hey guys it's Jalen I'm here today with another writing video so today I'm going to be talking about scene work which is basically how to craft an effective scene I think that this is a really important element of writing craft that isn't talked about enough because we talk about the building blocks of scene work a lot but we don't often talk about scenes themselves and how to construct a scene like there's a lot of focus on structure as a whole sentences the smaller units but I feel like the scene as such an important unit of
a story isn't really discussed enough you've probably noticed before if you were reading a book that had really poor scene work the story probably struggled to hold your attention and it probably felt like you were kind of slogging through the story even when maybe interesting things were happening on the page like why am I finding this boring why does this feel kind of hard to read why doesn't this feel engaging on a moment-to-moment level it may be well it could be for a lot of reasons but one reason is poor scene work we can kind
of split up a story into two different types of narratives scene and summary scene plays out an active moment whereas summary condenses and kind of zooms out when we use scene we're dramatizing and when we use narrative summary worth summarizing typically you want to use scene or you want to dramatize moments of the story where the protagonist is being active and there's active steps happening forwarding the progression of the plot and you can narrate or use summary for sections of the story where there isn't active movement happening in the story or the character is not
being active typically we want to dramatize scenes that change the plot outcome there is no set ratio for how much scene in summary there should be typically there will be more active scene for younger audiences and books can actually have a lot of narrative summary a lot of adult books literary fiction especially can actually be majority narrative summary typically for a younger audience so middle grade you want the majority seen why a majority scene and then as you get into adult there can maybe be more and more narrative summary up until some adult books or
even the majority narrative summary a narrative summary can still be very engaging to read but it doesn't dramatize a moment that we've seen it so today we're talking about scene not narrative summary narrative summary will be a different video so let's start by talking about the building blocks of scene within scene we have a bunch of different tools that we can use in order to dramatize a moment and these different tools are dialogue action description narrative Exposition and backstory so let's kind of break down what each of those are first of all is dialogue which
is characters speaking then there's action which is characters moving description which is telling us what things look like feel like smell like Etc it's sensory narrative is what is the character thinking or feeling Exposition is sharing information and finally backstory is um what happened in the past backstory can be written out as active scene in what we would call flashback but within a scene happening in the respective present there can also be backstory we can reference things that happen in the past it's kind of a form of exposition but I'm singling it out here as
something a little different because of the type of exposition we would typically classify things like dialogue action and description as showing whereas we would often classify things like narrative Exposition and backstory as telling but I think that can be a bit of an oversimplification and it can lead to writers avoiding those things when you don't have to avoid those things there's nothing wrong with some juicy narration or even a good bit of exposition don't be afraid of the expository elements of seeing just write them well use them purposefully and use them to convey information that
is compelling those are just as important so it's not that those things have to be avoided just use them purposely I have a whole video on why telling an exposition are actually good actually that you can check out one common question that I I see what the ratio should be between all these elements what percentage of a scene should be dialogue what percentage should be action narrative Etc there is not one and that is a good thing we're happy that there isn't one because that would make writing scenes very challenging if you had to be
like wait am I hitting my 40 action it's whatever you need you know some scenes will maybe be very heavy on there or very heavy on description and have one line of dialogue or no dialogue right whereas others may be primarily fueled by dialogue sometimes a dialogue scene is interwoven with a lot of action sometimes a dialogue scene is interwoven with a lot of narrative sometimes it's a lot of description sometimes you have an action scene that doesn't really have you know a lot of dialogue it depends completely on the scene so what is a
scene when we're talking about a scene these are the building blocks that go into a scene but what actually is a scene so a scene is a unit of a story that is larger than a Beat but smaller than a chapter and a Beat is a step forward you know a beat is kind of one of those building blocks right so you could have an action beat where a character does one action you can have a dialogue beat where one unit of dialogue is exchanged you can have a description beat where one thing is described
and a scene is made up of all these different narrative beats and then a chapter is made up of multiple scenes although it is fair to note here that some chapters are just one scene a scene depicts a single event in which there is a possibility for Change and usually some kind of change scenes are usually contained to a single time and place a scene dramatizes a piece of conflict that in combination with other scenes creates a larger chain of events in order to explore the entire Arc of conflict across an entire story a scene
should be a living and active moment that uses description detail specificity character and drama in order to create an engaging moment Within a larger narrative in a scene you are depicting complex people in negotiation over something of narrative importance a scene can be separated by scene breaks on either side or in some cases several scenes will flow together and be bridged by narrative summary or even joined by say an action beat that connects two scenes say you have a scene happening in one room where a character is having a conversation with one character and that
is one scene and then they walk out the door and they have an interaction with someone outside and that is a separate scene bridged together by an action beat of the character walking outside it could also just be broken up by a scene break typically if there's any kind of significant time skip we would use a scene break scenes can be as short or as long as you need them to be they're kind of like chapters in that sense there is no set scene length and typically within a book you will kind of establish what
