A masterclass in scenes: Cutting, combining and the stress test

I want to do many things with this post and one of those hundreds of things is to make sure you know how to work scenes. I want to go over the structure of a scene, when to cut them and then when to combine them. I want to also showcase what the stress test for scenes are and to make sure that you actually need the scenes you’ve written. Some of the ideas here come from me and others I've used over the years myself. The best way to learn is by doing, so I want to make you aware and give you some exercises to do whilst you’re reading the blog post to help you formulate your scene that will survive the stress test.

Structure of a scene

What is a scene?

A scene is defined as a container that has something essential to some part of the story. Thinking of scenes like this makes it easy to understand it like this. Think of a narrative made up of boxes that you can move around. Though, if you put them in sequence, the boxes become a lot easier to manage. This basically means that these scenes are singular moments of action. Though, this definition, depending on the narration style of a text, can be quite difficult. Basically, a scene is a self-contained unit of action. For example, a fight with a bad guy in a fantasy story or a romantic first date. It can literally not anything as long as it moves one of the stories forward in some way. I say stories, because subplots should be their own – but I’ll come to this in a different post.

How to structure a scene

Scenes can be structured in so many ways and there really isn’t a good way to write a scene and one single way to work it when writing a scene. There are two ways that I go about writing a scene: three and five block method. The Three block method is very easy to follow as long as you consider this rule: choices make your character active, and a passive character is dead to you as a writer. A dead character is useless to your story and your characters should be driven and I should want to read them. This is turning into a characterization post. The scene should have three different parts:

• A choice: what your character has to do in a given situation. Could it be writing a letter to the emperor to not murder a family or asking your cute girlfriend your protagonist has on another date via a cute message. Whatever it is, there should be some kind of reason for it.

• A consequence: A consequence of the choice and this doesn’t need to be bad. It can be a good consequence. For example, if they decided to ask the person out, then they now get to go not a cute date in the next scene

• A result: this is the result of the choice and the consequence and should lead onto the next scene and act as a ‘hook’ to make sure your reader wants to turn the page and go onto the next chapter. Don't use cliffhangers with … every chapter but do it subtilty. Thrillers do this best but all comersally successful ones tend to find some way to work it. Study authors basically., I'll write another post on this, but every author you love will have a way they end their chapters, and you need to find yours. Will you end It on a moment of relief or maybe tension, etc.

The five step method of scene writing just adds two extra steps. These are as follows:

• Choice: This is the choice being presented to the character rather than being melded into one part.

• First point: this splits the previous ‘choice’ step even further and the character has to make the choice they want to. The first ‘choice’ is merely them being presented with it in the form of a letter or however your story works. Your first point of call should be trying to understand what choice they’re going to make and how their life will change after accepting or denying the choice.

• Consequence: This is the same step as before, just with more buildup to it from the previous step. The consequence of whether the date was asked out or choosing to open the letter is revealed here. This is the aftermath.

• Second point: This is where a further complication of the consequence happens. Here, the letter might have arrived, but the character struggles to read it. Maybe the date said yes but can’t make it at the moment so they need to reschedule?

• Result: What are the results of these changes and how will your character go forward in the story? Will they reschedule the date or will they decide actually they like being single. Explore the emotions before closing the scene off.

Some questions that I need to get out the way:

• Does your character have a need for this event?

• What story does it help with? The main one or subplots?

• Why is this event happening? What function does it play?

When to cut them

Scenes should be cut if they don’t meet the three bullet points I've outlined above. Doesn’t the story move along? Get rid of it! By moving the story along I mean giving some kind of development, for example a romance between two characters or the main plot points with certain scenes, for example getting closer to the objective or completing it.

When to keep them

Keep them if they meet the scene criteria. Seriously if you need to know if a scene meets the different criteria ask yourself if this event didn’t happen to the character, how would the story change? Can you add different elements to the story that mean the scene can be resurrected from the dead?

When to combine them

If you have good elements and bad elements of a scene have them make a baby! I’m partially kidding. I’ve written a post on the Burning Throne documentary series (I’ll link it at the bottom) to showcase the process I went through combing elements I liked from the two scenes and making them into something I loved.

The stress tests

How to use it

The stress test is simple because ultimately it tries to get rid of the first point of contention with scenes: the character could have just said no. Yes, the character can’t always have stakes being so high you risk giving your reader a heart attack, but you need to make sure that there is some stakes in every scene. If there aren’t any stakes, then people won’t give two damns.

How to apply it

The stress test basically boils down to a few main elements:

• Recognition of the ‘state of play’ from you as the author: if there is a war, write yourself that there is a war and that certain things will happen. Settings should play into the story and you need to be cognoscente Aas the writer that you’ve set up your characters to sue their setting. Make them use it in some way, even if its struggling to climb up a door or showing the environment as hostile. If a character is dead, don’t’ bring them back alive in the next scene if you can help it, unless its integral to the plot.

• Trial by fire: Scenes should stretch your character towards the middle of the novel. Your scenes should give you as the author a trial by fire in a good way. With every scene you should be challenging yourself in some way until you develop a style you’re happy with. Your scenes should be also, stretching your world or characters in some way, giving them a ‘trial by fire’. It doesn’t matter how hot the flames are, though.

• Equilibrium between description and dialogue: Scenes I write tend to have an overabundance of dialogue or description and I don’t seem to be able to get it just right. I want you to see if you are the same in that way and make sure to write in a way that lets your reader know you won’t be giving them pages and pages of monologues. You could do this by varying the difference between description by switching into a dialogue part.

• Stakes need to be evident in your scenes: if there are no stakes, I couldn’t care less. Basically make sure that your character has ramifications if the current event blows up in their faces. End of the world? Will everyone die? How will they stop it? If they fail, make it very clear how they failed. Explaining the (failing) plan or watching it unfold could work well.

When it goes wrong

If it goes wrong then my best advice is to go back to the drawing board and try to fix your scenes from the ground up. Something might be wrong structurally with your scene and it might not survive the stress text. If you’ve got any questions, then you can ask me in the comments section.