Hey again, Unca Jim. <3
So, I was linked to this today:
http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/scene.php - and I am mostly enchanted by the thought that there's an ideal scene structure. I can't quite parse this structure in a couple of books I've skimmed, though, and I was wondering if that was a fault of my eyes, or if the article is missing something crucial.
Two things, one of which ol' Randy addresses, one of which he doesn't.
One is that this is only one of many possible structures. Dylan Thomas' "
Do not go gentle into that good night" is a lousy sonnet, but it's a great
villanelle.
Randy addresses this by saying that while there are other possible structures, they are not perfect.
Others may beg to differ.
The big thing that he fails to notice or address is that the POV character and the main character are not necessarily the same individual. The POV is the character best sited to see the action of the scene. The POV is where Jack Ford set up his camera. At the big scene where the knight comes in and throws his belt and spurs into his lord's face before stalking out to become a freelance, the POV may well (and perhaps should) be a footman who witnesses it, not the lord, or the the knight.
The only time the POV and the main character are usually one are in first-person, and not even always then: Who is the main character of any random Sherlock Holmes story? Who is the POV?
In any case, I'm very curious if you have some method or structure you adhere to on the scene level. Apologies if this has been stomped flat into the earth already, as a topic. I had to miss a few months of posts, and haven't found the time to catch up.
What I use, at the scene level, comes from my early training as a magician. I try to control the reader's interest and attention in order to present the information that will produce a desired effect. Those effects are plot, character, and theme.
A novel is not just a series of scenes, however perfect those scenes may be. A novel is a whole.
What any author tells you about how they write is true
for them. What you need to find is what is true
for you.
Structuring your scenes according to Randy's retelling of Dwight's method ... might prove a useful exercise.
Tell you what. Write a short story following the Lester Dent Master Outline, using Randy's Scenes and Sequels and his MRUs.
No writing is wasted. Perhaps it'll open new insights for you, even if that insight is "Well,
that didn't work."