The 1 Most Important Rule in Writing Scenes: Keep Readers Turning Pages
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- čas přidán 4. 01. 2024
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After running scene writing workshops for years, we've found this one thing fixes the most problems in people's scenes.
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🧰 Additional Resources
• Inciting Incidents - • How to Start Your Stor...
• How to Write a Scene - • Top 10 Scene Writing M...
• Narrative Device (S.A.M.) - • Narrative Device: 3-Pa...
• Objects of Desire - • Creating Conflict in a...
• Genre Conventions - • Genre Conventions 101:...
• Write a Perfect Protagonist - • 7 Steps to Write the P...
• Un-boring Your Writing - • The #1 Fix to Write En...
• How to Learn How to Write - • 3 Steps to Master the ...
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Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time Bound . Thank you TIM the Great
Tim, how do you always manage to cover exactly what I need, just as I need it. This just helped me identify what was bugging me about the current scene I'm working on. I have an object of desire, that's specific, measurable, relivent, and I believe achievable. The big thing I'm missing is time-bound, so it's lacking the urgency it needs.
This may sound dumb but I’ve noticed more sympathetic magic (serendipitous synchronicities) in the world of learning (blank) craft from CZcams than anywhere else in life before. What I mean is, this is place where we will experience the most examples of the law of attraction, and the example being a lesson you’re ready to learn suddenly falling in your lap.
Maslows heirarchy of needs issue in every chapter - brilliant
I just went into work annual goal-setting/reviews PTSD mode when you said SMART goals (they wanted them, but never really provided guidance or whatnot…too vague).
Imma gonna go have a glass of wine and think about this so I’m not wishy-washy like those goal setting documents were.
But massive point.
"No scene that doesn't turn" - Robert McKee.
Unintended consequences is also great.
Thank you. I will be ticking these off my fingers after writing each scene. When it comes to the object of a desire, S for specific, M for measureable, A for achievable, R for relevant, T for time-bound. I don't know that each individual scene will satisfy every metric, but for sure each chapter will encompass them.
I think this is my biggest problem. I've written so many drafts of my story and I reach a point where I either don't like the protagonist's object of desire, or don't like the villain's object of desire, or i don't like how the plot archetype has written me into a corner that makes it difficult to do a significant plot twist. It's not hard for me to write a solid fantasy story...but it's really difficult for me to figure out what the protagonist of my latest book wants and what direction I am supposed to take the plot to show her on a journey to obtain it. Sometimes the things I promise in the beginning don't match the progress I want to happen, and vice versa, so there's a disconnect between the scenes that leaves plot holes when I'm looking over the outline. Needless to say, it's very frustrating!
Tim, your message in this video is top-notch. Thank you.
Thanks for the wonderful content Tim!
I wonder how you connect these concepts with escalating tension/problems. This is relevant to the "Time-bound" criterion: For example, my inciting incident occurs, and my MC identifies the overarching goal of the book. However, the only way he sees to be able to get this object of desire is to be patient. He doesn't know how he's going to solve it, but he has to get space from the antagonist to do it. Immediately thereafter, another inciting incident (or whatever you call it if you can't have 2) derails them and puts them in a scenario where they're forced to address the main goal/object of desire again. This shows my MC as savvy and also addresses one of his flaws, which is recklessness (not patient normally), AND it keeps the story on target.
Curious what anyone thinks about this! Thanks!
Enter either: Mad
Glad
Sad
or Scared
and exit another
This is great. Thanks!
thank you
Extremely helpful! Thank you! I’d love to know how this goal thing works when u consider other plot threads besides the global one e.g. subplots and internal plots- does each plot thread have its own SMART goal? So does that mean that some scenes won’t be about the SMART goal and value change related to the global inciting incident but instead other story types like the subplot and internal plots? So basically not every scene will change on the value scale of the global story and that’s ok? Thank you.
I agree with the premise that stories are based on change, and that scenes generally should have that. However, I don't think that every single scene needs that because of two reasons. First, sometimes have a scene just to establish a status quo works best if it is just that as setup for later change. And secondly, it ruins the pacing if you cannot have slower scenes which just reflect on what happened. You know, the scene and sequel some storycraft books talk about.
(Spoilers for Avengers Infinity War as example)
This reminds me of K.M. Weilands thing. Active and Reactive. Active scenes being Goal, Action, Consequence and Reactive being Dilemma, Conflict, Decision. At the end of the day they're both beginning middle end, problem debate solution, BUT Active emphasizes the external and Reactive emphasizes the internal. Both still have a goal and a change, but one is changing externally (thanos wrecking Thor's ship - which ends with Banner escaping to earth) and one is changing internally (thanos arguing with Gamora about why the world needs to be snapped - which ends in Thanos revealing he knows her secret. Both end in a contrasting opportunity to keep the story bending back and forth positive and negatively. If Thor's ship had just ended in everyone dead and then cut to Tony, the story would still move but the scene itself would feel flatter/weaker. Like it didn't resolve with much. If thanos and gamora just disagree and the story cuts, it would again feel like 'nice scene but what was it for?' Whereas ending with "you know where the soul stone is and you were willing to die to stop me getting it" is both a reveal for us - oh that's why gamora wanted quill to kill her - and an opportunity for thanos, which propels us to the question 'oh well then where is the stone?' And 'how will he get that info out of gamora?' These beats single handedly set up the next scenes with Thanos torturing Nebula and Thanos sacrificing Gamora.
I only just realized by saying Scene And Sequels you were referring to this anyway, but IMO even slower scenes still have the sense of change and these examples show why.
Great content. Love the book. Can the thing that changes in a scene be what the audience understands and not what the characters do or what the situation dictates? I have exposition acted out by static characters. The change in some scenes is in what the audience perceives. Is that okay?
Doesn't sound like something that would work, but I'd have to see the writing to say definitively. - Tim
So like, an unreliable narrator but the audience starts realizing how unreliable they are?
@@lykhra2178 Exactly! It's my narrator's intentions and deceit that are revealed to the audience.
You should do a massive course with even More details, you don't talk like some mystical yogi and even I can understand what's going on.