Story and Scene Goals

Last week, we looked at different options for scene and overall story goals. This week, we'll look at examples that illustrate the theory. Scenes are stonger if the characters involved have opposing goals that create tension. Conflict does not have to be a knock-down, drag-out fight scene.


1. At the overall story level, if Dick wants to marry Jane, the antagonistic forces try to keep them apart. Each scene involves a combination of characters fighting to make it happen or keep it from happening. Friends and foes may have their own goals that help or hinder their relationship. Sally is in love with Dick, so she does everything she can to capture his attention, until she feels forced to kidnap him.

2. Ted might decide that Jane isn’t really good for Dick. He can interfere by relating harmful gossip about Jane or by inserting himself into Dick and Jane’s date at scene level. He can try to make it look like Jane cheated on Dick.

3. Sally might want to own Spot because Spot is a perfect example of his breed and is worth gazillions in breeding fees. Sally might kidnap Spot or try to fool Dick by switching Spot with a dog that looks similar. Sally will either succeed or fail. Every time the antagonist fails in her goal, she is forced to come up with new tactics.

4. Dick might fight to keep a law because it is beneficial to him. Dick and Jane will fiercely debate their sides of the thematic argument with each other and with their friends and foes. They will gain support and lose support. At the climax of the conflict, the law will either be upheld or overturned.

5. Sally may not want Jane to leave the company because doing so would make it a lonelier place to work. Sally will take steps to convince Jane to stay. The steps can be comic, touching or obsessively creepy. Sally will either succeed or fail. Jane will leave, stay, or escape death by a hair’s breadth.

6. Jane believes in fairies. Everyone at school thinks she is crazy. She will attempt to prove her belief is valid. Her evidence will be convincing, or not. The more unsubstantiated the proof she offers, the crazier she appears. She may find allies in students who want to believe or who had unusual encounters themselves. The school authorities and other students will do everything they can to make her look insane. If the fairy queen is killing people, Jane might be blamed for the deaths. It will be even more important for her to prove she is innocent and the reader will be rooting for her to succeed. In the final climactic moment, the fairy queen appears and vaporizes half the school. They believe Jane, but it’s too late for most of them. She succeeds but others pay for their disbelief.

7. At the scene level, if Jane wants the corner office, Dick will refuse to give it up. Jane might appeal to their boss, stating she has the greater talent. She might undermine Dick's current project to make him look bad. If that doesn't work, she may try to bribe Dick. If that doesn’t work, she can threaten to kill him if he doesn't step down.

8. Sally is confronted with a situation that she can either allow or avert. Sally knows someone plans to embarrass Dick at a party. If she likes Dick, she will warn him or do something to change the situation so Dick isn’t embarrassed. If she hates Dick, she will sit back and enjoy the spectacle. If the reader likes Dick, they will feel bad. If they hate Dick, they will enjoy it with her.

9. Jane may need to tell Dick something important about Sally. Sally overhears Jane’s opening conversational salvo, “Dick, do you remember last week when you thought your office door had been locked, but you found it open?” Sally realizes Jane is about to tell Dick she saw Sally leaving Dick’s office. As Jane attempts to deliver the information, Sally distracts Dick so that he can’t listen. She might talk over Jane. She might try to steer Dick away from Jane. She may employ a full-frontal verbal assault that forces Jane to defend herself instead of delivering the important information to Dick. Jane can successfully dodge Sally’s attempts and succeed, or she will leave the field and attempt to tell Dick another day. If she fails, the scene goal isn’t satisfied and Jane will have to make another attempt to achieve it. A further complication has been created and Sally will have to find a way to silence Jane. Sally may bribe or threaten her in a subsequent scene.

10. Dick may believe that Sally is lying about where she went the night before. Dick needs reassurance. His mental security center is under attack. He will ask probing questions. If Sally is telling the truth, she will answer him calmly, but with a touch of irritation because she hates having her integrity questioned. If she is lying, she will have to invent the story on the fly. The more specific the questions, the more awkward and convoluted her answers will become. Sally will either storm off or turn the tables and accuse Dick of everything from leaving the toilet seat up to being the lone gunman who shot JFK. Dick will either back down or give her an ultimatum, “Tell me the truth or we’re done.” Dick will either succeed at his scene goal or fail. The reader will be rooting for Dick to hear the truth if they dislike Sally. They will be rooting for him to be wrong if they like Sally.

