Strong Scenes con’t BY RITA KARNOPP #writingtips

There are a lot of really good writers out there who use narrative summary with finesse.  I’m of the belief that paragraphs of such summaries are interruptions and distractions.  They slow the action – which is the kiss of death.

But, if you must add narratives, the beginning of the scene is truly the best place.  Don’t carry on-and-on or your reader will lose interest.  Never add narratives at the end of a scene.  Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for narrative.  Just be careful where you place them so the reader’s attention isn’t distracted for long periods of time.

There are occasions when specific information must be provided in order to set action into motion.  Opening sentences such as, “They pronounced him dead miles before reaching the hospital,” “The bullet entered his forehead and exited the back of his skull.  He dropped like a lead ball,” “The tornado evaporated, leaving the town level.”

There are times we can’t show a character’s thoughts or intentions with action.  An accident victim under sedation, a small boy, or even an adult afflicted with Alzheimer.  Narration is the only way to let the reader know what they feel or think.

Remember to use setting as a catalyst to launch a scene.  How about a village on fire, an anaconda slithering across a glass-still lake, or an erupting volcano.  Setting can have a dramatic input on the characters and plot.

Think about a group of people surviving a plane crash in the Ox Bow.  What obstacles does the terrain cause?  Is there any natural food?  How about shelter?  Do they have any way of protecting themselves from predators?  Remember to add fauna and color.  Bring the beauty of the scene alive . . . as well as the dangers.

Then you must consider how this setting affects your characters.  Fear?  Suspicions?  Is there a killer among them?  Is anyone more adapt to leading?  Are they equipped, physically and emotionally, to handle the situation?

How do your characters play off of each other?  Kind verses a hot-head.  Macho verses a computer nerd.  Female wrestler verses a beauty queen.  You can use these comparisons or rivals to show a character’s feelings through the setting.

And always remember the weather can be a great vehicle to reflect a character’s temperament or the setting mood.

Remember that the beginning of your scene should draw your reader into another stepping stone toward the resolution of the plot.  Take your time and draw your reader into the world you’ve created.  You want your reader vested, pulling for the characters, frustrated at times with their decisions and outcomes, and rewarded with breathers of accomplishments and even love.

Make those scenes weave in, out, and around, like a beautifully crafted dream catcher.  Its impact and allure will last beyond closing the cover.   (single dream catcher I made)

STRONG SCENES BY RITA KARNOPP #writingtips

I think of my novel as the intricate weaving of a double hoop dream catcher (this is one I’ve made).  The web is unified and patterned until it approaches a bead or fetish and it has to find a way to conquer it and move onto the next obstacle (as scenes in your book).  It has a beginning, middle, and an end.  No two dream catchers are alike.

Let’s clarify beginning, since I always start a story in the middle of action.  Some might think the beginning of a dream catcher is the top, while others say the bottom, and again others believe it begins in the middle – unwinding like one’s life.  Ultimately the writer gets to choose.

Each scene should catapult your reader into the next scene with questions, excitement, emotions, and even fears.  Before starting the next scene ask yourself a couple of important questions:

1.   Are my characters driving the plot?

2.   Is my reader seeing the bigger picture and what was he/she doing at the end of the previous scene?

3.   What is he doing now?

4.   What evidence or facts need to be exposed, revealed, or uncovered in this scene?

 Move your scenes along with action, plot and setting.

I’m big on moving a scene forward with action.  We know the key elements of action are time and momentum.  The key to crafting sound momentum is to jump into action without justifying or clarifying anything.

So, instead of; Anna imagined what it would be like to strip naked and boldly wade into the lake next to Joel.  Jump into the action; “You don’t scare me,” Anna stared at Joel and dropped her towel. Naked, she dove into the water and slid up next to him. 

Now is the time to introduce a challenge or a shocking event.  Think about the famous scene from Jaws . . . we can’t forget it, can we?  You all know which one I mean.  Yep . . . the scene when the shark pulls the girl down into the water … short choppy jerks . . . I was hooked – riveted is more like it.  I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t.

Now one important thing to remember – make sure you aren’t adding action that isn’t true to your characters.   Keep characters and the action/reaction believable.  In other words, don’t have your character who is deathly scared of snakes suddenly rattlesnake hunting to impress her friends.  Believe me, if you’re afraid of snakes, no amount of self-determination can make that happen. (I’m speaking from experience here!)

Make sure your action comes before thinking about the action or result of her actions.  “Jenna spit the disgusting stew back into her plate, then glanced up.   Jacob stood with feet spread, fists on hips, and jaw clenched.  She instantly regretted her thoughtless action.”

