Writing the Pefect Scene

Notes from a panel with Sean Hoade at SLC ComicCon.

Sean recommended Jack Bickham's Scene and Structure; Bickham was a student of Dwight Swain and covers much of the same ground.

Each scene has a viewpoint character, and that character has a goal, opposition, and a resolution. To clarify the goal in the first draft, you can have the viewpoint character come right out and say "I want to ____", describing what he wants to accomplish during this scene. (You might also add a line about how that scene goal will help him accomplish his overall goal). The four possible resolutions to the character's action are Yes, No, Yes-But, and No-And-Furthermore. The Yes and No options are bland.--they either solve the problem (with a Yes) or at least do nothing to change it (if it's a No). A Yes-But solves this problem but raises a whole new one; the No-And-Furthermore leaves this problem open and makes it worse.

A scene never has conflict which is entirely internal. That goes in a sequel; a sequel is the connective tissue that links one scene to the next. The sequel has four parts: emotion  and expresson; thought and reflection; decision; action. The action is the beginning of the next scene (and the point at which you can change PoV characters, if you need to).

Use the length of your scenes and sequels to vary your pacing. Long sequels with lots of emoting and internal monologues will slow down the action.