How to Write a Compelling Scene (In Theory)
30 Day Screenplay: Day 4 — January 7th, 2022
This post is a part of a series, see the first post here.
“Wrote 2 pages without timing it, finishing off that first scene.”
I really like how the first scene turned out. I think I learned something about writing from it too. It’s going to seem obvious, because it is but I hadn’t internalized it until I finished this one.
Obviously a scene is a mini story, but what I didn’t realize are the little elements of dramatic tension that can be inserted without doing an outline. What do I mean by that?
So you’re writing and you know you have a fight scene, but what are the details? In my case there are 2 good guys, one kind of flat by the book character and one wild card kind of not supposed to be there.
Already there’s a certain drama there especially since I know the flat one is going to be accidentally killed by the other’s recklessness, which is an interesting challenge because even though he dies I don’t want it to be that sad. You also have 4 bad guys, 1 standard goon for each good guy, 1 big and buff guy like the plane scene in Indiana Jones, and a sniper working his way to a vantage point to shoot the target in the other room.
So differentiating the characters in archetype, personality, and even goal gives you some stuff to work with. To really make it work though, the two tensions of James Blond (the wild card) is going to throw off the plan somehow, and oh no the sniper is gonna shoot the colonel. The 3 other bad guys are stopping the good guys from getting to the sniper which adds more tension to that plot, and the mission director is cut to and talking to them upping the wild card storyline.
So when you need to create drama/tension on the fly
- Make your characters different types (even if they are cliches)
- Based on the different types how would their goals and actions contradict each other
- From this you’ll write in details
- Think of those details as setups going nowhere, and make them start going somewhere, but not right away
- Things are going somewhere, but not right away is like the definition of tension
- Once you’ve juiced it enough, write the payoff
“Also, skimmed around Robert McKee’s Story but should probably look at it more.”
This is a great book, it also talks about themes but in a more analytical way than Stephen King, and also it’s meant for screenplays over novels. My SparkNotes summary to match my skimming:
- Big outlining guy especially the Act 1 “Inciting Incident” where the big problem of the story pushes into the characters life — think Stormtroopers burning down Luke’s farm and family in the original Star Wars
- Also especially the climax in Act 3 where the character proves they’ve changed — when the happy character finally allows sadness in Inside Out
- Act 2 is built on characters taking action towards the goal they think will help, but the world of the story responds in a different way than expected, there’s a gap
- Dialogue and scene design is about “action and reaction” that reveals the characters inner perspectives, kind of like what I was talking about but for dramatic dialogue more than an action fight scene. He breaks down a scene from Casablanca in a really cool way.
- Scenes should also go from a positive to negative or vice versa, no switch no scene, he recommends writing each one out on an index card you can move around.
There’s plenty more. 3 or 4 years ago there were a lot of video essay people describing his concepts using a popular movie as an example. Now, it seems that his talks are straight up on YouTube and interviews as well. Search Robert McKee if you want to dive in, or get the book if you want to spend money.
5/120