you need a scene to be just as you will establish what you need a chapter to be you will establish what a scene is in your book some books use more compact scene structure others use more lengthy lengthy sprawlings instructure and others will use a combination each scene contains both an external and internal landscape that the scene and the character are moving through with those smaller beats those small contained building blocks that together create a scene that can be internal external or both so they can be movement happening within the character's thoughts externally in the
world or a combination of both and so throughout a scene we're moving through both an external and a psychological landscape and there will be interplay between these two things some scenes will focus much more heavily on the internal some much more on the external some that will kind of be a balance of both one really important concept to talk about when we're talking about scenes is scene choreography scene choreography is how you block together the different beats of a scene and by extension how your character is going to move throughout the scene when you have
strong scene choreography the beats within a scene will consistently build upon each other to increase tension throughout the scene while maintaining Clarity so the reader doesn't lose track of how the character is moving throughout the situation as well as how their internal landscape is developing and how those things are connected if the scene choreography is weak then there will be a lot of unnecessary beats that don't contribute to the building tension of the scene or there will be convoluted scene choreography where it takes too many action beats to take just one actual tangible step forward
in terms of the scene's development we'll lose sense of how the character is moving through space and psychology to go along with this video I've made a quick cool talk that just goes through the information in this video some definitions talks about the different types of narrative components just like I talked about in the video goes through kind of forces of drama like conflict goals tension I think it's always good to describe those things and then also goes through a longer example every scene is completely different and these pieces are going to fit together in
a completely different way in every scene but I did want to give you guys an example of what all these different narrative components look like and just kind of breaking down the different beats so you can kind of see how the scene is developing so that example is from white on white by isolfoss I was just able to find a good excerpt from that online and it's a vignette style book so the scenes are very compact so it worked well for a example if you want to check out that example and just kind of see
the breakdown of a scene and the different components see how they fit together or review the information in this video uh that Google doc is linked in the description so those are kind of the different concepts and building blocks of a scene let's run through some tips of strong scene work number one don't explain the conflict express it this is show don't tell in a new fancy way now there's nothing wrong with telling um as I made a whole video about but in the case of an active scene we don't just want the readers to
understand the story we want them to experience it so rather than just stating what the conflict is you want that conflict to be expressed through the Active Components of a scene show us the character in conflict with other characters with their environment whatever the core of the conflict is play the conflict out that is the drama that's the source of drama drama in the sense that there are compelling situations and conflict happening within this story right number two be mindful of the change what is being negotiated in this scene between the characters maybe between the
character and themselves what is being bargained with and for right this comes back to the stakes what is the potential energy here the full potential energy may not be reached but what is the the full potential right if these characters were to fully adapt their desires what is the maximum potential that could be reached here in terms of conflict and drama are we going to reach it sometimes it not being reached can be just as entertaining viewing that repression and most importantly to keep in mind what does everyone in this scene want that is one
of the easiest ways to keep track of the developing conflict is to just keep track of what everyone wants um and the root of their actions and motivations number three tension stakes and conflict let's talk about it uh these are the building blocks of narrative and drama and they're crucial for strong scene work so Stakes are the worst possible narrative outcome if the goal is not achieved conflict is the forces preventing a character from achieving their goal tension occurs when these things feel significant and we are invested in their outcome so a scene has its
own Stakes tension and conflict while also contributing to the overall Stakes tension and conflict of The Narrative four continually keep building the tension throughout the story if you're writing just say a simple scene that's just a conversation between two characters there may be tension between them at the beginning but as they discuss further rather than their discussion dispelling the tension by bringing them closer to a point where they agree and where they can maybe work together and get on the same page you want to bring them further from that um you know there are so
many different types of tension right that that's kind of an interpersonal conflict type of tension whatever the root of the tension is keep building right like if it's romantic and maybe that's the touching the scene maybe it's it's not a conflict between characters maybe they have a romantic tension to number five getting late get out early you've heard this one before this is kind of classic writing advice but I think it it Bears repeating start the scene as late as possible and end the scene as soon as you've completed the scene basically long slow Meandering
lead up into a scene really in combination across the whole book bogs down the pacing of your book and can really have the word count unnecessarily in combination right if too many scenes have really long introductions and conclusions it really bogs down the pacing you lose the reader's attention the tension kind of starts to leech out of the story right this is something that I did a lot when I was younger you know I felt like I had to somehow build up to like the purpose of the scene you don't have to do that like
if there's something your characters need to discuss if that's the main purpose of this scene just begin at the start of that conversation rather than having a page of them slowly getting to that topic I used to do this fun and building off of that number six don't repeat the purpose of a scene do something new with each scene to me this is the easiest way of understanding that idea every scene must progress the story you know we we hear that a lot okay what does that mean to progress the story is the question that
