Writing Lesson: Scene Structure: One Domino Knocks the Next join for free to get your assignments critiqued by your peers
About Writing Lessons
Our lessons are dedicated to helping you improve your writing skills. We focus on important writing topics such as character development, writing dialog, drafting query letters, and more. The lessons are developed by professional editors, published authors, and university professors. Don't miss this opportunity to improve your writing by becoming a member, It's free.Synopsis
Without a solid structure, your story has nothing to hold itself up and keep readers turning pages. Keep them hooked by asking story and scene questions and then answering them in ways that push the story forward.Lesson© Review Fuse 2009
Lesson Assignment
Write a brief (500-word max) scene with a clear scene question that includes an answer to that question at the end. Use No/ No, and to make matters worse/Yes, but . . .
Since the answer should set up the next scene, don’t think of the exercise as a complete story, but a piece of a larger story.
Remember that the scene question and the main story question may not be the same thing.
Every story must have conflict, or it’s not a true story—it’s merely a laundry list of events. Who wants to read a random series of events? If a character wants nothing, has no problem, or has nothing at stake, what’s the point?
What would Star Wars be without fighting the Empire and Darth Vader (and in Episode 6, trying to destroy the Death Star)? What would Harry Potter be without Voldemort? Without the need to destroy the ring at all costs, Lord of the Rings would be nothing.
A novel generally has one major conflict, which asks the story question. (Will Luke destroy the Death Star? Will Harry and friends save the Sorcerer’s Stone? Will Frodo get the ring into the fires of Mordor?)
A novel also has several smaller conflicts—and smaller scene questions—along the way. (Will Luke get out of the trash compactor alive? Will Harry manage to get rid of Norbert the dragon? Will the Hobbits survive an Orc attack?).
Here are examples of scene questions from popular family movies. Note that these are scene questions, not main story questions:
Will Shrek save the princess from the fire-breathing dragon?
Will Cinderella ever finish her chores in time for the ball?
Will Maria find a way to make play clothes for the Von Trapp children?
Most of the time, the answer to the scene question will be one of three things:
No.
Yes, but . . .
No, and to make matters worse . . .
Does Shrek save the princess?
Yes, but . . . now she expects him to be her prince charming—not what he signed up for.
Will Cinderella ever finish her chores in time for the ball?
No, and to make matters worse . . . her step-sisters destroy the dress the mice made for her.
Will Maria find a way to make play clothes for the Von Trapp Children?
Yes, but . . . when the captain finds out, he is irate, so Maria gets in trouble.
Each answer to the scene question puts the next scene into play, like a domino knocking over the next tile, setting up the next scene’s question. All of the scenes together point toward the over-arching, main story question, which will be answered at the end of the book. (Yes, Luke destroys the Death Star!)
With your structure in place, complete with scene questions and answers, the story will move forward, and your reader will keep turning pages to find out what’s going to happen next.
(For more on this topic, see Jack M. Bickham’s book Scene and Structure.)