I’ve Been Doing Scenes Wrong

It’s amazing the things you just don’t realize your doing poorly. Lately I’ve been comparing writing more and more to Japanese comics (Manga). And one of the things I’ve realized I’ve been doing wrong is the scene. Not to say I haven’t written some good scenes in my years of writing but as a whole I haven’t treated scenes as they need to be treated. To me, for the most part, scenes where what happened as a chain reaction. If the character is who the character is then we should have a natural chain reaction of actions based on who they are with bits and pieces I put in to direct the whole story. This thought process is somewhat flawed.

The most important part of a scene isn’t what happens in it. What happens in a scene is a by product of where the scene is going. Where the scene is going should usually involve a change of mentality, emotion, thought, or all three. If you write a scene based on what should happen you can end up with prose that goes like this. He did this, then he does that, then we have to do that. Its feels dull and its dull to write. On the other hand a scene based on, I need to hit this characters pride, has more potential for emotion. Its not about what he’s doing but how can the scene (Whatever it may be) can alter him. On a lighter tone I suspect this is why a talented story teller can seemingly do something that makes no logical sense but is accepted as good story by the reader(But I digress).

Anger, jealousy, happiness these are pretty basic emotions but there are some additional feelings you might want to add to your story. The peace of a silent room. Don’t think of feelings and emotions as one core set of things angry, sad, etc. Expand your vision of them. You as a human being have felt so much more than those core emotions. As much as each emotion has its base level of meaning theirs layers to each peel back the layers find the drudgery of every day life and how you feel your losing something each day but by the end of a month it feels inconsequential. Even boredom is something that can be expanded on. There’s much more to write about then we can imagine.

So instead of writing a fantasy where the hero goes from point A to B to C think, whats important about this story? Is it a trial of bravery, compassion, solitude? Find out that then write with that larger goal in mind. Then when you get to the march from point A to Point B, think were do I want my character to be mentally?  What do I want to convey to the reader? Is the character going from merciless to merciful? Why not start by having a scene where his tidal wave of mercilessness is met with a grain of compassion? Figure it out, think your story through, try to write each scene as if it where a picture or series of pictures that are trying to convey an emotion, thought, or feeling. Don’t get tunneled in by the easy emotions or by a monotony of he did this he did that. Think it through and hopefully you’ll find some emotions you never new where there.  Done rambling 🙂 peace out, Godbless, Ransom