Category Archives: Story Finish

Better Scenes – how to write them.

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Better scenes in Schindler’s List

Better scenes in Schindler’s List

IN her book, Making a Good Script Great, Linda Seger reminds us that in reading through scene after scene in a conventional novel or film script, we occasionally observe that something feels off with the story.

At best, the tale seems to have grown limp. At worst, it has ground to a halt. Yet, when we think about each scene individually, there seems little wrong with any one of them. This can be particularly marked in a long story.

The problem, more often than not, lies in a scene being disconnected from the story by being merely descriptive and static.

“Better scenes must, at the very least, contribute to the forward thrust of the story.”

Compare the intensity of films such as Schindler’s list and Dances with Wolves to The Last Emperor and Hope and Glory.

The last two films certainly contain their own magic, but they feel long and drawn out because they are filled with static and descriptive scenes rather than scenes that propel us inexorably towards a specific goal. Such scenes slacken a story because they lack outer and inner momentum.

In trying to avoid this pitfall in your own writing, ask yourself five crucial questions, and make sure the answers are in the affirmative:

1. Is each scene absolutely essential in my story?
2. Does each scene drive my story forward?
3. Are most of my scenes cinematic – do they conjure up images in the minds of the readers?
4. Do most of my scenes involve ongoing character relationships?
5. Do I enter a scene late and leave early, after the point has been made?

There are other articles in this website that provide more replete checklists, but the questions mentioned above are some of the most crucial.

Summary

Run your scenes through a checklist to ensure that they fulfil their essential function within your story.

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Story Space – negative and positive attributes

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Story Space in The Godfather II
Story Space in The Godfather II

What is story space? And what are its characteristics?

In art, say in the painting of a portrait, positive space is the area occupied by the subject in the canvas. The background, or surrounding material, represents its negative space.

Stories and scenes can also be thought of in this way. The action, events and dialogue can be seen as positive space. It is everything that is “viewed” on the screen, or read on the page. But the characters and the world they inhabit do not begin on page one and end on the last page. There is a sense in which they, and the world they inhabit, existed prior to the story commencing—and that they continue to exist after the book or movie has ended, at least in the mind of the reader or viewer. This constitutes negative space.

In The Godfather II, Michael sits alone, isolated from family and friends, staring into emptiness, yet we feel that his life has existed before and will continue past this point. In my novel, The Level, a man wakes up in a pitch-black space, bound to a chair, with no memory of who he is and how he got there. Clearly, the sense of a backstory is germane to our understanding of his situation—its negative space. This differentiates it from its positive space, which concerns itself with the “finite” past and the “here and now”.

“Positive and negative story space refers to how information is handled in a novel or screenplay. Is it directly provided by the plot (positive)? Or is the information intuited by the reader or audience (negative).”

In his book, Screenwriting, Professor Richard Walter suggests that another way to view story space is as story versus plot, with story being the negative space that exists beyond the start and end, and plot which concerns itself only with actual occurrences on the screen or page—positive space.

Determining the boundaries between negative and positive space helps the writer find the true beginning and end of her story, as well as what to leave in or omit, right down to the level of a scene. This aspect of the craft is perhaps one of the most difficult to master but one of the most rewarding, once achieved.

Summary

Positive story space concerns the actual words on the page, or shots in a movie. Negative space is the material that exists in an unstated but present form in the mind of the reader or viewer in support of the plot itself.

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Writing is Rewriting V & VI

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Shiny shoes

Style & Polish:

In these final two revisions of your screenplay, or novel, we look at style and polish.

Some Elements of Style:

Pacing

A consistently even pace, whether fast or slow, makes for monotony. Go over your entire story and ensure that there is sufficient variation in pace. A fast scene or sequence is usually followed by a slower or quieter scene to allow readers or audiences to take it all in. Additionally, there should be the same kind of variation within some, if not all, the scenes themselves, for much the same reasons.

Tonal Consistency

Do your characters belong in the same screenplay or novel, or do some seem to spring from completely different styles or genres—romantic comedy, science-fiction, historical drama? Although contrasting characters are a good thing, they should not appear to have walked in from the pages of different stories. This tonal consistency goes for the look and feel of settings and costumes, as well as dialogue and overall imagery. Even a cross-genre film such as Cowboys and Aliens attempts stylistic consistency across these disparate genres.

Transitions

Do your scenes end and lead into each other? If not, use the device of comparison to glue them together more effectively—similar or contrasting dialogue, movement, lighting, and the like.

Emotion

What is the specific emotion you are aiming for in each scene? Have you achieved it? Remember—believable characters with believable desires in believable situations and relationships make for believable emotions. Look for the pitch of the emotion, then tighten it.

The Final Polish

You are now ready to go through your entire script, line by line. Is this or that word, gesture, or description the best you can come up with? Have all grammatical, spelling, and typographical errors been eliminated? If so, your story is ready to present to the world. Good luck!

Summary

Your fifth and sixth drafts concern the elements of style and polish, after which, your story should be ready to be released into the world to fend for itself.

Invitation

If you enjoyed this post, or have a suggestion for a future one, kindly leave a comment and let’s get chatting. You may subscribe to this blog by clicking on the “subscribe” or “profile” link on the right-hand side of this article. I post new material every Monday.