene should contribute to the overall narrative.
Prioritize actions and dialogue: Scenes should focus more on what's happening in the present rather than backstory or thoughts.
Three essential questions for every scene: Is it necessary? Does it change the story? Does it move the story forward?
Cannibalize other scenes: If a scene is not doing enough, consider combining elements from surrounding scenes to create a more powerful single scene.
Analyze scenes from favorite movies or books to understand how they accomplish multiple narrative tasks.
Avoid scenes that are too nice between characters; introduce conflict to keep the story engaging.
If a scene doesn't progress the plot, it may need to be removed, even if it's well-written.
Divide a scene into categories to check the ratio of action, description, dialogue, thoughts, and backstory.
Every scene should have a clear purpose and contribute to the reader's journey to the end of the book.
Readers will be more engaged if they feel the scene is necessary and moves the story forward.
Transcripts
if you can write a great scene you can
write a great book they are honestly the
building blocks of stories so in this
video we're going to talk about the nine
ingredients to make the perfect scene
the scene that readers will be talking
about at the end of the book the ones
that they're going to tell their friend
about when they say you got to read this
book the first principle is start late
End early this is honestly the most
important part of all the techniques I'm
going to give you if you get nothing
else from the rest of this video learn
this technique the vast majority of
writers write Soo scenes because they
start the scene way too early and
there's sort of like this leadup
information and then they dribble on at
the end and they don't close it out when
they should I want you to think about a
scene you haven't written yet and then I
want you to try to start it as late as
you possibly can into that scene nope
not that point think even further like
what's the very closest you can start
that scene to the action this is because
you don't want a preamble to your scene
like oh let me warm up the reader by
like telling them background information
no you want to dive straight into the
action now let's think about the end of
your scene a lot of they'll have the
high point of the scene the climax of
the scene and then they'll like talk a
little bit more and have a little bit of
dialogue and some extra stuff no you
want to get out early you want to end
that scene early which means right when
that climax happens maybe it's a
conflict maybe it's a line of dialogue
Houston we have a problem maybe it's an
act of violence maybe it's a revealed
secret answer me why do people think
that I'm you whatever that high point is
stop right there stop the scene put a
hashtag in the chapter and move on to
the next scene when you don't explain
when you don't show the the aftermath or
the character reaction the reader is on
the edge of their seat it feels like a
cliffhanger and so they're more likely
to want to read the next scene second
step in genius level scene writing is to
use an engine so every book has a plot
engine which propels The Reader through
the narrative sometimes love is an
engine the reader wants to see who's
going to get the girl who's going to get
the guy who's going to fall in love
sometimes it's a mystery or a murder
investigation or sometimes it's
interplanetary you want to see whether
this civilization will be destroyed or
saved most writers know that their
entire novel needs a plot engine but
they don't think about the plot engine
of their scenes guess what every scene
needs a plot engine too let me give you
some examples of plot engines for scenes
from the book the good Lord Bird by
James McBride first a hidden identity
here we have a famous abolitionist John
Brown and he's getting a haircut that's
not a super exciting scene but what
makes the scene interesting is people
keep asking him who are you who are you
and he refuses to tell them that's
because the person asking him is a slave
trader and he specializes in freeing
slaves but that withholding of
information and his hidden identity it
creates this wonderful Conflict for the
scene two a threat of violence in
another scene in the good Lord bird
there are two characters talking with
each other and one pulls out a gun and
trains it on the other one during the
whole conversation that threat of
violence keeps the reader on the edge of
their seat it's not just two characters
chatting with each other the presence of
the gun lets us know at any moment in
this conversation one of the people
could be shot here's a third plot engine
from a scene have a character lie in
another scene we see John Brown still
talking to slave Traders and he's lying
through his teeth I mean he's making up
false names for himself he's saying oh
I'm waiting for the steamboat even
though the steamboat isn't supposed to
arrive for another 2 weeks and that
lying power is the scene because it
makes you wonder when is he going to get
caught when is he going to get exposed
listen overall when you write a scene
you need a nameable strategy for what
makes this scene interesting what is the
engine powering your scene how are you
going to keep readers reading how are
you going to keep readers enjoying the
story three make your scenes multitask
no scene should be accomplishing just a
single thing that's a boring scene your
scenes need to be furthering the plot
and developing that character and
furthering that theme so take a scene
that you've written and start a list and
write down everything that you think
this scene is accomplishing to get us
closer toward the end of the book if
that list isn't very long that's a
really good sign that you need to add a
lot more to that scene to make sure that
it's pulling its weight now the second
exercise which you should do and it's
going to be very valuable so do not skip
it is to pick a scene out of your
favorite movie or book now write down
everything that that scene is
accomplishing in terms of setting mood
in terms of theme in terms of action in
terms of making the reader feel
something in terms of character
development in terms of plot really
spend some time on it and I think you're
going to see that that scene is doing so
much work and if you took that scene out
of that story the entire narrative would
collapse and one thing that you can do
when you find that you have a lazy scene
a scene that's not doing enough work is
that you can cannibalize other scenes
around it right you can take from the
scene after and try to do what it's
doing in this scene and the scene before
it and combine it and suddenly now you
just have one really powerful scene
instead of three scenes each doing one
thing fourth thing you should do with
your scenes is to play with time not
every scene needs to be moving at the
