Using The Five Ingredients Of The Scene In Five Different Genres
The Five Ingredients of the Scene
One of the most important steps that a fiction writer can take is journeying out of self and into your , you’ll learn to use the Five Ingredients to make scene development easy and powerfully constructed.
1. Point of View:
Point of View is one of the most liberating techniques in fiction writing. Successful use of Point Of View means you're inside your main character’s head, heart, gut, memories, and motivations. When this happens, the writing can become amazingly fluid.
2. Setting and Mood:
Your scene might take place in an empty office, a noisy factory, a darkened bedroom, a rainy alley, a foggy beach, a windswept blizzard… or anywhere imaginable. But that’s the Setting. Each of these settings could portend many different Moods. However, the mood is determined by the Point Of View of your characters. The bottom line is how a Setting perceived by your characters.
A rainy alley may lead to the apartment in which she'll be joining her new love for a romantic dinner. Or maybe she's gone to break off the relationship. Perhaps this is a rendezvous with a blackmailer. It's the same Setting, but the way it's written comes from the character's Mood or Point of View.
3. Dialogue:
Dialogue is fun and fast-paced! Good dialogue builds dramatic tension and moves the plot along. In fact, a character might say something in the middle of a dialogue that you never expected. A dialogue can open doors to unexpected twists and turns. It can be quite revealing. It can open a memory; it can tell a story. It can also show a side of the character that you never expected! The key is to not try to control the dialogue. Let it flow and see where it takes you!
4. Dramatic Tension:
Every story needs Dramatic Tension -- a sense of mystery -- to create "What Happens Next?" This is what makes the reader want to turn the page! Understanding the difference between inner Dramatic Tension, which is character-driven, and outer Dramatic Tension, which is plot-driven, will help demystify the process of fiction writing. When you work with me on your manuscript, you’ll learn how to use both!
5. Flashback:
Sometimes it's effective to have one or more scenes that take place prior to the main action. But it’s important to know when this is appropriate. In the right setting in the novel or memoir, Flashback can be powerful. I’ll teach you how to use it effectively, and how to avoid overuse of it.
One of the most important steps that a fiction writer can take is journeying out of self and into your , you’ll learn to use the Five Ingredients to make scene development easy and powerfully constructed.
1. Point of View:
Point of View is one of the most liberating techniques in fiction writing. Successful use of Point Of View means you're inside your main character’s head, heart, gut, memories, and motivations. When this happens, the writing can become amazingly fluid.
- See a Writing Prompt for Point of View, based on the genre of a Modern Thriller.
2. Setting and Mood:
Your scene might take place in an empty office, a noisy factory, a darkened bedroom, a rainy alley, a foggy beach, a windswept blizzard… or anywhere imaginable. But that’s the Setting. Each of these settings could portend many different Moods. However, the mood is determined by the Point Of View of your characters. The bottom line is how a Setting perceived by your characters.
A rainy alley may lead to the apartment in which she'll be joining her new love for a romantic dinner. Or maybe she's gone to break off the relationship. Perhaps this is a rendezvous with a blackmailer. It's the same Setting, but the way it's written comes from the character's Mood or Point of View.
- See a Writing Prompt for Setting and Mood, based on the Mystery genre.
3. Dialogue:
Dialogue is fun and fast-paced! Good dialogue builds dramatic tension and moves the plot along. In fact, a character might say something in the middle of a dialogue that you never expected. A dialogue can open doors to unexpected twists and turns. It can be quite revealing. It can open a memory; it can tell a story. It can also show a side of the character that you never expected! The key is to not try to control the dialogue. Let it flow and see where it takes you!
- See a Writing Prompt for Dialogue, based on the genre of a Memoir that's written with fiction writing techniques.
4. Dramatic Tension:
Every story needs Dramatic Tension -- a sense of mystery -- to create "What Happens Next?" This is what makes the reader want to turn the page! Understanding the difference between inner Dramatic Tension, which is character-driven, and outer Dramatic Tension, which is plot-driven, will help demystify the process of fiction writing. When you work with me on your manuscript, you’ll learn how to use both!
- See a Writing Prompt for Dramatic Tension, based on the genre of Women's Fiction.
5. Flashback:
Sometimes it's effective to have one or more scenes that take place prior to the main action. But it’s important to know when this is appropriate. In the right setting in the novel or memoir, Flashback can be powerful. I’ll teach you how to use it effectively, and how to avoid overuse of it.
- See a Writing Prompt for Flashback, based on the genre of Historical Fiction.
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