The Art of Scene
One common pitfall writers continue to get stuck in is exposition quicksand. What is exposition quicksand? Well, it can be a number of things. Sometimes it is when a writer tells the reader what happened in summary, glazing over the highlights and then moving onto another ‘part’ of the story, which is also just a summarization of events. Other times its descriptions are saturated with adjectives and images that are downright beautiful but honestly, unnecessary. And then there are moments where the writer info dumps about the world and how it works.[1]Whatever the case may be, before we know it we are neck-deep in the information that our readers probably don’t need in order to understand what is happening in the story.
Of course, this naturally begs the question: How do I know what readers need?
My advice: Put it in scene.
I wrote a post not too long ago about pantsers and plotters and those in between. In it I advocated for falling somewhere in the middle of the brainstorming spectrum because 1) you get a rough sketch of where you want to go, 2) you get to work out some potential plot holes ahead of time, and 3) you still have enough wiggle room to add, alter, and improvise. Typically, I sketch my plots scene by scene. Noting the scenes I absolutely need to craft to tell the story gets me thinking about what readers will need to know before I get to those key scenes in order to have the emotional impact/weight that I want.
With this in mind, I can then adjust my worldbuilding and backstory accordingly. If I find that the information I’m giving is taking away from a conversation characters are having, or a discovery a character is making, or an action sequence my character is in the middle of then I don’t try to force the information in. Instead, I make sure the scene is doing the heavy lifting it needs to move the plot forward and continue to keep my character(s) vulnerable.
The three elements I try to implement into every scene are:
Sense of place. Where is the scene taking place? Why
Sense of character(s). Who is in the scene? How do their personalities affect how the scene plays out?
Tension. What is at stake in this moment?
If any of you out there have ever been in a workshop at some point you’ve probably heard the phrase “show don’t tell,” and people give a whole bunch of input on what a character could have done or said that would have shown them what you were telling them. The whole time people are talking you were probably jotting down notes and drawing arrows in your notebook so that you remember their suggestions, frantically trying to keep up.
Personally, I despise the phrase “show don’t tell” because there will be times when it makes more sense to tell the reader something rather than show them.
However, while I would encourage you to listen, I would also encourage you to make one simple note: “Put it in scene.” Eight times out of ten if you listen to what people are critiquing, you’ll realize that most of the issues can be alleviated by building a scene or revisiting a scene with these three elements in mind.
[1]Please note that in some genres like fantasy, science fiction, etc. these info dumps are necessary and expected because they clue the reader into how the world works. But while this is the norm for these genres I would challenge you to still try to sneak in world mechanics and build your world through scenes as often as possible.
