Anatomy of a Scene

When you set out to write a scene, you should know:

• POV: who has the spotlight?
• Goal: what does the POV character want to accomplish?
• Motivation: why is it important that he accomplish it?
• Conflict: what is blocking him from getting it?
• Resolution: the resolution is normally either No-and-Furthermore, or Yes-But. Increase the stakes.
• Setting: where is this taking pace? What makes it more interesting than a blank sound stage?
• Senses: what senses do we engage? Three senses per page, or about every 300 words. 
• The scene should be about 1000-1500 words; "a crisis every thousand words", as John Ringo says.

GMing

"The art of being a GM is figuring out what could go wrong, and making that happen, so the characters can deal with it." Writers should do much the same.