same Pace throughout a good scene often
speeds up during the most boring parts
and then it slows down for the most
critical Parts don't write cruise
control scenes that just move at the
pace of a movie move at clock time all
the way through this is one of the great
advantages you have as a writer rather
than as a Movie Maker right movies
generally move at clock time while in
writing you can speed up you can slow
down you can play with time you can skip
time a lot more easily a good exercise
to try is to try to summarize a certain
portion of a scene say you write half of
a scene clock Time characters are
speaking to one another then you need
some time to pass right so say oh they
finished up dessert and clean the dishes
and then they went to the living room to
talk more you've just summarized 15 20
minutes and now you've gotten to the
more exciting part so the reader doesn't
have to Wade through the boring stuff
five supercharg conflict conflict is at
the heart of all storytelling so if you
don't have conflict in a scene that
should be this giant red flag waving you
danger danger now I don't mean the
conflict has to be enormous sometimes
the conflict is very very small
sometimes it's very subtle for instance
say a couple is exchanging dialogue that
on its surface isn't Barbed or angry but
one of them is seething over household
chores that haven't been done right so
the conflict is in the thoughts but in
the actual dialogue there's not any
conflict and that's perfectly fine if
you find that your characters are being
too nice to one another that is a
problem and you have to find a way to
get conflict in perhaps another
characters making fun of them at the
same time and the most common problem
that I see as an editor when characters
are being nice to each other is when
they're just sharing information right
the author knows oh I need to further
this plot and these character needs to
talk about X Y and Z to get us to the
next scene giving information is kind of
boring though so you have to find a way
to get that information across with
conflict embedded in it maybe one
character doesn't believe the other
maybe one character disagrees with the
other about that information now let's
play devil's advocate for just a second
and let's say you say I don't think that
conflict is necessary for every scene I
mean there are exceptions to the rule
you might be able to find a very rare
scene in a movie or a book that doesn't
have conflict but most of the time if
you sort of peer under the hood and
really analyze what's going on there's
some level of disagreement embedded
between the two characters and if you
have a scene without conflict in your
novel you need to one come with the
reason why that scene is really
necessary for the book and two find a
justification for why that scene won't
bore the reader to death six make your
character change most of the time that
we talk about character Arts it's over
the course of the entire novel right and
you want to see the character change by
the very end I would encourage you to
think about character arcs on a micro
level how does a character subtly change
within a single scene by the time that
the scene is you should be able to
analyze your character at the beginning
of that scene at the end of the scene
and detect some sort of small learning
or changing or growth for instance they
might make a decision that shows them
maturing as a character or backsliding
right that's also change even if a
character is refusing to change that
fits inside the change umbrella because
the reader is wanting them to change and
yet they're refusing to change and so it
creates this wonderful tension and
conflict in the story and this is a
great way to see whether the glue of
your scene is holding together ask
yourself in what way does my character
change or grow or learn in this
particular scene Seven make sure it's
essential to plot progression so if you
look at the structure of a novel it's a
bunch of scenes lined up with each other
until you reach the end and you feel
satisfied for some reason and if a
reader doesn't feel that the scenes are
linking to one another and building
toward an end point they're going to
stop reading I once wrote an incredible
first chapter of a novel that featured
these geeky hilarious energetic American
soccer players hitting on European girls
in a club it was amazing I wanted to
structure the whole book around it there
was only one problem though it didn't
really link up to the next chapter
didn't build the overall plot line and
when I sent to agents that was pretty
much their feedback I'd promis one thing
in the query later but this particular
chapter didn't progress the plot so even
though that was one of my favorite
scenes I've ever written I had to delete
it because it didn't fit into the book
as a whole think of your scenes as a
series of box cars right each linked up
to one another and if the box car
doesn't pull the one before it and push
the one in front of it then you're not
creating a chain that's going to be
strong and linked and the reader is not
going to get through all of it eight
prioritize actions and dialogue over
thoughts and back story you know what a
great exercise is is to pick a scene
that you've written and then divide it
up into categories divide it up into
action description dialogue thoughts and
backstory and then figure out the
approximate ratio of each one is most of
it dialogue is most of it thoughts is
most of it backstory a bad scene often
contains far too high of a ratio of
backstory and thoughts and not enough of
the present moment action of what's
actually happening in the scene now I'm
not saying you don't need thoughts and
backstory both are great devices don't
get me wrong I'm just saying pay
attention to the ratios of what you're
doing in a particular scene if the
ratios are off that should flip a little
you know danger signal in your brain you
should think all right maybe I need to
rejigger this scene a little bit to make
sure things are actually happening right
now ninth and final point is three
essential questions for every scene one
what would happen if I cut this scene
it's always a great question to ask
yourself because if you can cut it and
the book doesn't suffer you don't really
need it in the book every scene should
be absolutely core for helping the
reader reach the end of the book two ask
yourself what is changed by the end of
my scene are we a little bit closer to
finding out the mystery are we a little
bit closer to two characters falling in
love or a little bit further away from
two characters falling in love and three
how does this scene move the story
forward what is it accomplish in terms
of character development in terms of
plot if you can answer all three of
those questions satisfactorily then you
have written a scene that has earned a
right to stay in your book
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