Writing 101: How to Write a Scene

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When you have structured a plot and developed characters, you have answered the question: “Which story to tell?” Now you can move to the next one: “How to tell it?” Before we start searching for an answer, you need to understand four possible scenarios about story-building and story-telling.

1. You may have a great story and an exceptional delivery. You captivate a reader from the very first lines of your book, you keep the pace, you keep the tension, and at the end of the story readers say: “Oh my God, how couldn’t I foresee this when it was so obvious?”
2. You may have a great story and a poor delivery. In this case, you didn’t manage to evoke the proper feeling in the audience. Readers will still say at the end: “Oh my God, what the hell just happened?” But the problem is that they may not reach the end.
3. You may have a poor story and an excellent delivery. In this scenario, the audience likes reading your book, even though it doesn’t like the story itself. After the last page a reader will close it and will never think about it or recommend it to a friend. If you want to avoid this, spend some additional time thinking about the plot and characters.
4. You may have a poor story and a poor delivery. If you find yourself in such a situation, I think a new beginning in a different genre can be a good idea. Maybe what you wrote is not your area to work in.

Even though having a good story to tell is more important than having a stylish delivery, you still need to know several things on how to tell a story. In this article, I want to share some insights on scene writing.

A scene is a structural element or a building block of a story. Your plot and characters are a plan of a building. Scenes are materials which you use to build it. With the tips below you can be sure that you use only high-quality materials.

Ask three questions a scene should address

David Mamet states that every scene must answer three questions:

1. Who wants what from whom?
2. What happens if they don’t get it?
3. Why now?

Since you have already created a plot and characters, finding answers shouldn’t be hard, but natural. If you are stuck with any of the aforementioned questions, you’re in one of the following situations:

1. Your plot is not well-structured
2. Your characters have vague intentions
3. The scene is redundant

The last one is often the case. Every scene should move the plot forward because if it doesn’t, then you don’t need it and you should cut it. Cutting good scenes is something we, writers, hate, but need to do.

Show, don’t tell

Writers often say “Show, don’t tell.” The phrase is attributed to Anton Chekhov, who said:

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

Describing something with feelings and actions rather than author’s exposition can produce a much stronger effect. A good scene must get a reader right in the middle of the actions. Two techniques can help you with this:

1. Use different senses
   All human beings are different. Some of us can imagine a scene only with a visual description, some of us need smell, some of us need sensorial feelings, some of us need taste. Use all the senses to get the reader into the scene.
   Let’s suppose, you write a scene in a bakery. Tell about smells. Is it Cinnabon? Is it vanilla? Tell about visuals. Is there a stand with deserts? Are there waiters in funny hats? Tell about feelings. How does the doorknob feel when the hero opens it? Are chairs comfortable? Tell about tastes. Is the coffee too strong? Is the chocolate too sweet? Tell about sound. Is there any music? Is there loud noise of chatting people? Does a doorbell ring when you enter?
2. Use less “thought” verbs
   You can refer to Chuck Palahniuk’s article: Nuts and Bolts: “Thought” Verbs, where he proposes to ban “thought” verbs, such as “know,” “understand,” “realize,” “believe,” “remember” etc. Using different senses can help you in this as well.

There is a good question about “showing.” Do you need to show all your incidents with no exposition? The answer is: it’s up to you. James Scott Bell says:

“Sometimes a writer tells as a shortcut, to move quickly to the meaty part of the story or scene. Showing is essentially about making scenes vivid. If you try to do it constantly, the parts that are supposed to stand out won’t, and your readers will get exhausted.”

Orson Scott Card says that showing takes a lot of time and only dramatic scenes should be shown.

When you practice and write more, you will find your balance and voice of showing and telling.

Choose a viewpoint

Writers often use only one viewpoint throughout their whole book. They usually stick to the first or third person viewpoints (which are the most popular ones). However, viewpoints can become a strong tool in scene setting with just three things in mind.

1. Limit your third person viewpoint
   Third person can be divided into limited and omnipresent. Limited means that in one scene author reveals the thoughts and feelings of only one person. Omnipresent means that author discloses everything about everyone. It is not the best choice, usually. It kills tension, it creates a mess, and since there is always a better way to make an exposition, it is rarely used.
2. Use second person to create intimacy
   Second person viewpoint is good in short fragments that create strong dramatic effect or intimacy. For example, here is a fragment of Steven King, from Duma Key:
   You don’t think that kind of pain will pass, but it does. Then they ship you home and replace it with the agony of physical rehabilitation. The red began to drain from my vision.
   He created strong intimacy with second person viewpoint in just two sentences and went back to his initial first person viewpoint.
3. Change viewpoint to make it more interesting
   Changing a viewpoint can produce a strong dramatic effect for a limited third person point of view. When you write a scene think about which character’s viewpoint would be the most interesting, the most intriguing, and the most dramatic. Pick up that character and live this scene with him or her.
   You can even change viewpoint from first to third person, but be careful.
   For example, Blake Crouch in his Dark Matter changed the point from first person to third person, and it instantly answered all the questions about the book, killing the intrigue (at least for me).
   You cannot change viewpoint for an omnipresent third person, because you write from all the viewpoints at the same time.

Summary

Writing a scene make sure you:

1. Know the answers to the three questions every scene should address
2. Show dramatic scenes using all five senses and fewer thought verbs
3. Change viewpoints, but try not to use an omnipresent third person
4. Cut the redundant scenes

If you want to get some feedback on some of your scenes, feel free to post them here. Follow to stay tuned on my next writing on writing101 :)

Helping each other write better.