Jack M. Bickham’s Scene & Structure, chapter 5: Scenes with Results

Scene goals, conflicts, and disasters should be considered in terms of the scope, immediacy, finality and direction of the result.

A scene goal, for example, should be big enough to affect the course of the story, but not so large as to derail or end it entirely.

The goal must lead to a result with immediate effect, but not so much so that the action never pauses for a moment and the character can’t think, plan, or breathe.

A result that’s too final will end the story, but one that’s not final enough won’t be interesting (example: if turned down for a loan, there are four more banks in town to try).

A result that changes the direction of the whole story is also not good.

The conflict must be proportionate, not escalating too much or, on the other hand, blocking off angles of escalation for fear that it will get out of hand, only to leave it bland.

Ducking the conflict comes from shyness, fear or fatigue: being conflict-averse in real life (this is me), afraid you can’t write well enough to do it justice, or being mentally and emotionally weary from too many powerful scenes earlier in the book.

Overescalation is sometimes misinterpreted as “the characters taking over the story”. If your plot has gone off the rails, track back through your disasters looking for one that overshot (or undershot) in scope, immediacy, finality or direction.

If all that seems fine, perhaps you picked the wrong disaster, one that affected the later plot too much.

Scene planning exercise:

Write out a goal in 10 words or less.

Who is the conflict with, where, for how long?

At least four twists and turns in the conflict.

What is the disaster?

#sceneandstructure

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

“[F]iction must make more sense than real life if general readers are to find it credible.”

You can make almost anything happen in your story if every cause has an effect and vice versa. This implies a rational universe, which is comforting to the reader.

“Stimulus and response are cause and effect made more specific and immediate.”

Stimulus and response are both external – we could see them if the story was taking place on a stage. They always occur in pairs, and usually without delay, and with a clear logical connection (which may involve internal processes, in which case, show them to the reader).

They occur in the order stimulus-(internalisation)-response, unless you deliberately re-order them to create an effect of momentary confusion.

– Jack M. Bickham

#sceneandstructure

“For maximum effectiveness, you should start your story at the time of the change that threatens your major character’s self-concept.”

“…at the outset of your story… show your character coming up with a vital intention or story goal, designed to “fix things” for him in terms of his sensation of being out of equilibrium with his environment. Every good fiction character is thus goal-motivated.”

“…you end the novel… by answering the story question you posed at the outset.”

“Plan to make the start and end as close together in time as you can, and still have room for a minimum of 50,000 words of dramatic development.”

– Jack M. Bickham

#sceneandstructure

Just started Jack M. Bickham’s Scene and Structure (1993). I’ll be sharing my notes as I go, under the #sceneandstructure hashtag.

“Structure is nothing more than a way of looking at your story material so that it’s organized in a way that’s both logical and dramatic. Structure is a process, not a rigid formula.”