comes along for me with that idea I remember hearing that at every young age every see must progressed the story and I was like okay what does that mean I don't think I fully grasped what that meant when I was a new writer it was easy to be like yeah my scenes are all progressing the story but I didn't really know what that meant to progress the story the scene is doing something that no previous scene has done contributing to the forward motion of the plot or the the downwards motion of kind of the depth
of the story in a meaningful way that has not been done yet and that doesn't need to be repeated you know another big mistake that I made when I was younger I would kind of have like four scenes that accomplish the same purpose because I felt like that was necessary I feel like one scene kind of wasn't enough to establish something and so it has like four scenes establishing the same thing readers understand the language of Storytelling right if they're shown something in the scene they log that information they don't need to be shown it
again that's when you can really start to lose the reader tip seven keep in mind that a scene is a learning opportunity and make the most of that take every scene as an opportunity to teach us something about the character um if not about every single character president so for your protagonist that's every scene and forever the side characters every scene they're present in what can we learn about every character in every scene that they're present in this is just something that I really like to challenge myself in order to create deeper characterization over the
course of the novel how can I learn something about the character in every single scene sometimes it's subtle but every single scene Pace your scenes by balancing expression of the moment and information that supports the expression of the moment rather than filler think about using every beat intentionally if your characters are I'm using a lot of dialogue as an example because I think that's the clearest common type of scene say you have a dialogue scene where two characters are speaking okay what are they doing with their bodies in the scene um if they're just standing
there it's not very interesting okay what can they be doing that supports the scene rather than just picking something random for them to do what can they be doing where their body language and their engagement can support the scene and then in terms of the information the information that is conveyed maybe through the exposition how can that support what is currently happening in the scene we're going to tie in some backstory how does that backstory add information to this current moment that increases the tension that builds upon the drama tip number nine keep surprising the
reader pick surprising details don't let the reader drift into complacency where they can kind of anticipate every detail that they're about to read keep them engaged by disrupting their preconceived notions of these people and these places pick surprising details that feel still feel right trying to ask yourself okay what action beat am I going to pair with this dialogue there may be the obvious action beat and then there may be the surprising action beat let's say your characters are playing catch while they're having a discussion they're just throwing a baseball back and forth let's say
the side character says something and throws the ball back to main character the obvious beat is for the characters to catch it and then throw it back maybe that is what's right for what is said but maybe they've reached a point conversation where the tension has really boiled over and so maybe instead of catchy the main character just kind of stands aside and lets it drop at their feet maybe they catch it and then throw it into the behind them I don't really know I don't know what's going on in the scene how can the
the detail Choice through the description through the action how can it keep the reader engaged how can the internal details be surprising but accurate reflections of what's Happening externally and how can what's happening externally be surprising but accurate reflections of what's Happening internally the last tip is don't lose the physicality don't lose the character's body your character's body how they are physically present and rooted in a scene what are they doing what are they feeling where are they don't lose those things it can be easy for a scene to drift too much into disembodied dialogue
or a lot of narrative summary what is the character doing what are they feeling you know this is everything from something that they might taste in the air or smell in the air you know pollen that's like tickling their skin sunlight is it Pleasant or is it too hot is it itchy and uncomfortable are they starting to sweat what is going on physically what are they doing what are they interacting with how are they moving don't lose the character's body and if you have multiple characters don't lose the side character's physicality if it makes sense
how are they interacting with each other if these characters are at a point where there is a closeness where they can interact or it makes sense for them to be interacting physically where is the crossover between their physicality maybe they aren't really at a point of comfort do they ever accidentally knock him to each other and how does that feel and what does that mean right um physicality is a great tool as a writer to enhance your scene work those are my tips on how to write stronger scene work and how to craft a scene
I hope that this video was helpful for just maybe giving you the language to think about since I think a lot of this stuff is not all of this is stuff that as writers we kind of already know intuitively if you're not thinking about this consciously you probably already know it subconsciously you know that when you're writing a scene these are the building blocks and this is what you're trying to achieve I think it's a thing that we all kind of know intuitively but I hope that maybe this video helped give you some specific language
and terms in order to maybe help you identify problems if you feel like the scene work isn't working in a specific scene I don't think you necessarily have to be consciously thinking about this in every scene you write I certainly don't because I think a lot of the time it's just intuitive but I think that if a scene isn't working if you have to kind of troubleshoot a scene it's really helpful to have this language and to be able to break down the components of a scene and see oh okay the scene choreo is too
messy in this place big problem in the novel I'm currently editing is that my scene choreo in a lot of the the scenes is just kind of weak if you feel like a scene's not working then I think it helps to have the language to describe it as I think is the case with most things in writing I think a lot of the time it can be intuitive until it's not working and then you need to figure out what's wrong with it and then it's helpful to know the theory so thank you guys so much
for watching and I'll see you in another video bye [Music] oh