Coming up with scenes that keep the reader engaged is easy once you start thinking of them in this way. There are many subtle ways to build conflict and tension with opposing goals.

You can visit http://www.dianahurwitz.com to download free scene-building worksheets.

For more information on how to craft believable conflict check out: 

For more information on scene goals, pick up a copy of Story Building Blocks II: Crafting Believable Conflict.

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Building-Blocks-II-Believable/dp/1470199998

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Building-Blocks-Believable-ebook/dp/B007SOPXUI

Understanding Scene Goals

Coming up with a scene or story goal sounds momentous and difficult.

It isn’t.

Your character doesn’t need to have a million dollar sales goal or desire to scale Mount Everest.

Writers pick goals for their characters instinctively, if not consciously. When you sit down to write a scene, your characters do and say things. What they do and say should have purpose. Their actions and words should move the story forward or cause complications or reversals.

Every story should have a central conflict at the heart of it that is easily summarized in a one-sentence logline.

A strong scene has a central conflict too. That doesn't mean only one thing happens in a scene or that only one character has a goal in each scene. It means the point of view character for each scene has a reason for being there and that he is earning his page time.

Think of a story or scene goal as having a subject, object, verb, and outcome.

The subject is the point of view character.

The verb is the motion toward or away from the object.

• Obtain or get rid of it. 
• Hold onto or release it. 
• Reach or escape it 
• Hide or reveal it. 
• Change or keep from changing it. 
• Tell or not tell it. 
• Evade or capture it. 
• Avert or allow it. 
• Define or obscure it. 
• Prove or disprove it. 
• Evaluate or decide it. 

The object is the target or focus of the words and actions.

• Person 
• Place 
• Thing 
• Information 
• Situation 
• Physical Task 
• Mental Task 
• Need 
• Want 
• Emotion 
• Belief 
• Prejudice 

For every struggle there is an outcome.

• The character can succeed in his goal and feel good about it or bad about it. 
• The character can achieve his goal only to find out it was the wrong goal. 
• The character can achieve his goal and find they have created a bigger problem. 
• The character can fail and feel good about it or bad about it. 
• The character can fail and realize he was after the wrong goal, so his failure was really a success. 

The goal of the antagonist, or antagonistic forces, is to keep the protagonist from obtaining the object and make the verb challenging.

Friends and foes provide stumbling blocks and step ladders to keep the character moving toward and away from the object and make the verb more difficult or easier.

Providing stiff opposition and high stakes equals high tension.

Movement toward and away from the scene and story goals creates satisfying S-curves readers enjoy cruising, or racing, through to reach the story’s end. It adds the requisite tension to keep the reader turning pages.
If you can complete one sentence for your entire story, you have a solid logline.

Character (subject) wants to (verb) the (object) and (outcome).

If you can complete one sentence for every chapter, you have a solid synopsis.

Next week, we'll illustrate the theory.

You can visit http://www.dianahurwitz.com to download free scene-building worksheets.

For more information on scene goals, pick up a copy of Story Building Blocks II: Crafting Believable Conflict.

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Building-Blocks-II-Believable/dp/1470199998

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Building-Blocks-Believable-ebook/dp/B007SOPXUI

Developing External Conflict Scenes

External Conflict scenes are your verbal camera at its widest angle and it is focused on the entire stage.

External conflicts test the protagonist’s courage, nerves, and determination.

They are high tension scenes that focus on the question of whether the overall story goal will be achieved. They are the main actions and reactions that provide the turning points and lead directly to and include the climax of the story.

External scenes show the characters caught up in the situation of your premise such as: boy meets girl, the volcano erupts, aliens invade the town, a body has been found, they are all forced to go to a wedding or reunion, or the wagon train heads out for the wild west. They do not address the subplots unless and until the subplot collides with the main plot at the climax. 

