Writing Story Scenes

Scenes and Beats §

• Treat scenes as mini-arcs. The same methods in writing plot apply. Run action sequences as mini-stories with an established motivation, back-and-forths, and a resolution.
• Scenes turn because of actions or revelations. Something must be done, or new insight must be gained.

Turning Points §

• Strive to write scenes which are a display of minor, moderate, or major turning points — where story values change and something meaningful changes.
• Turning points lead to: surprise, increased curiosity, insight, and new direction.
  • Surprise comes from the dissonance between audience expectation and reality.
  • Curiosity comes from the audience asking “why?”
  • Insight comes from the audience’s introspection based on what they have seen so far in the story, developing a deeper appreciation.
  • Each new bit of insight and objective reality in the story points to a new direction the story can take.
• To tell a story is to tell a promise. Insight is the audience’s reward for paying attention.
• Our most powerful means of self-expression is the unique way we turn the story.

Setup / Payoff §

• To setup is to place knowledge in the story. To payoff is to close the gap between expectation and result by delivering knowledge to the audience.
  • Satisfying setup takes on a new meaning once the payoff has been delivered.
  • Satisfying setup must strike a balance between not being too subtle to be missed, but too heavy-handed to be obvious and render the story predictable.
• Proper payoff means that the audience can look back on the story told so far and think that they can spontaneously discover all the insights hidden in the story.
  • Payoff in itself can set up a new scene.
• In storytelling, you can setup what may seem absurd, and then make it rational. Reasoning is secondary and post creativity Primary to everything else is imagination.

Emotional Dynamic §

• We render a precise experience necessary to cause an emotion.
• As audience, we experience an emotion when the telling takes us through a transition of values. Feelings make emotions specific.
  • Story must create dynamic alterations between positive and negative emotion in order to obey the Law of Diminishing Returns. Thus, the first time of experiencing an emotion that is in full effect.
  • Thus vary emotions throughout the story. Don’t just hit one emotional note.
• We can use mood to set audience anticipation. Emotions determine the arc of the scene. Mood makes it more specific.

Choice §

• Turning points are centered around a choice a character makes under pressure
• Choices are byproducts of dilemmas — choices between irreconcilable goods or the lesser evil. Simple moral choices are not interesting to watch.
• To construct and create genuine choice, frame a three-sided situation. This is in service of avoiding repetition that makes the choice feel boring for the audience.
• An original work poses choices between unique but irreconcilable desire. Choice must be between either positive desires or negative desires of equal weight and value.

Beats §

• The flaws of an ill-designed scene lie in its story beats—what is shown (text) and what is implied (subtext).
  • When we say writing is “on the nose”, it means that we are writing only the text not the subtext. The scene is about what it is about.
  • Subtext gives the characters more life—true to life, there is a duality between conscious and unconscious, but unlike life, stories give the audience the opportunity to read the subtext.
    • Remember: characters never act the complete truth.
• More beats = Audience is more grounded on the scene. The subtext becomes more important. Less beats = More attention on the dialogue.

Scene Analysis §

• Consider this procedure to analyze a scene:
  • Define conflict: Who drives the scene, motivates it, and makes it happen? What do they desire? What forces of antagonism blocks this desire? What does this antagonistic force want?
    • It is preferable if the antagonist’s desire conflicts directly with the protagonist’s
    • Conflict should be apparently relevant to the characters’ motivations and desires, not conflict that the audience knows will be a problem later but not now.
  • Note Opening Value: What story value is at stake in the scene? What is this value’s state at the beginning of the scene?
  • Identify beats: What are the actions / reactions in the characters’ behaviors? A beat is defined by a change in behavior.
    • Outwardly: What do characters seem to be doing?
    • Inwardly: What are the characters actually doing? Describe this not only through actions but through the character’s emotions and thoughts
  • Note Closing Value and Compare with Opening Value: What is the situation at the end of the scene? Compare the story values at the end of the scene with those from the beginning? What changed?
    • If nothing changed, nothing happened.
  • Survey Beats and Locate Turning Point: Scenes play like arcs, so locate the point where a gap between expectation and result appears. This is the turning point. Is the turning point in an appropriate place? Not too early or too late?

Scene Composition §

• The process of creating sequences by ordering and linking scenes together.

Unity and Variety §

• A story, even when expressing chaos, must be unified. It must make sense to say: “Because of X, Y had to happen.”
• Within unity, induce as much variety as possible to make the story feel fresh. Touch on different aspects. Explore different perspectives. Add humor.

Pacing §

• Remember: too much tension, the story feels chaotic. Too much relaxation, the story feels boring. This appears to be a pattern in general
• Pacing means to alternate between dramatic tension and relaxation. The story should not run with dramatic pressure held constant.

Rhythm and Tempo §

• Rhythm is set by the length of the scene — How long are we in the same time and place? More importantly, how often do scenes happen?
• Tempo is the level of activity within a scene via dialogue, action or a combination.
• In a well-told story, progression accelerates pace—shorter scenes with more action towards the climactic moment that is long, slow, and tense.
  • Law of Diminishing returns applies. The more often you slow pace, the less of an impact the next slow paced scene becomes.

Progression §

• When a story progresses, it calls upon greater and greater change. Expectations heighten as length increases. We can express this progression in different ways:

• Social Progression - widen the impact of the character actions into the story. Progress from personal to societal / universal.

• Personal Progression - drive actions deeply into the intimate relationships and inner lives of the characters. Progress from outer self to inner self.

• Symbolic Ascension - build the symbolic change of the story’s imagery from the particular to the universal. Progress from having symbolic elements stand for literal ideas towards universal ideas.

• Ironic Ascension - turn progression into irony. Progression comes from showcasing the duality of existence. A reminder life is fickle and complex.. Some examples are found in McKee Ch. 12

Principle of Transition §

• Stories without a sense of progression stumble from one scene to the next — there is little continuity.
• The transition is a hinge between two scenes — something held in common by them or counterpointed between them (characterizations, actions, objects, words, atmosphere, setting, ideas).

Links §

• McKee Ch 10 - 12