Scene Sequences: Another Way To Make Yourself Crazy

So scene sequences are what's going to save my butt on this book, I think. Scene sequences are scenes in a sequence–go ahead and try to define "baked potato" beyond "a potato that has been baked"–and if you track the sequences you can see the shape of your story. Got it?

Okay, let's start again.



Scenes are units of conflict. They start where the trouble starts, escalate in tension, and end when the conflict is resolved and the characters are thrown into the next scene. And I do mean "thrown" as with great force. Okay, with escalating force. So the things you ask yourself about scenes is not just the old protagonist-goal-antagonist-conflict-crisis stuff, it's also, "Where does this scene throw the characters next?"

(I've been talking with Lani about doing a podcast/lecture thingy for Storywonk on scene structure, but the drawback is that you'd have to buy it. Is that a bad idea? I think they're about ten bucks.)

Where was I? Oh right, where do the characters land next? Sometimes in a related scene and sometimes some place completely different (although still attached to the story spine). Scenes that are related and happen one right after another are scene sequences. Each scene has to be considered a unit of its own, but the scene sequence also has a structure and a meaning of its own.

That's still confusing. So here's part of Liz's first act.

Scene 1-1 (first scene of first act) is Liz deciding not to stop in her home town after all and then getting picked up for speeding, after which she guns her ancient car too hard and it breaks down, forcing her to stay. It's the inciting incident in Liz's Journey Plot (refusal of call, anybody?) and while it throws her into the town and the story, it's not part of a scene sequence.

But then in Scene 1-2, she's at the garage that's going to fix her car which is run by a friend from her past who tries to convince her to stay and is then joined by her cousin who tries to convince her to stay. She says "No." Then in Scene 1-3, she goes to lunch with her cousin while waiting to find out about her car and finds out why they want her to stay. 1-2 sets up her suspicions and 1-3 pays them off. That's a scene sequence. The sequence ends because she says, "Hell, no," but the conflict lives on in other sequences.

To help me keep all these sequences together, I give them names. That one is Eloise. No, I kid. That one is "Fix This I" because that's what Liz did for her first eighteen years, fix everybody's problems, something she's determined not to fall into again. So she says no, loudly, when asked to fix something in this sequence. But in Scenes 1-16, 1-17, 1-18, and 1-19, she's again pressured to fix things. That sequence is "Fix This II," and she starts by saying "No" again and then is drawn in. There are "Fix This" sequences in all four acts that escalate in tension (one is a wedding from hell, one is a murder, and one is somebody trying to kill her), and if you pull the sequences out and just look at them by themselves, they arc from Liz saying, "No," to Liz fixing things again because people need her and that's what she does. It's a part of finding herself. I knew that was all part of the plot, I do plan this stuff sort of as I write the first drafts, but until I look at my rough draft and break down where the parts of the plot are, I can't be sure it's arcing.

The other sequences are "The Town, Things Have Changed I" (1-4 to 1-5), "Family, Things Have Changed I" (1-6 to 1-8), "The Old Gang Is New" (1-9 to 1-11), "Somebody's Trying To Kill Me I" (1-12 to 1-13), "Family, Things Have Changed II (1-14 to 1-15), "Fix This II (1-16 to 1-19), "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps I" (1-20 to 1-22, the romance plot; I like Pink Martini, sue me), and "This Time It's Different I" ( 1-23 to 1-24) which always ends with the turning point scene. See? Clear as mud, right?

Okay try this: group related sequential scenes together and give them titles that identify the escalating central conflict in some way. Better?

Once I have the scene sequences figured out, I can look at all the Fix This sequences to make sure they escalate, that Liz is slowly drawn back into her old role. I can look at Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps and make sure that both the emotional and the physical arcs in that relationship are strong and clear. And I can look at the four "This Time It's Different" sequences and make sure that they escalate in intensity. It's another way of reducing a complex plot and 100,000 words to manageable units.

All those sequences have to be set up in the first act because introducing something new in later acts slows the book and confuses the reader. Even if a character arrives on the scene in a later act, he has to be mentioned and foreshadowed in the first act so that the reader has all the playing pieces in the game. (For example, if you've read Welcome to Temptation, you know Davy doesn't arrive until late in the book, but they talk about him all the way through the first two acts, so he's been introduced and is a presence on the page.) So once you have the scene sequences for the first act, you have them for all subsequent acts.

Then I have to make sure they all connect, not only in sequence with each other but across all the plots and subplots, but that's a different blog post. It's also why I need the tables to get the book from rough draft to truck draft. I know it sounds like I'm babbling, but once I have the rough draft done, this really helps me rewrite to pull all the parts together. Where the juice is in all of this is problematical, except that much like images in a collage, when I see the scenes in juxtaposition to each other, stuff happens in my head. But mostly, it just gives me the illusion I'm in control of the book.

One caveat: Don't do this before you write the first draft. Write the story off the top of your head and then use this kind of stuff to sort out the word salad you end up with. Otherwise, no juice at all.

And that should answer your questions about scene sequences. Oh, wait, nobody asked about scene sequences.

Never mind.