Jack M. Bickham’s Scene & Structure, chapter 4.

“Just as causes result in effects and stimuli result in responses, the scene inevitably – if written correctly – leads to another scene.”

A scene is external action written moment-by-moment in the story’s present. Its basic pattern is:

1. Goal statement. The character has a clear, specific goal which looks attainable, and will move towards the attainment of the overall story goal; the character generally states what it is explicitly in dialog or thought. This leads to a “scene question”: will the character succeed?

2. Conflict introduced and developed. This is not the static, circling conflict seen in many arguments; scenes are dynamic. Conflict makes up most of the scene, and is presented moment by moment, without summary, for maximum lifelikeness. It consists of a series of stimuli and responses, constantly shifting ground. It occurs externally.

3. Character fails to (simply) reach the goal (a “tactical disaster”). The character leaves the scene worse off than at the beginning. The answer to the scene question is either “no, and furthermore” or “yes, but”.

Bickham also offers a simple “no” as the answer (in which case the character is only worse off by one less option), and the “yes, but” is a yes with so many strings attached that the character may, by making the choice to turn down such a terrible option, give themselves their own “no”. I’ve heard other writing teachers put this slightly differently, that the “yes, but” is a yes that carries a complication that the character has to live with in order to get the yes.

The disaster must logically grow out of the conflict (but should be, to some degree, unexpected), and must answer the scene question.

The higher the stakes of the story question, the longer the scene should be. It’s better to develop it more and risk overwriting than not develop it enough and leave it with no punch.

#sceneandstructure