TECH: Make A Scene #15: Contemplative Scenes

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Original posting 3 August 2008

Chapter 15: Contemplative Scenes

Walking through Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld, in Part Three about scene types, suspense scenes, and dramatic scenes, we now turn our attention to contemplative scenes.

"Contemplation -- the act of careful consideration or examination of thoughts and feelings and smaller details -- is the antithesis of action." Rosenfeld suggests that good contemplative scenes:

• have more interior monologue than action or dialogue
• are slow-paced, letting the reader get a deep intimate look at the protagonist's inner life
• focus on the protagonist interacting with self and setting more than other characters
• give the protagonist time to digest what is happened and decide what to do next
• let the character reflect and the reader catch their breath before or after an intense scene

These are good for thoughtful consideration and reflection, but they're also slow. So you need to balance the pace.

Interior monologue is the mark of contemplative scenes. The protagonist is thinking, and the reader learns things about the plot and character from those thoughts. The old convention of italics for interior monologue is usually now simple, elegant exposition. Remember that interior monologue is very intimate, with the reader inside the mind of the character.

Contemplative scenes often open with interior monologue, setting description, or transitional action. You need to let the reader know quickly that we're going to slow down.

If you start to contemplative scene with interior monologue, make sure that the thoughts are related to the scene that just ended. Don't make readers guess what the protagonist is reflecting about.

Setting description, on the other hand, gives the reader a little bit of physical reality, then dives into the thoughts. Use the setting details to kick off the character of thinking and feeling. This little bit of interaction with the setting can provide an alternative to action for contemplative scenes.

Sometimes, of course, you can do a little bit of transitional action, usually finishing up the action of the last scene. Then slow down and contemplate.

Character and plot -- the contemplative scene is really there to give in-depth understanding of the character, and how they are reacting to whatever's going on. You want the contemplative scene to focus on the protagonist:

• having realistic and appropriate responses to an event
• struggling with something that has happened recently or is about to happen
• making a plan, thinking about options, or coming to a decision

One of the difficulties of a contemplative scene is keeping dramatic tension high. Mostly, you do that by including internal conflict, including unspecified dangers, or creating an eerie or tense atmosphere. Danger or mystery on the horizon, or settings that make the reader nervous, are likely to keep the tension high.

Setting is often used to provide mood and ambience for contemplation scenes. Setting details can provide balance for the thoughts and feelings. You can keep the contemplation in touch with reality with occasional detail of the setting.

Contemplative scenes usually end with a little return of energy and action. You might end with a sudden action cliffhanger, or with a moment of decision. You can end with a surprise, or a bit of foreshadowing pointing to what's coming next. You need to set up the next scene, and get the reader ready to go again.

Rosenfeld's checkpoints for contemplative scenes:

1. Does the contemplative scene balance or slow down action?
2. Does the contemplative scene signal that it is a contemplative scene as quickly as possible?
3. Does the contemplative scene focus on the inner life of the protagonist?
4. Does the protagonist grapple with a conflict, dilemma, or decision?
5. Are setting details used to create dramatic tension and establish a mood?
6. Does the end of the scene return the reader to action?

Next we will be taking a look at dialogue scenes, but for right now, let's reflect on those contemplative scenes.

Assignments? Probably the first question is whether you want to use a contemplative scene or not? While Rosenfeld suggests that traditional literary fiction uses them, he also admits that most genre and other writing uses them very sparingly if at all. I think in most of these you're more likely to see the contemplative paragraph.

In any case, you might try looking at a book that you enjoy and identifying a contemplative scene. Or take a piece of your writing and consider how you might use a contemplative scene in it. How would you introduce it, and how would you spend time letting the protagonist think out loud without boring the reader? How do you mark the ending of a contemplative scene, and return to the car chases?

'saright? Something to think about, eh?
and write!

When we write, we introduce unknown friends to each other.

FILL: Today's Random Quotations!

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Original posting for August 2008

"There is only one way to defeat the enemy, and that is to write as well as one can. The best argument is an undeniably good book." Saul Bellow

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly." Thomas Huxley

What do you want to tell people? What is the most important thing for you to say right now?

How can you best show this to people?

Now write!

BICHOK: Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard
[Who's having trouble keeping focused? How can the number of interruptions increase in the middle of the summer doldrums and vacations? Eyah!]

EXERCISE: Getting a Kickstart?

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Original posting 4 August 2008

From Telling Lies for Fun & Profit by Lawrence Block

How do you decide what to write?

1. Check out the options. What are the possibilities?
2. You need to be able to read it. If you hate reading it, you probably can't write it.
3. Identify with the writer. When you read it, can you see writing it?

Look around. Find out what you like to read. Then find out what you know you want to write.

After that, of course, comes the tricky part. You gotta write.

Start your day with a look around, and end with a word written down.