{"id":2914,"date":"2015-04-03T03:00:15","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T03:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/Jack-M-Bickham-Scene-and-Structure-Chapter-9-Variations"},"modified":"2015-04-03T03:00:15","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T03:00:15","slug":"jack-m-bickham-scene-and-structure-chapter-9-variations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/2015\/04\/03\/jack-m-bickham-scene-and-structure-chapter-9-variations\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack M. Bickham, Scene &amp; Structure, Chapter 9: Variations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n        \n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jack M. Bickham, <em>Scene &amp; Structure<\/em>, Chapter 9: Variations<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bickham&#8217;s advice is to plan your book in the &#8220;classic structure&#8221; of scenes alternating with sequels, with all the parts in order, and then introduce variations as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, you can interrupt a conflict with a different scene (that is, different action in which there&#8217;s a different goal), in order to realign a character&#8217;s motivation so that they will make a decision they otherwise might not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can jump into the middle of the scene and supply the goal later, or imply the disaster. Do this sparingly, as a way of increasing the pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your characters&#8217; internalisations will naturally try to become mid-scene sequels if the stimulus is powerful enough to throw them into deep reflection. As a rule, resist this, but allow it if it&#8217;s needed to explain a major change of direction by the character, to get the reader in tune with the character, or to work in important backstory. Just watch for the &#8220;talking is a free action&#8221; or &#8220;comics dialog while falling&#8221; phenomenon, where the internalisation goes on for pages in supposedly a moment of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can stretch or compress the sequel components, or even change the order a bit. Or you can interrupt the sequel with an unexpected scene if you don&#8217;t want the character working out the answer just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Always remember to return to and complete the classic structure before moving on. Don&#8217;t leave the reader hanging.\ufeff<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">#sceneandstructure<\/p>\n\n      ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>        Jack M. Bickham, Scene &amp; Structure, Chapter 9: Variations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[94,90],"class_list":["post-2914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-resources-and-craft","tag-mike-reeves-mcmillan","tag-sceneandstructure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}