writing the heart of your story (17 page)

Perhaps the most significant use of this motif is the scene in which Miss Maudie explains to Scout: “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but . . . sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That Jem and Scout’s last name is Finch (another type of small bird) indicates that they are particularly vulnerable in the racist world of Maycomb, which often treats the fragile innocence of childhood harshly. I’m sure Harper Lee used this motif very deliberately.

I talked about the movie
K-Pax
earlier when discussing theme. A great motif is woven throughout that movie, and I recommend you watch it and pay attention to the use of light. The symbolism of light also works as a theme, as the metaphor of light (enlightenment, pureness, clarity, the light of truth being uncovered) works thematically on many levels in this movie. In almost every scene with Prot, there is some unusual treatment of light. This is because Prot claims to have come to earth on a beam of light. He is sensitive to the harsh “light” (read: truth) of our world. The pain of Earth’s inhabitants is hard to take. He wears dark sunglasses in most of the scenes and is relieved when the doctor dims the lights and lowers the blinds. It’s a brilliant infusion of a motif that adds richness to the movie.

With all this in mind, as you plot out your novel, or tackle your rewrite, think of two or three motifs you can weave in, then go back through your book and place them strategically. If you can somehow use the motif in your title, even better. And if you can think of motifs that parallel and/or enhance your overall theme, you will have a book that will be unforgettable. Pay attention as you read great novels to see if you can spot the motifs the author has used. You will be surprised how you will start seeing them if you pay attention and look for them. May these thoughts spark some ideas in your head and get you running to your pages!

Think about
. . . coming up with some motifs for your novel. If you already have some in place, think of other spots in other scenes where you can use that motif again. Take a look at those favorite novels you’ve set aside and see if you can find some motifs the authors used in their story to touch the reader’s heart.

Now that we’ve covered the main elements of your novel, and how they speak to the heart of your story, we’re going to take a break and go into scene structure. Why? Because scenes are the actual heartbeats of your story, and each scene must pulse steady, strong, and with a high peak or moment in order to lead your reader through the dark mine to the mother lode waiting at the end of the journey. Each well-crafted scene is one step further into the mine leading to the heart.

Without properly constructed scenes, your mine will collapse. No pulse—no life. It’s that simple.

Part Four: Scenes—The Heartbeats of Your Story

Chapter 24: The Essence of a Scene

“Life isn’t a matter of milestones but of moments.”

~Rose Kennedy

Picture an EKG machine attached to a patient in a hospital. When the heart is beating steadily, each beat is shown by a spike (well, two—but I’m thinking about the bigger one) in the line running in measured time along the screen. That spike represents the moment the heart beats, indicating life and health. In your novel, each scene pulses through the heart of your story, bringing life and vigor to it, and like the peak on the EKG screen, you want each scene to have a peak—a telling, powerful moment. Strung together, these dozens of scenes tell a story of health. If your scenes are weak, aimless, without a point (pun intended), your novel will flatline. The doctors will shake their heads sadly, and the nurse will roll the gurney out to the elevator, and the last stop for your novel will be the morgue.

To get to the heart of your story—to make it through that long, dark tunnel to the mother lode buried in the mountain—you have to have a strong and steady heartbeat as you trek. So, too, your novel needs to beat strong with every scene, giving vigor and life to your story.

Defining a Scene

I like the way Jordan Rosenfeld in her book
Make a Scene
defines what a scene is: “Scenes are capsules in which compelling characters undertake significant actions in a vivid and memorable way that allows the events to feel as though they are happening in real time.” Read that a few times and let it sink in. The words that you want to pay special attention to are compelling, significant, and real time. I’ll elaborate more on this in a bit.

I can attest that the biggest flaw I see in the manuscripts that I critique and edit is poor scene structure. I don’t think many writers have fully explored the topic to the extent that they plan out a scene with enough understanding and craft tools to be able to really make each scene the most powerful and effective that it can be. Often scenes seem to be thrown together, starting in a place and in a manner that really doesn’t work. And so, since each scene is like a mini novel (or should be), I want to talk a bit about them, and particularly about scene beginnings, since they parallel your novel beginning in many ways.

How Would I Define a Scene?

If someone asked you to define what a scene is, what would you say? If you think about it, it’s not easy to define. We tend to know when a scene works and when it doesn’t. Here are some elements that are said to make up a scene that I’ve found in books on scene writing:

* The sum of myriad elements that work together [hmm, that’s a bit vague].

* It starts and ends with a character arriving and leaving [sometimes, but not often].

* It can be a single location with many people coming and going.

* It gives the sensation that a character is “trapped” in this moment and must go through it.

I’m not all that ecstatic about these points. They don’t really tell what a scene is. But let’s look at what Rosenfeld said in that statement defining a scene.

What Is Real Time?

Well, it’s not backstory. I already gave spiel about leaving backstory out of your story, so let’s focus on this concept of “real time.” Too many manuscripts start off with either pages of narrative to set up the book or maybe only a catchy (or not) first paragraph or two that puts the protagonist right in a scene in real time—meaning they are experiencing something that, for them, is happening right then. Not a memory, not a flashback, not even them thinking about what is happening to them right now. But after these short moments of establishing the character in a “happening” scene, the author lapses into telling the reader important things they should know (backstory). Even if you are going to go heavily into your character’s head, you need that character to be doing it “here and now” in some sort of “capsule” (as Rosenfeld says) that is unfolding in the moment. It’s not all that complicated, but writers really need to resist the urge to stop the moment or veer off elsewhere.

