Jack M. Bickham, Scene & Sequel, Chapter 11: Plotting with Scene and Sequel

There are a number of different ways that plots can go in a story written with the scene-and-sequel approach.

1. The scene disasters move the character further and further from a straightforward resolution of the story goal, each having to be solved in order to solve the previous one. When the turning point comes, solving one problem is likely to solve the others back up the chain, like dominoes falling.

2. Disasters pile up, but don’t obviously relate to each other (the character gets in more and more trouble, but solving the latest trouble won’t solve the trouble before that in any obvious way).

3. The scenes require side-quests to clear the way to return to the main quest.

4. The scenes are interleaved subplots, more or less related to the central quest, but some of which may only be playing out in the same setting with related characters.

5. There’s a ticking clock counting down.

6. Each scene reduces the character’s options as he or she attempts one resolution after another, but keeps failing.

7. Plot complications and terrible developments previously hidden are revealed.

You’re always dealing with three stories: the backstory before this story started, this story, and the “hidden” story that’s happening offstage. You may have to plot all three of them out carefully for them to work together, even if you only tell one of them.

Subplots

1. Restrict yourself to one viewpoint character per scene.

2. Have one dominant viewpoint overall. (I’ve breached this in my latest, or almost; two viewpoint characters have four chapters each, and the third has five). This is because if you spread the viewpoint out too much the reader will be confused about whose goals are most important, and won’t identify strongly enough with any one character. (I take issue with both of those points.)

3. Different viewpoints should feel different. For example, their emotional reactions and their proportions of emotion to thought, the opinions they hold.

4. Only change viewpoint to enhance reader curiosity and suspense.

5. The best place to change viewpoint is after a scene-end disaster. Next best is the thought portion of the sequel. Third-best is the moment of new decision in the sequel. All these leave the reader with something unresolved which will keep them reading.

Pick up the viewpoint again exactly where you left it. This doesn’t necessarily mean at the same moment in time, just at the same point in the character’s structural pattern/process.

Content tricks to keep the reader worried

In a scene:

1. Drop hints about things the antagonist knows which the viewpoint character doesn’t. (You need to eventually reveal these.)

2. Have the antagonist reveal something (which is bad news) that the protag didn’t know going into the scene.

3. Make it clear that the protag came into the scene with faulty assumptions.

4. Have the antagonist set up a ticking clock for the scene.

5. Show that the stakes are higher than previously realised.

6. Hold back the full details of the viewpoint character’s agenda, but hint at them.

In a sequel:

1. Set a clock ticking – limited time to make a decision.

2. Have the character realise, in the thought segment, new dimensions to the disaster.

3. Overwhelm the character with emotion so that the thought segment is rushed and inadequate, leading to a poor decision.

4. Insert a “roadblock” scene into the early part of the action segment so that the character must complete a side quest to get back to the next scene and carry out the decision.

5. Don’t tell the reader the decision the character reached (use this sparingly).

6. Interrupt the sequel with a new threat that must be met immediately.

#sceneandsequel