The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting 6 July 2008

TECH: Make a Scene #11: Scene Intentions

So here we go, looking at Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld. This week we're going to look at intentions among the core elements of the scene.

Let's see. Get the setting right, use the senses, develop and motivate characters, mix in some plot, don't forget the subtext, and work that dramatic tension with us wondering just how it's going to come out. And then to avoid wandering aimlessly in your narrative, make sure that the protagonist has a clear intention in every scene, something that they want to accomplish that gives purpose to the scene. Don't just roll the dice and pick one, tie it directly to the significant issues of the plot and your protagonist's back story.

Jordan points out that the intention is a character's plan to take an action or do something. Motivation, on the other hand, is the reasons that explain why the character has these plans. Intentions drive action and consequences, making the scene relevant to the plot and the characters. Intentions build drama and conflict, because as the character pursues the intentions, you as writer make sure that it is opposed, thwarted, grows in desirability, and perhaps -- at the end of the story -- allow the character to achieve it or a reasonable facsimile along with whatever satisfaction may result.

As you start to write a scene, you need to consider what the protagonist wants, needs, and intends to do. Consider the following questions:

1. What are the most immediate desires of the character?
2. When will your characters achieve their intention or meet with opposition? Intention that meets with complications builds drama and suspense. Don't let your characters achieve things too quickly or too easily.
3. Does the scene intention makes sense for your plot? Beware of tangents and side paths (do we know anyone who would be so easily distracted? :-)
4. Who will help your characters achieve their goal? Who will oppose them? Decide how the characters and conditions support or thwart your protagonist's intentions, and make sure there is enough resistance to the scene to avoid achieving intentions too soon or delaying them beyond the realistic.

Jordan recommends thinking about intentions in two ways, as plot based and as scene specific.

Plot-Based Intentions

The first imperative for every character in every scene should tie back in some way to the significant situation of the plot. This helps to tie the scenes together. The intention is a course of action that your character plans to take or needs to take in the scene because of the significant situation -- and the consequences of actions.

Scene-Specific Intentions

Along with the grand intentions related to the plot that push the character, there are often more immediate scene-based intentions. These are often tied to consequences -- after the car blows up, characters need to hide. They may want to run down the main street, but with the sniper busily picking people off, ducking into the sewers is a much more reasonable reaction. And so forth.

Opposition to the Intention

But with the character's plan established and starting to go into action in the scene, opposition rears its head. Opposition builds tension, keeps the sense of urgency alive, delays achievement, and raises... dramatic tension. Jordan lists four major ways to oppose intentions:

1. Prevent the completion of the intention. Direct intervention, unexpected storms, accidents -- lots of things can get in the way, and do.
2. Throw in a twist. The protagonist learns that what he intended to do is impossible, illegal, wrong, or otherwise risky. That is the protagonist go ahead anyway, give up, or try something different?
3. Complicate the intention. The protagonist often sets out with one intention in mind, but then circumstances, information, or something else intervenes and adds additional bits and pieces to the course of action. You can't just kill the bad guy, you have to find out where the hostages are.
4. Create a new intention. When the original intention is thwarted, complicated, or twisted, the protagonist may need to change course and figure out a new intention.

Support for the Intention

Allies, assistance, the odd bit of information -- now and then your protagonist will receive some support. "Protagonists need friends and supporters, small acts of kindness, insights and clues that lead them on in their journeys."

So that's Chapter 11, the last of the core elements for scenes. There are the grand or strategic intentions driven by the plot that push the protagonist and the narrative. There are scene-specific intentions, the tactical reactions to consequences within the various scenes. And there's the opposition that builds the tension and drama by keeping your character from simply deciding to do something and doing it. For stories, characters want to do things -- and other people, the world, even their own nature instantly get in the way and keep them from simple achievement. Or to put it another way, because of the resistance, achieving their goal is heroic.

The next big chunk of the book talks about various specific types of scenes. The first scene, the suspense scene, dramatic scenes, contemplative scenes, dialogue scenes, action scenes, flashback scenes, climactic scenes, and final scenes. So you can lay out your scenic smorgasbord and feast, I guess?

Today's assignment? As usual, take a scene from a book or a scene that you've been working on. Now consider the protagonist. What is their intention in this scene? What do they want to achieve or do? Is it tied back to the original plot, or is it a reaction to some of the consequences at this point? What or who opposes them? What support do they get? Now consider whether there are ways to sharpen their intentions? Is there another intention, plot-based or scene-based, that you should include in this scene? Are the motivations pushing their intentions clear and sharp? Do you want to adjust the opposition? Take a look at this scene in terms of the intentions of the characters, and how you might tweak those.

Write? Sounds like a plan to me.

To achieve the impossible dream, follow the improbable path! And keep going.

