  Drama
This week: Middle Scenes & Deeper Characterization Edited by: Joy  
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“I want them (the characters) to do things their way. In some instances, the outcome is what I visualized. In most, however, it’s something I never expected. For a suspense novelist, this is a great thing.”
Stephen King, On Writing
“A great tool for creating instant conflict in dialogue is the Parent-Adult-Child model…So it is a helpful thing to consider what role each character is assuming in a scene. How do they see themselves? What is their actual role? (It may be different than what they perceive it to be.)”
James Scott Bell, Conflict and Suspense
“Whenever possible, try to link your similes with some image compatible with the character being described.”
Barnaby Conrad, Learning to Write Fiction from the Masters
“In the development of every character there’s a kind of emotional entanglement that occurs. The characters that interest me are the ones that seem to pose questions in my own thinking. The minute that you start thinking about someone in the whole circumstance of his life to the extent that you can, he becomes mysterious, immediately.”
Marilynne Robinson, The Art of Fiction
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about writing the middle of the novel or long story scenes in relation to characterization.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Note: In the editorial, I refer to third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she. |
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
My last newsletter was about the beginning scenes. "Drama Newsletter (May 3, 2017)" In this one, we are going to take a look at the middle scenes.
Middle scenes work best when they test the conflict to reveal the characters’ emotions, even the hidden ones. Middle scenes can also show or stress upon the characters’ flaws or the development of their existing qualities. These flaws or deepened characteristics usually evolve from or transform the traits introduced in the earlier scenes.
In Jane Eyre, in the middle scenes the main character grows from a timid girl who doesn’t expect much from life into a more optimistic one. On the other hand, Rochester, who is moody, intense, sensual, and mysterious in the beginning scenes, uses deception to make Jane marry him because of the increase in his desires and intensity in the middle scenes.
In Shakespeare’s Othello, Othello is a socially insecure and inexperienced character as he is an outsider in Venice, and in addition, the color of his skin sets him apart. Though not a stupid man, this insecurity leads him to believe in Iago’s machinations in the middle scenes. On the other hand, Iago’s indifference to morality turns into an obsession for control and power over others and this obsession takes over his life, causing him to destroy several people and himself.
This change takes place because the goals characters want to reach still seem to be far away, and as the difficulties to reach that goal increase, the characters reveal more of their inner truths, even those they themselves don’t know about.
Since middle scenes are where the flaws and strengths are exhibited in an increased fashion, this is usually the place in a novel, play, or a long story where the antagonists bring out the best or the worst in the protagonists. The middle scenes are also the places where the protagonists usually sense or find out about the antagonists’ intent, behavior, and the negativity against their efforts to reach the goals; therefore, the middle part of the plot usually is made up of suspense, epiphany (if possible), dialogue, and contemplative scenes.
To write deeper middle scenes with stronger characterization the following ideas may help.
 In each scene, show how the primary characters interact with others and the setting.
In each scene, make the traits and flaws more complex, and possibly, add a slight twist or two into the plot.
In each scene, show characters’ objectives through their dialogue and actions. In dialogues, make their words and ways of speech character-specific.
Use sensory descriptions (five senses) with the characters to enhance the insight of the readers into who the characters are becoming.
In each scene, reveal a different aspect of a primary character’s beliefs and personality pertaining to the theme.
Either let the character sense something amiss or something developing within him like insight or have him feel that his goal is within reach.
Let the last part of the middle scenes set up the road to the climax.
In most stories, the darkest night for the character takes place at the end of the middle scenes or, toward the end of the middle scenes, the character may confront his own shadow side and may gain some self-awareness, although his dark side may still have some power. Thus, the epiphany or possibly a hint of it may belong here, at the end of the middle part of the story, because no matter what happens, the character’s purpose or his misfortune becomes clearer to him.
Until next time!  |
 Enjoy!
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This Issue's Tip:If you introduced an object in the beginning scenes, middle scenes are the places to go back to that object and make it symbolize an aspect in the plot or the theme.
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Feedback for "Action and Dialog in the Earlier Scenes"
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willwilcox
Outstanding Newsletter 
Thanks very much, Bill. 
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Drama: May 31, 2017 Issue [#8289]
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