Tomorrow let’s discuss narrative summary within your scenes.

STRONG SCENES CON’T. BY RITA KARNOPP AND JORDAN E. ROSENFELD

SETTING LAUNCHES - Sometimes setting details—like a jungle on fire, or moonlight sparkling on a lake—are so important to plot or character development that it’s appropriate to include visual setting at the launch of a scene. This is often the case in books set in unusual, exotic or challenging locations such as snowy Himalayan mountains, lush islands or brutal desert climates. If the setting is going to bear dramatically on the characters and the plot, then there is every reason to let it lead into the scene that will follow.

John Fowles’ novel The Magus is set mostly on a Greek island that leaves an indelible imprint on the main character, Nicholas. He becomes involved with an eccentric man whose isolated villa in the Greek countryside becomes the stage upon which the major drama of the novel unfolds. Therefore, it makes sense for him to launch a scene in this manner:

It was a Sunday in late May, blue as a bird’s wing. I climbed up the goat-paths to the island’s ridge-back, from where the green froth of the pine-tops rolled two miles down to the coast. The sea stretched like a silk carpet across to the shadowy wall of mountains on the mainland to the west. … It was an azure world, stupendously pure, and as always when I stood on the central ridge of the island and saw it before me, I forgot most of my troubles.

The reader needs to be able to see in detail the empty Greek countryside in which Nicholas becomes so isolated. It sets the scene for something beautiful and strange to happen, and Fowles does not disappoint.
These final three methods can create an effective scenic launch:

8. ENGAGE WITH SPECIFIC VISUAL DETAILS. If your character is deserted on an island, the reader needs to know the lay of the land. Any fruit trees in sight? What color sand? Are there rocks, shelter or wild, roaming beasts?

9. USE SCENERY TO SET THE TONE OF THE SCENE. Say your scene opens in a jungle where your character is going to face danger; you can describe the scenery in language that conveys darkness, fear and mystery.

10. REFLECT A CHARACTER’S FEELINGS THROUGH SETTING. Say you have a sad character walking through a residential neighborhood. The descriptions of the homes can reflect that sadness—houses can be in disrepair, with rotting wood and untended yards. You can use weather in the same way. A bright, powerfully sunny day can reflect a mood of great cheer in a character.

Scene launches happen so quickly and are so soon forgotten that it’s easy to rush through them, figuring it doesn’t really matter how you get it started. Don’t fall prey to that thinking. Take your time with each scene launch. Craft it as carefully and strategically as you would any other aspect of your scene. Remember that a scene launch is an invitation to the reader, beckoning him to come further along with you. Make your invitation as alluring as possible.  Written by Jordan E. Rosenfeld.

In Make a Scene, author Jordan E. Rosenfeld takes you through the fundamentals of strong scene construction and explains how other essential fiction-writing techniques, such as character, plot, and dramatic tension, must function within the framework of individual scenes in order to provide substance and structure to the overall story. You'll learn how to:

·       Craft an opening scene that hooks readers and foreshadows supporting scenes

·       Develop various scene types - from the suspenseful to the dramatic to the contemplative - that are distinct and layered

·       Tailor character and plot around specific scene types to better convey the nuances of your storyline

·       Create resonating climactic and final scenes that stay with readers long after they've finished your work

STRONG SCENES BY RITA KARNOPP AND JORDAN E. ROSENFELD

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end . . . we hear this over and over.  That’s because it’s the essence of a good work of fiction.  Every scene must come alive for the reader . . . if it doesn’t – they lose interest and once that happens we’ve lost their trust – and the story is over for them.  We never want that to happen.

Each scene must hold its own and further the story as well as create its own beginning, middle and end.   A great place to start a scene is at the beginning of a new chapter or by a break ((called a soft hiatus) which we all recognize by spaces and asterisk, to let the reader know time has passed.

Each scene is responsible for introducing a new plot or ideas that capture the reader’s attention and furthers the stories main plot yet adds challenging consequences.  So how do you do this?

Remember this fact as a golden rule; the sooner there is action – the faster it’ll grab your reader.  Never explain action.  The barebones of action are time and momentum.  It takes time to set-up, even foreshadow, a murder.  It takes time for the heroine to find herself lost in a cave, not knowing which way to turn, and where is her husband?  It takes time for a character to find a long, lost parent.  It takes time to walk out of a house, take nothing, and never look back.

Momentum on the other hand begins immediately.  Throughout action you must create a sense of time.  It’s not a good idea to force your reader to read on go get a sense of environment.