Remember the image of the playwright getting on stage and the audience throwing tomatoes at her as she stops the play with her explanations? ’Nuff said.

Working on Your Opening Scene

So, if you’ve pulled on your reins and disciplined yourself to construct that opening scene with your protagonist in a moment in real time, you now have the structure to show that character undertaking significant actions in a vivid and memorable way. By now you have your themes and MDQs all worked out, and you’ve figured out how to hint at these, along with showing your character’s glimpse of greatness and core need. You’ve set up their persona that they show to the world, and you’ve hinted at their true essence underneath.

Are you starting to feel a bit overwhelmed? You might be. Not a whole lot of authors can whip up a first scene intuitively and off the cuff that contains every little element needed. And that’s why the First-Page Checklist is really helpful. Once you rough in that first scene, go through and make sure you’ve got all the bases covered. Which begs the question. . .

Just How Long Should a Scene Be?

I’ve actually read articles and book chapters that suggest certain numbers of pages, and it’s not that formulaic. Genre can be a factor, since a fast-action thriller may have short, terse chapters whereas a thoughtful literary work may have long ones. The real answer, which may not be so helpful, is that a scene should be as long as it needs to be (the same is true for a novel’s length). I determine the length of the scene by writing it and making sure it reaches its objective. And once it’s done that, it should end. And that “objective” is the determining point to constructing scenes.

Creating “Moments” So You Don’t Bore Your Reader

Think about each scene as an encapsulated moment for your character that plays out in real time and reveals something significant.

Actress Rosalind Russell was asked: “What distinguishes a great movie?” She answered, “Moments.” And that’s so true for scenes. We remember great scenes because they contain a great moment in them. Often that moment is not something huge and explosive. On the contrary—the best moments are the very subtle ones in which the character learns or realizes something that may appear small to the outside world but is giant in scope to the character.

It’s All about the Moment

No doubt you can think of great movie moments, such as in
Casablanca
(too many in there to list!) when Ilsa tells Sam to “play it again.” Or when Scout meets Boo in
To Kill a Mockingbird
. Or in
City Slickers
when Billy Crystal’s character is holding up his finger to indicate the meaning of life. One of my favorite moments is in
Babe
, when Farmer Hoggett at the end of the sheep trials looks at Babe and says, “That’ll do, pig.”

Of course, these moments have been set up so when they play out they’re powerful, but you want to think how in every scene you must have some moment. This is what you’re building to—either some revelation of plot or of character.

Just Why Is Your Character There?

Maybe you’ve put together this first scene. Ask: Why is your character there? What’s her reason or need to be in that place, in that moment? What do you plan to reveal in that scene that is significant and important? These questions are especially important to consider when constructing your first scene because, as you now understand, you have to set up the visible goal and the MDQ for the entire book.

You need to pick a moment that will do this the best way. Too often the first few scenes of a novel aren’t doing this. The protagonist is off doing something, talking to someone, and nothing is really happening—at least nothing significant. There are no high moments and no natural sense of conclusion to those scenes. Writers may feel this is the way to show the “everyman” character in his ordinary world, but as I discussed earlier, that is just plain boring.

Don’t Go Nowhere Fast

Scenes must have a point to them or they shouldn’t be in your novel. I’ll repeat that. Scenes must have a point to them or they shouldn’t be in your novel. I discussed the need to find your “moment” and build to it, and the first scene really needs a kicker of a moment to hook the reader. Too many scenes are poorly structured, but there’s really an easy way to look at them. And this applies to all the scenes in your novel—not just the opening scene.

Each Scene Is a Mini Novel

There it is—the basic structure. If you think about each scene as a mini novel, you can plan them out accordingly. Each scene, like a novel, needs a beginning, middle, and end. A scene needs to have a point. It needs to build to a high moment, and then resolve in some way. (Although with a scene, you can leave the reader hanging. Okay, a lot of writers do this at the end of their novels too, to make you run out and buy the next installment, but I find that a bit annoying. I want a novel to end satisfactorily and wrap up the major story line.) What you then have with your novel is a string of mini novels that all work as nice, tidy capsules put together to paint a big picture.

Think about
. . . spending some time coming up with a situation that can launch your protagonist headfirst into his story, and focus on the moment that you want to build to. If you already have a first scene written, examine it to see if it’s really working. If you’re not sure, think of three other possible settings and/or situations you can place your character in that might help intensify the moment you need to effectively detonate your novel. Make sure it’s a terrific one, because, as you’ve learned, many agents and editors (and readers) won’t read past the first few paragraphs.

Also, look at some great scenes in your favorite novels. Jot down how the scene opens, how long it is, where it ends, and note if the character is in an encapsulated moment that unfolds in real time and that reveals something significant. Great scenes will do just that.

Chapter 25: Beginnings, Muddles, and Endings

“Life is not so much about beginnings and endings as it is about going on and on and on.  It is about muddling through the middle.”

~Anna Quindlen

No, that’s not a typo. Middles are muddles, but I’ll get into that in just a bit. We’re going to break down scenes and take a deep look at them, for in order to construct a scene that beats strong and has that high moment, we have to know how to set it up. So let’s take a look at each section of a scene and see what it needs—and it’s fairly simple. Just as a novel needs specific things brought out in the first chapters of the story, complications in the middle, and a strong climax and resolution at the end, so do scenes.