 Drama: May 30, 2018 Issue [#8907] |
  Drama
This week: Exploring the Types of Scenes .II. Edited by: Joy  
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“You can’t write a novel all at once, any more than you can swallow a whale in one gulp. You do have to break it up into smaller chunks. But those smaller chunks aren’t good old familiar short stories. Novels aren’t built out of short stories. They are built out of scenes.”
Orson Scott Card
Every scene is a challenge. There are technical challenges, but often it's the simplest challenge where you feel a sense of achievement when you pull it off.
Roger Deakins
I can see a scene in my head, and when I try to get it down in words on paper, the words are clunky; the scene is not coming across right. So frustrating. And there are days where it keeps flowing. Open the floodgates, and there it is. Pages and pages coming. Where the hell does this all come from? I don't know.
George R. R. Martin
Action, reaction, motivation, emotion, all have to come from the characters. Writing a love scene requires the same elements from the writer as any other.
Nora Roberts
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is the second part of the scene types.
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Even when writers may know what their story requires, building tension and creating emotion depend on using a variety of scene types, instead of writing one’s scenes by following the same scene template, and in this editorial, we are continuing with seven more scene types. In the last month’s editorial, "Exploring the Types of Scenes .I." , we explored the Emotional scenes, Location or Lay-of-the-Land scenes, Transition scenes, Climax scenes, Resolution scenes, Epiphany scenes, Final scenes, and Contemplative scenes. Here are the other scene types:
• Crisis scenes: Different types of crises may occur in different genres. The main character usually suffers many more crisis scenes in genres such as horror, thriller, and suspense. Generally speaking, however, following conditions may apply to all crisis scenes in any genre: the types of crises are symbolic, therefore sensory descriptions and imagery are important; protagonist is at his/her worst; antagonist wins, protagonist loses; this may be the darkest point for the main character; usually a breakdown inspires a flash of an idea leading to hope; protagonist’s failure is temporary and the scene may end with a tiny success or not.
An example of a crisis scene is in chapter nine of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte when Catherine tells Nelly tells of her love for Heathcliff and that Heathcliff will never know how much she loves him. She then says she cannot marry Heathcliff because Hindley has degraded him so much, then adds a while later, "It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff." Unfortunately, Heathcliff overhears only those words, and feeling insulted and heartbroken, he leaves Wuthering Heights. That night Catherine spends with grief, outside under a chilling rainstorm, resulting with her almost dying after catching a cold and Heathcliff’s disappearance for three years.
•Love scenes: Love scenes are important because they add to the readers’ understanding of a character since such a relationship comes from the depths of a person. Love scenes work well if or when the writer shows loving interactions between the characters, especially when they have a mutual desire, passion, or longing. The passion has to involve the physical, emotional, and spiritual make-up of the couple. Sex or making love is secondary.
As an example, in the following scene from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Jane wants to leave Rochester and Thornfield thinking mistakenly, he will marry Miss Ingram, but Rochester has a very different intention.
"Jane, be still; don't struggle so, like a wild frantic bird that is
rending its own plumage in its desperation."
"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with
an independent will, which I now exert to leave you." Another effort set me at liberty, and I stood erect before him.
"And your will shall decide your destiny," he said: "I offer you my hand, my heart, and a share of all my possessions."
"You play a farce, which I merely laugh at."
"I ask you to pass through life at my side--to be my second self, and best earthly companion."
"For that fate, you have already made your choice, and must abide by it."
"Jane, be still a few moments: you are over-excited: I will be still too."
A waft of wind came sweeping down the laurel-walk, and trembled through the boughs of the chestnut: it wandered away--away--to an indefinite distance--it died. The nightingale's song was then the only voice of the hour: in listening to it, I again wept. Mr. Rochester sat quiet, looking at me gently and seriously. Some time passed before he spoke; he, at last, said, "Come to my side, Jane, and let us explain and understand one another."
Who says the course of love runs smooth!
• Dialogue scenes: These scenes move to story forward through the communication of the characters, but a writer must be careful not to use them to dump information on the readers in huge blocks but use these scenes to give backstory and plot information to the readers in much smaller pieces. Dialogue scenes reveal or deepen character through employing a fast pace and real-time action. They also let the characters open up beyond the simple everyday exchanges while introducing or covering the characters’ personal agendas or goals together with the emotional significance of the conversations for the characters.
This example for a dialogue scene is between two antique booksellers from The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Riverte.
“I have some unfinished business with Armengol & Sons. Rather delicate, but I could make a quick profit.”
“You have business with me, too,” said Corso over his beer. “You’re the only poor bookseller I work with. And you’re going to be the one who sells those books.”
“All right, all right,” said La Ponte equably. “You know I am a practical man. A despicable pragmatist.”
“Yes.”
“Imagine this was a Western. As your friend, I’d take a bullet for you, but only in the shoulder.”
“At the very most,” said Corso.
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter.” La Ponte was looking around distractedly. “I already have a buyer for the Persiles.”
“Then get me another beer. An advance on your commission.”
• Recommitment scenes: These scenes help the reader understand the themes of the story better. In tsuch scenes, the main character often re-establishes his goals when he feels he needs a change. This happens when the character realizes where he is at and re-evaluates all pros and cons, trying to figure out what he needs to do or think differently. Then he will fully commit to his goal or establish a new one with confidence. Usually he shows to the reader in some way his plan of action.