They introduce the protagonist, the inciting event, the story goal, the prize for reaching the goal, and the cost for not reaching the story goal (stakes). They show him developing and attempting a plan of action for tackling the story problem. In the usual three-act structure, his first plan fails and he must come up with a second plan (the wrong solution). That plan fails and he must come up with the third plan (the right solution). 

There have to be some positive moments where it looks like the protagonist is gaining ground. You could divide them equally: five scenes where he is making headway and five scenes where he is losing ground. 

Exercise: 

1) If you have a story idea, list your initial thoughts on events that will happen to trigger then escalate this external conflict: snags in the plan, unexpected discoveries, reversals, gains, and increasing levels of threat. Arrange them in an order that shows cause and effect and final resolution. The first scene should contain the inciting event. The final scene should contain the climax. 

Example: 

1. Dick learns a meteor will strike.

2. Dick thinks of a way to stop it while it is still far away. He will nudge it with a satellite. 

3. The satellite crashes into, but doesn’t change, the meteor's trajectory.

4. Dick comes up with plan to divert the meteor with a laser beam.

5. They can’t get the beam close enough from the ground.

6. They send the laser to the space station. The equipment breaks off and is lost in space. 

7. They are back to the drawing board - all seems lost. They enter countdown mode. 

8. Dick comes up with a final plan. It is do or die. They will nuke the meteor. 

9. They rev up the shuttle loaded with a lethal payload to intercept the meteor and, despite last minute glitches, the shuttle takes off on a suicide mission. 

10. Their plan succeeds and everyone lives, except the crew of the shuttle.

2) If you already have a rough draft, save a copy of the draft as “External Scenes” and delete everything except for scenes that show the protagonist dealing with the overall story problem. Are they in a logical cause and effect order? If not, can you revise them so that they are? Do all of the scenes contribute in a meaningful way? If not can you cut them? 

3) Which scene contains the inciting event? It is Chapter One or Two? If not, can you move it up? 

4) Which scene contains the climax? Is it resolved too soon? Are there subplots and other story lines that drag on after it? Can you cut them or move them up? 

5) How and where does your protagonist enter and exit the story? How does he end up? 

Next time, we will explore Layer Two: Antagonist scenes.

Note: this post was originally published on www.bloodredpencil.blogspot.com

How To Layer Conflict

In previous posts, we discussed choosing a central question and a story skeleton, also known as genre. We have bent and twisted a premise many different ways. What happens next?

That depends on whether you are a pantser or a planner. Developing a conflict outline can keep you from getting mired in the middle. If you are allergic to outlining, you can wait until the end of the rough draft to examine each scene and identify the type of conflict it addresses.

The four layer method I use is simply a new way of looking at conflict in the story. It ensures that every scene is earning its page time and is placed in an order that has logical “cause and effect.”

First chapters are easy for most writers. The inciting event occurs. The protagonist makes an important decision or takes an irrevocable action. The antagonist knows of this decision/action and is prepared to oppose him. Then the writer loses momentum or doesn't know where to take it.

The layering process helps you develop the middle and end. You may not have a complete idea of how everything will come together. In breaking it down into layers, ideas will come to you. You may not stick with your original idea. The plot may change as you go. It's part of the process. The magic of dialogue, descriptions, exposition, and actions are not easily outlined, but scene conflicts are. They act as one sentence prompts that keep you from getting “stuck."

There are four layers of conflict to work with. All layers pertain to all genres. Even if you don't have a "bad guy" antagonist in your story, there are characters that work against your protagonist's best interest.

1) External scenes are the verbal camera at its widest angle. They focus on the overall story problem that all of your characters are caught up in and can feature any combination of characters. They address the central question and include the inciting incident, main turning points, and climax. Your protagonist should be present in these scenes. The love interest is a co-protagonist in a romance, so these scenes could follow the love interest if your verbal camera (POV) allows it.

2) Antagonist scenes narrow the focus to the antagonist, or antagonistic forces. The antagonist is the person most opposed to your protagonist's story goal. If your verbal camera follows the antagonist and/or his henchmen, these scenes can focus on them. If not, they are scenes where the protagonist is in direct contact with the antagonist/antagonistic force.

