Unlock the secrets of compelling storytelling with three essential tactics for crafting powerful scenes. Dive into the art of narrative construction, exploring the tools that can transform your writing from mundane to mesmerizing.
Scene is where the pace of the story slows to “real time,” and we’re privy to every word, gesture, and sensory detail
This allows us to inhabit the story in a visceral way, and sends a clear message that what’s happening here is important-important enough that it cannot simply be narrated.
- Scene is also where the emotions are at their most intense
Set it Up, Then Step Back
Scene is the place where the reader experiences the emotions of the story most viscerally
- The best time to let the reader know what the character is feeling is not during the scene itself, but before that scene begins
- Placed intentionally, crafted well, and set up via emotional context and backstory, they may in fact be the most powerful tool of them all
Dramatize turning points
Situating scenes at the turning points of your story ensures that something will actually occur in these scenes, beyond sharing the basic exposition, characterization, and conflicts
- Often, writers have no intentionality about where they place their scenes, or what work they’ll actually perform for the story
Employ reversals
Every scene must employ a reversal of some type
- A reversal of power: scene in which one character holds more power than the other when the scene begins and that dynamic is reversed by the time the scene ends
- Reversals keep us engaged by providing a regular shot of dopamine in the form of surprise
