Making a Scene: How to Go Deep to Maximize Action and Emotion

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

This week I hit that pivotal moment in my novel, where we turn into Act III. It’s a good place for an “all is lost” moment. Maybe even a culmination of many moments, where the Protagonist realizes nothing is going right, and it’s her against the world.  

That scene needs to do a lot of work. And it took a lot of scenes to build up to it, many more than I thought (isn’t that always the way?) 

The temptation is to just “hit and run” with scenes — to get the basics down, to get on to the next thing. But as I reviewed this particular pivotal scene, it reminded me why it pays to develop scenes fully.  

I see this all the time in client work (especially near the end, where it’s tempting to speed up just to get it done) and also in my own. I start to get scared that it’s getting boring, so I move things along. But then, I miss the opportunity to really go deep with the scene, to investigate the character moments that make it meaningful.  

This week’s big scene, a council vote, could have been over in 2–3 paragraphs. The characters come in, the vote happens, they go home and sulk. But since it is a big, “all is lost” moment, I needed to make sure I did all of the following: 

• Have the vote go horribly wrong, against expectations 

• Introduce a new ally character (and reinforce an old one) 

• Glimpse of the real villains, smugly celebrating 

• Reaction from the main character — and an uncharacteristic response which shows her beginning to come out of her shell 

• Argument with a friend that is also a step backwards in her character development (part of a scene that also showcases old, more personal enemies and emphasizes why this new friendship is actually important to her) 

• Set the stage for Act III — foreshadowing a twist 

Whew! You can see why it pays to go slow, dig deep, and not worry too much about the overall word count at this point. I can always cut later, but failing to squeeze the juice from this chapter now means losing out on a ton of important plot and character development.  

My outline for the chapter just said, “All is Lost: town council votes Yes.” If I’d stuck to the letter of that, I’d never have unearthed the richness of all the other stuff I mentioned above.  

Some writers go into a scene with a detailed outline of who does what, and what needs to happen. Others go in with a vague idea, and figure it out as they go. I tend to do more of the latter. I like the discovery. But it also means I have to go over the scene more in revision, to make sure I’ve really nailed the Action Point and the Emotional Point. 

Some writers favor the Action Point over the Emotional Point. They focus on what’s happening, but we never really get into the characters’ heads or understand why what’s happening is important to them. 

 Others are the opposite – they’re so in the characters’ heads we never see or experience where they are, or nothing important happens – it's just a character’s thoughts, or two talking heads in space. You need a balance to create a richly layered scene. 

Some writers don’t realize they need to write in scenes at all. This is the biggest problem, when something happens, and then the next thing happens, and then the next, and the next... and it never builds to anything. Your scenes need to build in a cause-and-effect trajectory, so it’s not just a random sequence of events that sounded cool when you thought them up.  

This is just scratching the surface of what can be said about scenes. One of the best craft books on creating scenes is The Scene Book: A Primer for the Fiction Writer, by Sandra Scofield. She goes into a ton of depth on scene beats, opening a scene, the function of each scene, and what she calls the “pulse” of the scene. Lots of examples and exercises are included. I guarantee if you read and study that book, your scenes will improve.  

In the meantime, look at the last scene you wrote. Review it with the following questions in mind: 

1. Where does it sit in the story? Why is it needed? What led up to it? How does it set up the next scene?  

2. Does it mimic the arc of a story? Does it have a clear opening/beginning, rising action, climax, and falling action that leads us to the next scene? 

3. What happens to move the story forward (the Action Point)? 

4. What does it mean to the character and their development (The Emotional Point)? How is this shown on the page? (Remember, this can be a step backwards as well as forwards, just as in the Action Point.) 

5. Where is the tension? No tension = big snore. The conflict can be internal, external, or both, but it has to be present. 

Remember, too, that not every scene needs to have the same level of excitement. There are big action scenes, quieter relationship scenes, and small bits of narrative transitions that don’t need to be full scenes.  

As always, studying the work of writers you love will teach you a lot about scenes. Analyze a few passages of your favorite books using the questions about. Tease out the beats (the bits of action and dialogue that move the scene forward). Why are they there? What do they tell you? How do they show you what the writer wants you to know about the situation and/or the character?   

Learning to write scenes well takes time and patience to do it right. You eventually get a feel for constructing them. As they are the building blocks of your novel, it pays to take the time to get each one right so it can proudly take its place in the story.