3) Interpersonal scenes focus on interactions with the friends and foes that help or hinder the protagonist and antagonist. Depending on the point of view you choose, they can be in direct contact with the antagonist, protagonist, or working their own agenda. If the friends and foes are involved in a subplot, these scenes address the subplot.

4) Internal scenes focus on the protagonist’s internal journey and lead up to his point of change. They explore his flaws, his strengths, and his thought processes. They include the personal problem that complicates his efforts to solve the overall story problem. If there is a love interest, and your verbal camera follows both characters, these scenes explore their individual struggles as they consider the pros and cons of the relationship.

There have to be both positive and negative interchanges. Two people constantly bickering with no happy moments do not make interesting characters or friends. Constant battle scenes and explosions with no softer moments are exhausting. Cycling between overt and subtle conflicts gives your story the satisfying S-curves the reader enjoys meandering (or speeding) through.

Your story may weave several plots together or explore separate protagonist’s journeys in a consecutive manner. Each subplot or protagonist will have his or her own layers. You would develop each subplot or protagonist’s journey in the same way.

Every scene should have at least one specific conflict and resolution. If your scenes are full of dialogue and people and static motion, but no tension or conflict, they fall flat, encouraging readers to skim over them and that is not the type of page turning to aim for.

The goal is to start off with at least ten ideas for each layer. Forty ten-page scenes result in a four-hundred page novel. The number of scenes vary according to your story requirements.

Changing the way you look at each scene makes writing them easier. Asking hard questions at the beginning saves major rewriting at the end.

We will discuss each layer in detail in upcoming posts.

The four layer method is laid out in Story Building Blocks: The Four Layers of Conflict, available in paperback and e-book.

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Building-Blocks-Layers-Conflict/dp/1463511248

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Building-Blocks-Layers-Conflict-ebook/dp/B0053001W4

Note: this post was originally published on www.bloodredpencil.blogspot.com.

Scouting Locations

Just as a film director scouts locations for his film, you can scout locations for your book. Whether you are an organic, planner, or hybrid writer, your scenes will be set somewhere.

When you are planning or writing your novel, it helps to have visual images to look at when describing your scenes. You may have chosen a gritty urban streetscape, a desert SciFi terrain, a remote manor house in the Scottish Highlands, or a sheep farm down under. If you are lucky enough to be able to travel to the place and truly absorb the sights, smells, and sounds, you are ahead of the game.

If not, the beautiful thing about the internet age is you don’t have to leave your house to research them. There are travel channels and brochures, DVDs, and movies set in specific locales for you to investigate. It won’t give you the smells, sounds, and tastes, but it is better than making it up entirely in your head.

Thanks to Google Maps and other satellite mapping programs, you can now zoom in and do a 360-degree pan of the area. While it doesn’t allow you to peek inside the windows, you can stroll through a neighborhood in Paris, London, or Peoria for free.

For interior scenes, you can find images through internet search engines. You can find examples of log cabins, Victorian parlors, industrial warehouses, and suburban homes. Tourist sites and real estate sites offer visual tours.

For my current project I needed a Victorian stage and the exterior and interior of a Victorian manor house. Some tours of stately homes offered floor plans. I will create a fictional manor house utilizing the rich details I discovered.

By zooming along England’s coast I found the town of Graves End. Perfect location name for a mystery and close enough to London that my investigators could easily go there by coach. A little more digging and I found it was on the coach line and had people arriving from London several times a day. Of course, Google maps shows a very modern Graves End, but I did find an early map of it as well as illustrations.

Sadly, I cannot afford to go to Graves End and I’d need the Tardis to return to Victorian times. I’ll have to settle for imagining the way it smells and sounds and the way it might have been. But if I hadn’t been scouting for locations, I would never have known it was there.

Priming the Pump

Your characters enter a scene. Something happens, preferably conflict. Now, stop and ask yourself, "What primed the pump?"

Hopefully one conflict scene leads to another conflict scene, but what if you are moving from one POV character to another or a great deal of time has elapsed in between scenes?

After you write a scene, take another look at it and consider what primed the pump. No one enters a situation as a blank canvas. 

1) What was Dick doing or feeling immediately prior? 