An example to a recommitment scene is from Edith Wharton’s The Old Maid. In this scene, after an argument between the cousins Delia and Charlotte, Delia reassesses her actions.
And now there would be an end to these evening talks: if Charlotte had asked to be lodged next to her daughter, might it not conceivably be because she wished them to end?
It had never before occurred to Delia that her influence over Tina might be resented; now the discovery flashed a light far down into the abyss which had always divided the two women. But a moment later Delia reproached herself for attributing feelings of jealousy to her cousin. Was it not rather to herself that she should have ascribed them?
Charlotte, as Tina's mother, had every right to wish to be near her, near her in all senses of the word; what claim had Delia to oppose to that natural privilege? The next morning, she gave the order that Charlotte's things should be taken down to the room next to Tina's.”
• Escape Scenes: Escape scenes often come about the middle or toward the end of a story when a character is in need of an escape for any reason. These scenes need to be challenging usually dangerous and with a sense of urgency, creating emotional stress for the character as well as creating anxiety for the reader for the character’s well-being. In addition, more action than reflection and great emphasis on the changing setting details and sensory impressions add to the drama and tension in the story. Escape scenes can also double as transition scenes.
Examples to escape scenes abound in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road when the protagonist, flees southward away from danger with a little boy in an end-of-the-world situation, in which cannibals threaten them.
“They came shuffling through the ash casting their hooded heads from side to side. Some of them wearing canister masks. One in a biohazard suit. Stained and filthy. Slouching along with clubs in their hands, lengths of pipe. Coughing. Then he heard on the road behind them what sounded like a diesel truck. Quick, he whispered, quick. He shoved the pistol in his belt and grabbed the boy by the hand and he dragged the cart through the trees and tilted it over where it would not so easily be seen. The boy was frozen with fear. He pulled him to him. It’s all right, he said. We have to run. Don’t look back. Come on.
He slung their knapsacks over his shoulder and they tore through the crumbling bracken.”
• Suspense scenes: Scenes creating insecurity, uncertainty, apprehension, and anxiety are suspense scenes. The protagonist should get caught in or be in the middle of danger or trouble, and antagonists are as strong and even stronger than the protagonists. Moreover, with the degree of unpredictability, the degree of the suspense rises. Protagonists’ differing emotions, worry, and anticipation should heighten even more than the preceding scenes, especially in a serious conflict. The intensity of emotion should not let up as the events exert pressure on the protagonist to act or change in a certain manner. Inside the setting, dialogue, visual imagery, and internal thoughts should emphasize the theme.
In Daphne du Maurier’s Birds, the birds all over England act violently and in this scene the protagonist is attacked by birds.
They kept coming at him from the air, silent save for the beating wings. The terrible, fluttering wings. He could feel the blood on his hands, his wrists, his neck. Each stab of a swooping beak tore his flesh. If only he could keep them from his eyes. Nothing else mattered. He must keep them from his eyes. They had not learned yet how to cling to a shoulder, how to rip clothing, how to dive in mass upon the head, upon the body. But with each dive, with each attack, they became bolder. And they had no thought for themselves. When they dived low and missed, they crashed, bruised and broken, on the ground. As Nat ran he stumbled, kicking their spent bodies in front of him. He found the door; he hammered upon it with his bleeding hands. Because of the boarded windows no light shone. Everything was dark. “Let me in,” he shouted, “it’s Nat. Let me in.”
He shouted loud to make himself heard above the whir of the gulls’ wings. Then he saw the gannet, poised for the dive, above him in the sky. The gulls circled, retired, soared, one after another, against the wind. Only the gannet remained. One single gannet above him in the sky. The wings folded suddenly to its body. It dropped like a stone. Nat screamed, and the door opened. He stumbled across the threshold, and his wife threw her weight against the door.
They heard the thud of the gannet as it fell.
• Twister scenes: These scenes signal a serious forward movement in the plot with shock and surprise to the protagonist and the readers by twisting the direction of the story away from the assumed end that earlier scenes were leading the plot toward. This reverses the character fate and may create obstacles or even eliminate them. In its essence, it raises the stakes and changes the underlying emotion. It may also show character traits and aspects in the story hidden from the reader.
As an example, in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, the protagonist the second wife of Maxim feels inferior to his first wife Rebecca almost three quarters of the novel and feels her husband doesn’t love her as much as he did Rebecca. Then, when Rebecca’s boat is found by the divers and Maxim is distressed, she tells him she wants to help him and Maxim tells her he never loved Rebecca but killed her. Then, they find out that Rebecca had cancer and sort of pushed Maxim into killing her. In this way, the author presents the readers with two twisting scenes toward the end.
Until next time! 
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Note: This editorial has been written with the help of the following publications:
Fiction Writer’s Workshop by Josip Novakovich
Writing Deep Scenes by Martha Alderson and Jordan Rosenfeld
Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias
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 This Issue's Tip: In the beginning scenes, theme is best introduced through imagery, metaphors, analogies, talismans, and symbols
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Feedback for "Exploring the Types of Scenes .I."
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willwilcox
A powerful newsletter. Good Job!
Thanks, Bill, for the feedback.
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Quick-Quill 
Great learning issue. I'm saving it along with the next ones to lay against my editing process. I want to make sure I'm including everything.
Thanks. Best wishes with the editing process. I think it is much more difficult than writing the first draft, but I bet yours will come out wonderfully.
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