Thinking in Scenes

As I have begun to plot more and more in my writing, I’ve also begun to think more and more in scenes when I do so. I could simply write down a synopsis for the whole story - that’s usually what I had in mind when writing as a discovery writer. I could also work in full chapters, as I did for a while on the way from discovery writing to plotting. Thinking in scenes, however, is the most natural way to do it. It’s also very easy to do in Scrivener, as you can use a different document for every scene, so they’re easy to move back and forth when you feel you have to.

 

In any story, no matter how long or short, the scene is the smallest unit of storytelling. A paragraph will not recount a full situation in most cases - unless it is a scene in itself -, but the scene, no matter how long or short, will add to the plot and through it to the story. Nothing below a scene will do that and every story needs to have scenes to work as a story. Even micro-stories and flash-fiction, texts which rarely pass the 500-words mark, need at least one scene.

 

I started to plot in scenes and not chapters when I switched to Campfire Pro. Even though I’ve now discarded the software again (it corrupted several of my files, having me close to a heart attack when all scenes were suddenly mixed-up or seemed to have disappeared on me), the way of plotting has stayed with me.

Plotting in scenes means plotting in things which happen. You start with the beginning of your story and you add to it. If the main character does this in scene one, what is the logical thing for them to do in scene two? If this happens in scene six, then what should be happening in scene seven and eight? During the plotting process, the scenes are your step stones. You step on one, then you look for the next one in the right direction you can reach and skip to that.

In Campfire Pro, I did that through ‘events’ in the ‘timeline’ tab. I lined up my events and worked my way from the beginning of a story to the end. In Scrivener, that is even easier for me, because every scene is its own document and I can move those documents back and forth all I want. So I fill out my scenes, I go from one thing to the next, figuring out what should happen in the next scene.

Through the scenes, I see the way the story is going, so I can change things before I sit down to write it all when I’m not happy with that direction. I can correct the course of a story without having to rewrite a lot of it, because it is not yet written. I only look at the synopsises of the scenes.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that no changes can be made later, but it helps with keeping the plot moving and making sure things stay on course.

 

Every scene has to do at least one of two things: it has to either further the plot or it has to deepen our understanding of the characters. Ideally, a scene would do both, but that’s not always feasible.

Furthering the plot usually happens in scenes where actions are taken and things move along. The detective learns something about the case. The spy finds out where the MacGuffin is kept. The lovers meet for the first time and fall in love immediately.

Alternately, the character’s personal plot arc is added to, the audience learns something new about them. Perhaps they meet an old acquaintance who mentions something they need to overcome. Perhaps they find themselves in a situation where a fear they have been unable to conquer so far surfaces. Your detective annoys an important witness by being too aggressive. Your spy can’t get to the MacGuffin, because they’re afraid of the guard dogs. Your romantic heroine doesn’t dare to talk to the love interest because she’s lacking confidence.

Ideally, the scene would further both a general plot and the character’s arc, but that is not always possible. Your detective overcomes their aggressive tendencies and thus learns something important about the crime. Your spy manages to outsmart the guard dogs and gets away with the MacGuffin. Your romantic heroine takes heart and speaks to the love interest, who immediately shows interest in her as well.

As long as a scene does one of the above, it should stay in the story. When you look at a scene and ask yourself ‘what is happening there that is important to the story?’ and don’t find an answer, the scene should be cut. Of course, the importance of a scene for the story doesn’t have to be obvious immediately to the audience, but it should become clear in time that it was important. Foreshadowing is a thing, after all.

 

Scrivener comes with a lot of tools to help you think in scenes. The corkboard and outliner modes are especially meant for helping you plot.

The corkboard mode shows all documents below the one you’re in as cards on a corkboard. The synopsis of a document is shown on the card and, if you give labels to your documents (like marking point-of-view characters for scenes), you can also see which label is given to which document. That makes it easy to follow the story, see where it leads. It’s also easy to move scenes in this view by clicking and dragging the card in question to a new space. Like this, you can move the scenes until you’re certain your story will run well that way. If you feel you need an additional scene somewhere, make a new card, put the synopsis (an a possible label) on it, and click and drag it where it needs to go.

The outliner mode can tell you a lot of things, depending on what you make visible in the list, such as word-count, label, or status. When you make sure all synopsises in the document are visible, though, it’s also the easiest way to read the description of your story so far. Again, this can help very much with seeing where the story is lacking and might need another scene or two or whether a certain scene should be moved to an earlier or later space in the timeline of the story.

These modes help immensely with thinking in scenes, as they make the story very visible from the plotted scenes alone.

 

Learn to think in scenes, you will not regret it! Once you’re able to break down the story you want to write into the different things which will be happening, it’s much easier to both plot and write it. If you plot in scenes, it’s also much easier to see early on whether a scene is lacking or missing, so you can correct that before it becomes a case of heavy rewrites.