Original posting: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 01:30:03 JST

[lots of new critters in the pond (HI!), but I still want to kick this around... forgive me for not quoting everyone, but I thought I'd just summarize and go bravely where I hadn't rambled before...]

Does the Reader know the Writer?

I think that's sort of the topic we're wandering around.

Okay, let me reiterate what I think was the original question - how important is knowledge of the writer's situation to judging the work? (e.g. does the fact that the anne frank of bosnia is writing in bosnia, and is 13 or something, alter the value of the work?)

randy and stuart have gone wandering a bit, bringing up the questions of shared background, internal meanings vs external words, and so forth.

Tsirbas Christos also added some interesting comments on the notion of categorizing writers by their nationality (or other group membership - I'd never really thought about it, but that "area authors" corner in some bookstores really is a rather nasty ghetto to be stuck in, isn't it?)

[Hi, Tsirbas! thanks for joining in...]

good stuff, one and all...

Let me drop a few more pebbles in the rather muddy waters we're treading about the writer, the words, and the reader.

Interesting - especially if I stop and think about something like Shakespeare's work, or Gawain and the Green Knight, where I need commentary just to have a chance of figuring out some of the social and historic references. Take a gander at the original 1000 nights and a night, without reading the footnotes? very difficult.

I suppose the negative case of Japanese writings where you don't even understand the language doesn't clarify much...

Consider, though, reading something like the original Robinson Crusoe or Swiss Family Robinson (not the kid's versions - the old monsters). Stylistic barbarisms, with an overlay of socially accepted trash (the White Man's Burden, don't you know!).

Or take Tarzan, Lord Greystoke - in the original, with the whole wonderful mixture of "British supremacy" with "the natural man." It's enough to make almost any modern reader feel uncomfortable...

Heck, pull the author and cover off one of the "golden age" space operas (E.E. Smith) and try to convince a modern reader to read it.

It does seem as though the effect (and affect) of a piece of writing in part depends on how similar the background is. At the same time, I think the detailed knowledge of the author's personal history, while sometimes adding some depth or understanding to a piece, really should not be required to understand and enjoy the piece.

Let me switch fields for a sec - Picasso's Guernica (sp?). Disturbing, almost tortured piece of art. I didn't care for it, then someone told me there was a war there... and suddenly the piece started making sense. Now, that little piece of information helped me connect the pattern of thoughts and make a whole out of it.

An interesting question for some kind of theoretician might be what information needs to be added to "set the stage" for understanding a writer's work. Actually, it may not be so theoretical - when you bring a book (or short story, etc.) from America to Japan, for example, there are some severe limits on the "common background" you can expect.

It seems as if there is a kind of continuum here, from the writer and reader having largely common background and knowledge (which allows them to communicate with the least words and should tend to limit misunderstandings) to cases where writer and reader share very little. It might be interesting to compare different readers - could we say that the writer who manages to convey roughly the same message to a statistically larger percentage of the readers is more "effective"? What then becomes of a Bach (or maybe a James Joyce?) whose messages are so bloody complex that most readers don't follow it even when it is simplified and laid out in great detail? (I was thinking of Johann Sebastian, incidentally - the musician).

What about a Marshall McLuhan? I have one of his early books - Mass Communication Theory? something like that. and found it absolutely inspiring, although I could only read about one paragraph a day! DENSE! Then he became popular, and started doing 15 minute books with practically no content - comic books for adults? To me, his later work is eminently discardable, even though it reached a much larger audience.

Hum - complex questions, which probably have complex answers.

BTW - I've seen a write up of someone who took several pieces by well-known authors, polished the names off, then tried submitting them under an unknown name. Rather amusing collection of rejections, editorial slams, and so forth...

Would it make any sense to say that while the names, situation, and so forth are likely to have a high level of influence in our reading of "current" material, these factors are likely to change over time, resulting in rather different evaluation of the writing? E.g., while a piece from the 60's calling for popular support of the Vietnam war might have been a winner at the time, dragging it out now is likely to be a problem.

you know, there is something in here that reminds me of the rather well-known comedy bit, where the young man is excited over the voice on the phone... and then we learn that this exciting voice belongs to a well-worn, rather overstuffed mother of whiny little brats...

does it really matter what the writer is like, or where, or when? if the words ring, the images live, I can't see it being important whether Hemingway was homosexual, impotent, or even a lush. I think I agree with Randy - once the writer "lets go" of the words, the whole business turns into one between the reader(s) and those words. Admittedly, the writer should do the best they can to form and mold those words for the audience they expect - but if the readers find pornographic imagery underlying it that the writer never thought of, that is just as accurate as the writer's vision...

(further ramblings as soon as I find the other file I started on the same topic. sometimes the mental filer misfires. :-)