Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
Scene cards
9/1/2009 9:02:18 AM
Put your scenes on notecards, which will give you
an overall view of your novel.
1. Diagram your novel on a horizontal line on a large sheet of paper (art paper, or butcher paper), entering plot point one, midpoint, plot point three, and climax. Draw vertical lines between Acts One, Two, and Three. When you come up with a definite scene, tag it and put it beneath the line in a sort of outline.
2. Generate scene cards (who’s in the scene?, situation and conflict, action, sensory detail, props etc. Hook, segue to the next scene). You make these so you can move them around when necessary and you can see the flow of your novel. Strive for forty cards, ten for Act one, twenty for Act II, and ten for Act III. Act one, from beginning to plot point one is exposition. You want to introduce your overall conflict and your main characters. When you get to plot point one, around p. 75, your main character starts working on his goal (ex. finding his kidnapped daughter). Act II is development; aim at midpoint where something significant will happen to send your character in another direction; your character is then propelled toward plot point two, where Act III, the resolution to your goal begins. Shortly thereafter your climax occurs, where your character either achieves his goal or is denied (Girl he loves chooses another man). Wrap it up in a hurry, not much more than a few pages. I like epilogues, but maybe that’s just me. You’ve been with these people for at least a week, and you want to know what happens to them in the future.
3. Non-scenes. Don’t worry if there isn’t much of a conflict for some of your scenes. Non-scenes are sometimes called incidents or happenings. An incident is a sort of abortive scene where a character attempts to reach a goal but meets no resistance or conflict. When a boy seeks to kiss a girl who wants to kiss him back, you have an incident. A happening just brings people together, no goal or conflict. Happenings and incidents add realism to your work, but don’t hold interest very long. If you structure your book according to scene and sequel, you can put your incidents and happenings in your sequels. Scenes sound like they’re happening in real time with lots of dialogue; sequels sound like narration, where the author is telling instead of showing. Something has happened at the end of a previous scene and your character is trying to solve the problem. He/she looks at the different possibilities and rejects all but one, then enters the next scene. He/she might be having a beer with a friend who helps him make his decision.
4. Setting. Should be like a character in your book. Tony Hillerman’s Navajo reservation; SHIPPING NEWS, set in Newfoundland; Huck Finn, the Mississippi River Valley; the Yukon in Jack London; the Red River Valley in SOLDIER’S GAP. Small town America is a good setting, although it’s been done to death.
Next: Dialogue
Dave Schwinghammer's novel, SOLDIER'S GAP, is available on Amazon.com.
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