The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting 10 October 2007

One More Step Toward Plot and Structure (18)

So here we are, nibbling at scenes in Chapter 7 of Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell. Scenes are the building blocks, and they need to do four chords: action and reaction; along with setup and deepening. Your scenes need to include a hook, have intensity, and finish with a prompt to keep the reader moving into the next scene (HIP). And right now, on page 125, Bell is about to talk about the intensity scale. How do you balance show and tell, intense moments, great emotion, and vivid writing against the descriptions and shortcuts?

Bell suggests making a little diagram of your scene, or even of several scenes. Along the bottom is the scene progression, the passing of time. Along the side is the level of intensity. Use a scale of zero to 10, with zero as no intensity, dry and boring background, just telling the reader about it, while 10 is over the top melodramatic madness. You judge the intensity, and decide the points you're going to put on your chart.

You don't want your chart to be all zero or all 10, or even really get too close to the edges. You wanted to rise and fall. Many scenes will have a natural kind of a build in intensity, starting low and then peaking at some point. Others might start high to engage the reader, drop down, and then build again. The key is for you to be in control of the intensity. You want plenty of showing -- 5 and above  -- but you also want variation. The intensity chart gives you a visual map of what you are doing.

One way to use the intensity scale is to pick out the big scenes that really are the framework of your novel. Make sure that these are high intensity, with plenty of showing. Then provide the transitions, and look at how you're using intensity across the whole novel.

Okay? Let's take a look at Bell's exercises. His first one is to take a random novel, open to a scene, and read it. Then analyze whether it is an action or reaction scene. If it is an action scene, where do you learn about the character's objective and conflict? Does the scene ending make you want to read on? If it is a reaction scene, what emotion does the character feel and how does the author show it? What does the character decide to do, or how do they change?

The second one is to find an action scene and chart the intensity using the intensity scale.

Third, is to take one of your scenes and analyze the hook, intensity, and prompt. How can you make each one of them stronger?

I have to admit that when I read something like this I feel like an artist being told to copy old masters. I know it will do good things for me, but it feels kind of boring. I want to jump in and splash some paint on that canvas instead of taking little steps. But then I think of . . . say the Picasso exhibition we saw recently in Spain, with the notation that Picasso did something like 83 studies of one older painting!

And then I notice in reading a novel that I'm seeing the prompts - those little trailing hooks and hints of what is coming that keep me turning the pages.

Kewl!

So hang in there, and write!