NOVELIST'S GUIDE TO CRAFTING SCENES
by Raymond Obstfeld offers lots of good
advice to perk up your novel.
Raymond Obstfeld has written over thirty-five books, ten screenplays and innumerable short stories and poems. He has written literary, mainstream, and genre novels; he also teaches writing at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California.
Obstfeld views the scene as a mini-story; it should have a beginning, middle, and an end; it should build to a climax; it should provide resolution. He shows how to use dialogue, point of view, or description to begin a scene as well as such techniques as "in medias res," starting in the middle of the action. He also shows how endings propel the reader into the next scene, emphasizing emotions and intellectual impact. He shows how to use cliff-hangers and jump cuts to increase suspense.
A really great suggestion is to outline your scenes on notecards to give yourself an overview of your novel; this will help you avoid too many "talking head" scenes and help you improve the pace of your novel. He also shows how to improve those talking head scenes when there isn't any alternative, such as in a mystery novel where the detective is doing a lot of interviews. He does this through misdirection, where the main character is involved in some action, such as driving to the airport and getting stuck in traffic. Thus the reader is getting information and is also worried about whether the hero will make it on time.
Another bugaboo Obstfeld addresses is description. Readers often skip this if it's too long, looking for the meat of the story; yet if you skimp on description, you lose credibility. Rather than describe everything the narrator sees, tastes, touches, smells, and hears in a scene, he suggests you focus on one of them, such as describing the smells coming from fast food restaurants in a working class part of town.
Obstfeld cautions the writer to never play it safe; he actually encourages beginning writers to "write themselves into a corner." The character now has no good alternative; both of his choices are unacceptable. What the heck does he do? This forces the beginning writer to think with more depth and his story will be fresher as a result. Click here to post or read comments.
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