It may be obvious if Dick is moving between consecutive scenes. Whatever happened in Scene 3 primes Scene 4. A plot hole occurs when something happens in scene 3 and is never addressed again. You don’t have to waste a lot of page time explaining what happened in between if it isn’t essential. However, if Dick was upset in Scene 3 and is perfectly calm when we see him again in Scene 7, then something happened to diffuse his mood. You should probably reference it with a line of dialogue or interiority during the opening transition paragraph of the new scene.

2) What is each character’s mindset as the scene progresses?

Every character entering a scene has thoughts and feelings. Are they having a good day or bad day? It affects their receptiveness. Whatever happened in prior scenes could have bearing on the current scene. Conflicting emotions and situations prime the conflict pump. If Jane is happy and Dick is angry, they could trade moods quickly.

3) Has your scene been properly set up? 

Have you brought up an important point that you let lapse? Are the characters conflicted over something that makes no sense because you forgot to mention it in a previous scene? You may have cause and effect plot holes. If so, you have some revision to do. Beta readers or critique partners can be invaluable in catching these. My groups calls it the "read the book in my head, not the one on paper" syndrome.

4) Where does your scene take place? Why? 

Settings are often bland and add nothing. You add value when you set the scene in a place that heightens tension. It has to be logical and organic. Don’t do it because “the script called for it.” If your couple is having an argument at home in the kitchen, it is realistic but is it interesting? Is the kitchen the best place for the argument? Can you make the setting more awkward for them? Say, a PTA meeting or on a crowded bus ride home?

5) Who is present? 

You can have intense dialogue between two characters while they are alone. You add tension when they are striving to not be overheard or are wearing forced smiles at a formal function surrounded by family or coworkers. When two people are focused on each other, the crowd has a way of disappearing. They sometimes forget that other ears are listening. Being overheard can create future conflict. Having to behave decorously can force them to resume the conversation at another time, thus priming the pump for a future scene.

Consider not only the timeline of your story but how the timeline of the conflicts prime the pump. What happens immediately before can be as important as what happens during and immediately after.

Sorry, I Can't Hear You ...

Conflict occurs between characters when there is a breakdown in communication. You don’t need a broken cell phone or a disabled internet to create problems for your characters. When someone’s life or emotional welfare is at stake, breakdowns in communication are treacherous. 

Use communication failures to ratchet the tension and create obstacles that are resolved in future scenes. 

1) Mental block.

If Jane or Sally offers an important bit of information, Dick may dismiss it outright because it doesn’t fit within his belief system. They can talk all day. It won’t matter. Use this to point Dick in the wrong direction. Later, when he is more willing to listen, their information could save the day. 

2) Different meanings.

Terms such as coward/courageous, allowed/ forbidden, acceptable/unacceptable, relationship/friendship, good/bad could have entirely different meanings for Dick, Sally, and Jane. Misunderstandings in this realm create hurt feelings, perhaps the desire for retaliation. Use this misunderstanding to turn a friend into an enemy or a helper into a hinderer. When you want to turn the story around, resolve it. 

3) Too much information.

Sometimes less really is more. The more options and information thrown at Dick, the harder it can be for him to decide or act. He can’t possibly keep it all straight. Friends and foes can later supply Dick with information he overlooked or details he forgot. Plant the seed in one scene, sprout it in another, perhaps appreciate the fully beauty of it in a third.

4) Distraction.

Dick may not listen when his mind is on something else, missing the fact that Sally or Jane offered him an important piece of the puzzle. They can later remind him of it when it is crucial, with or without the “I told you so.”

5) Time crunch.

If Dick is in a rush, he might forget to say the right thing, tell the correct people, or leave out important facts. His terse delivery may chafe. This can infuriate and confuse Sally or Jane. It could leave them unwilling to help him or create negative backlash in a future scene.

6) Emotion Commotion.

If Sally or Jane approaches Dick in a heightened state of emotion — be it anger, passion, exhaustion, sadness, or drunkenness — Dick may dismiss the content as irrational. In a later scene, you can make Dick wish he had listened.

Communication breakdowns create interpersonal conflict at scene and overall story level and believable tension between characters. Have fun with it, but make it count.