In this article ❧ I tell you how to use conflict in scenes, which are the types of scenes, and how to set the Big Scene

A novel is a chain of scenes. This definition is true but insufficient.

A novel is a story of a hero who wants to solve a problem, surf a landscape of trouble and obstacle, fight all the time against the main villain, and at last, conquer poetic justice. A scene mirrors this at a smaller scale ( In other words, a novel is a fractal made out of scenes: an scene of scenes).

Conflict, Action, and Reaction

It makes sense that a scene is a conflict related to a goal.

Although a scene has the same structure as a novel (problem, conflict, and resolution), it represents a specific stage in its development. The function of any scene is to advance the story (o to delay the climax.)

How do scenes accomplish the delightful delay a reading should be? Action and reaction. Once you set the goal and the participants, the scene stars with one dazzling event. The consequences could be of any kind: physical actions, dialog. You shouldn't include introspections because they slow the pace: scenes --understood as action-- are to develop events rather than to reason about the plot.

Scenes take over 75% of the story. The rest is for different forms of narration to help readers understand what's going on and let them rest off the drama tornados: small and spread chunks of context and introspection.

From the readers' viewpoint, scenes start with action, but from the writer's viewpoint, they start before (with a short description, the writer organizes the narrative settings; this preparation allows the reader to know meaningful information beforehand.)

There are three golden rules: 1) follow an order, 2) avoid slowing the pace, and 3) the protagonist never stays the same.

A scene is a conscious vertigo. The writer only can implement one viewpoint (shifting would imply slowing the pace to adapt the reading to the new perspective).

The order that rules the timeline in a scene is the same as the three acts in a novel -start, development, and end, and it develops a dramatic goal.

The Role of Scenes in a Novel

The scene should bring about setbacks that cast more trouble in the road and advance the story. A setback could be weak (arising new situations and new doubts) or strong (turning points that occur a few times in the novel). The setbacks are derived from the protagonist’s own efforts (Chester); he must deserve what happened (otherwise, it is just bad luck, boring.)

Delaying the climax of a novel is like plucking a flower: you have to remove one by one the hero’s options until he has no choice but to face the villain in the climax. For that reason, each scene must remove one of those options.

Scenes that make sense for the reader

Emotionally scenes require internalization, so characters actions make sense for the reader. Internalizations should go before Action Reaction pairs to avoid slowing the pace and to prepare the course of action.

Internalizations follow an order: sensing (seeing, hearing, smelling, hurting), emotion, thoughts, Action, and Reaction.

Once you understand why the stakes matter to each participant in ths scene, you can write a compelling conflict. Hence, knowing the motivations of the parts is crucial: how does achieving the goal or thwarting the hero's purpose fits into each one?

Timeline of Scene

• Preparation: narrative settings
• One goal related to the plot
• One viewpoint
• Two central characters
• Chains of action and reaction
• Setbacks
• Option removed
• Post scene: sequel

How to Write Good Sequels

In sequels, the protagonist, along with other characters -possibly a confidant, mulls over what has happened and makes decisions. The storytelling follows a sequence:

• emotional aftermath,
• analysis
• decision

Despite that, the writer can defer any of these steps, but the sequence is mandatory (if you omit analysis, for example, the next step is a decision). Two good reasons to delay a sequel are to heighten suspense or keep the pace fast. If you withhold a sequel, you can come back further by saying Meanwhile, in the spaceship.

Sequels are good moments to switch viewpoints. Therefore, most of them may be placed at the end or the beginning of a chapter.

When a character is doing an analysis as a part of a sequel, a rule of thumb is that self-pity tears apart the reader's sympathy for the heroine (Chester).

How to Write the Big Scene

Some typical elements in the Big Scene are:

• 5,000
• The foundation is the anticipation
• Hope and despair (contradictory cues)
• a startling surprise beyond anything expected

However, contemporary readers have shorter spans of attention which favors Clusters of Scenes (with no reaction in between) rather than a big scene. With enough urgency, it may feel like a big scene.

Constraints of a good climax

• Your story—the heart of any novel— lies inside your protagonist. All the events are happening to force your protagonist to confront her internal problem and fix it.
• The story needs a central question that can be answered at the end with a simple yes or no without muddled explanations.
• You have created a protagonist with a driven style. She learns from her setbacks, evolves, and gets stronger.
• You set a bond between the start and the end. (the short story). (One way to fix an issue here is rewriting the inception and the conclusion, just re-plotting the rest)
• In the end, you attack the fundamental inner flaw of the protagonist, force it to the surface, and make it the key to whether she solves the main question.
• Climax requires obligatory scenes, ethical equations, climax construction, and resolution.
• A high price (a sacrifice based on the worst fear or the most beloved object.)
• The obligatory scene is a resolution of the principal subplot.
• Self-revelation: the protagonist understands how she has been wrong.
• If the difficulty perplexes you as a writer, you can be sure you’re on the right track.

Climax steps:

• The hero is cornered: a big confrontation is inevitable.
• A sacrifice: The villain imposes a choice, and any alternative looks bad: a moral or ethical dilemma.
• Antagonist hard backslash.
• The dark moment: don't rush it. Use it to reveal the protagonist's inner "nature". That is the condition to change. At the start, external change propels the hero into adventure (because he does everything to avoid change); at the end, she will conquer an internal change to wrap up the story.
• A worthy protagonist will win.

Fantasy readers develop strong expectancies over the plot, and want to reach the conclusion eagerly (on the contrary, what Science Fiction readers enjoy the most is the process). The core tool for the expected Big Scene is anticipation, the action of introducing a part of what will happen in the end: you make up a clue and put it in a previous scene. Examples:

• The Kings' tax collector is coming and putting pressure over town's people; this occurs over and over again: sooner or later it's going to be big quarrel.
• Mary feels curious about Merlin's Time Machine. He told her not to touch or even look at it, but she keeps going to the room where the machine is. She's going to have a time travel.

Enough of this and readers will realize that the town will be facing attack unless they flee or pay taxes. When someone decides to stay put, readers will be certain of what’s coming: a big quarrel against the king.

• Build it until readers are anxious for the battle to happen.
• Let them feel the Big Scene is probable but it's not sure it happens.
• Expectation is not equal to prediction: don't let readers feel they can predict what will take place.
• Characters take action in order to be prepared for something.
• There are indicators of the opposite (for example, they've prepared for things that didn't happen.)
• Anticipation is like to say: take this into consideration, just in case.
• People has been whispering.
• Don't rush it.
• Don't say much.
• Don't be obvious.