The Anatomy of a Scene

Although your novel is made up of individual scenes, in truth those scenes are not individual at all, but part of an escalating internal and external cause-and-effect trajectory. Each scene is made up of myriad layers, and performs multiple tasks: they move subplots forward, give the reader insight into the protagonist, develop secondary characters, ratchet up what’s at stake, foreshadow what’s to come, and trigger changes that will ripple throughout the novel.

Wow, that’s a lot! How do you keep track of it? And how do you get it onto the page so that all those layers merge to create what reads as a seamless whole? That’s exactly what we’ll unravel, giving you a clear, concise and concrete method of making sure that every scene you write not only serves the story you’re telling, but rivets the reader.

Never again will you face that frustrating struggle, wondering if the scene you’re contemplating is relevant or not. You’ll learn how to identify and create each layer in every scene, bringing your story to life and creating the irresistible sense of reality that hijacks the reader’s brain.

In this session you’ll learn:

• What makes a scene work, and what every scene must do in order to be relevant and riveting.
• Maddeningly common mistakes writers make when writing scenes and how to deftly avoid them.
• How to keep track of every layer in your story – scene-by-scene -- from beginning to end.
• Why you should never write scenes out of order.

• Class Introduction
• What is a Scene
• What Is a Story
• The Layers in Each Scene
• Ten Questions to Ask of Every Scene
• Scene Template
• Example: The Graduate