Have you heard the expression ‘action launch?’   In this incredibly written article written by Jordan E. Rosenfeld, I’ve learned action launches will energize a reader’s physical senses.  How do they do that?  Rosenfeld explains it like this:

Jordan E. Rosenfeld, Author

ACTION LAUNCHES tend to energize the reader’s physical senses. To create an action launch: 

1. GET STRAIGHT TO THE ACTION. Don’t drag your feet here. “Jimmy jumped off the cliff” rather than “Jimmy stared at the water, imagining how cold it would feel when he jumped.”

2. HOOK THE READER WITH BIG OR SURPRISING ACTIONS. An outburst, car crash, violent heart attack or public fight at the launch of a scene allows for more possibilities within it.

3. BE SURE THAT THE ACTION IS TRUE TO YOUR CHARACTER. Don’t have a shy character choose to become suddenly uninhibited at the launch of a scene. Do have a bossy character belittle another character in a way that creates conflict.

4. ACT FIRST, THINK LATER. If a character is going to think in your action opening, let the action come first, as in, “Elizabeth slapped the Prince. When his face turned pink, horror filled her. What have I done? she thought.”

NARRATIVE LAUNCHES- Writers often try to include narrative summary, such as descriptions of the history of a place or the backstory of characters, right at the launch of a scene, believing that the reader will not be patient enough to allow actions and dialogue to tell the story. In large doses, narrative summaries are to scenes what voice-overs are to movies—distractions and interruptions.

Yet a scene launch is actually one of the easier places to use a judicious amount of narrative summary, so long as you don’t keep the reader captive too long. Take the opening of this scene in Amanda Eyre Ward’s novel How to Be Lost:  

The afternoon before, I planned how I would tell her. I would begin with my age and maturity, allude to a new lover, and finish with a bouquet of promises: grandchildren, handwritten letters, boxes from Tiffany sent in time to beat the rush. I sat in my apartment drinking Scotch and planning the words.

The above bit is almost entirely narrative summary, and the only action—drinking Scotch—is described, not demonstrated. There is no real setting, and the only visual cues the reader has are vague and abstract. However, the narrative summary does demonstrate the nature of the character, Caroline—she feels she must butter her mother up, bribe her even, in order to ask for something she needs, which turns out to be a relatively small thing. It reflects Caroline’s tendency to live in her head, and shows us she’s the kind of person who must prepare herself mentally for difficult things—a theme that recurs throughout the book. It’s also useful because Caroline spends a lot of time by herself, cutting herself off from her relationships, and, therefore, it is very true to her personality. In just one short paragraph of narrative summary, the reader learns a lot about Caroline, and Ward gets to action in the next paragraph:

Georgette stretched lazily on the balcony. Below, an ambulance wailed. A man with a shopping cart stood underneath my apartment building, eating chicken wings and whistling.

If the entire scene had continued in narrative summary, it would have had a sedative effect on the reader, and the scene’s momentum would have been lost.

A narrative approach is best used with the following launch strategies:

5. SAVE TIME BY BEGINNING WITH SUMMARY. Sometimes actions will simply take up more time and space in the scene than you would like. A scene beginning needs to move fairly quickly and, on occasion, summary will get the reader there faster.

6. COMMUNICATE NECESSARY INFORMATION TO THE READER BEFORE THE ACTION KICKS IN. Sometimes information needs to be imparted simply in order to set action in motion later in the scene. Opening sentences such as, “My mother was dead before I arrived,” “The war had begun” and, “The storm left half of the city underwater,” could easily lead to action.

7. REVEAL A CHARACTER’S THOUGHTS OR INTENTIONS THAT CANNOT BE SHOWN THROUGH ACTION. Coma victims, elderly characters, small children and other characters sometimes cannot speak or act for physical, mental or emotional reasons; therefore the scene may need to launch with narration to let the reader know what they think and feel.

Tomorrow we’ll finish up with ‘setting launches’ . . .

Jordan E. Rosenfeld is a writing coach/editor, freelance journalist and fiction writer. She is the author of NIGHT ORACLE (romantic suspense) FORGED IN GRACE (psychological suspense), and two writing guides: "Make A Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time" (Writer’s Digest Books) and "Write Free! Attracting the Creative Life" with Rebecca Lawton (BeijaFlor Books). She also edited Zebulon Nights: An Anthology of LiveWire Readers (Word Riot Press, 2002) and co-edited Milk & Ink: An Anthology of Motherhood (Outskirts Press, 2010).

Look for her books from Writer's Digest Books, 2015: A WRITER'S GUIDE TO PERSISTENCE and, with Martha Alderson, DEEP SCENES: PLOTTING YOUR STORY, SCENE-BY-SCENE, THROUGH ACTION, EMOTION & THEME.