Understanding Rules of Scene Structure

Laer Carroll said:

No. Most scenes are parts of a "sequence" such as a chase or an escape or a bank heist or a weaseling out of a date that one mistakenly agreed to. Some scenes are very short. The SEQUENCE as a whole typically has a structure, not the scenes which make it up.

One or more struggles against obstacles are necessary. However, setbacks though frequent are optional.

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I agree, but will add...

Scenes also inform the reader and thereby move the story forward. They should (IMO) be entertaining at some level, but don't necessarily have to include a gunfight or a big argument between your MC and their significant other. Again, just my opinion (and I'm pretty junior around here), but I think it's like walking - if you are hiking 5 miles, not every step will be incredibly significant, but each is necessary to get you to where you want to go. In writing, I try to make every scene interesting, but my goal is to move the story forward.

indianroads said:

I agree, but will add...

Scenes also inform the reader and thereby move the story forward. They should (IMO) be entertaining at some level, but don't necessarily have to include a gunfight or a big argument between your MC and their significant other. Again, just my opinion (and I'm pretty junior around here), but I think it's like walking - if you are hiking 5 miles, not every step will be incredibly significant, but each is necessary to get you to where you want to go. In writing, I try to make every scene interesting, but my goal is to move the story forward.

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Yes, interesting. You can make your hike as significant as you wish. The first step - why you're setting off in the first place. The last step, a goal achieved.
But along your walk there may be some interesting stuff. One step may be over a crevasse and another you may tread on a snake.
Now we may need a herpetologist to help out with the snake and a geologist to explain the crevasse.
Turns out our geologist is having an affair with you MC's husband........yes, I see what you mean about moving the story forward.

Harlequin said:

I've never understood scene structure.

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CONSCIOUSLY. My guess from the rest of your post is that you have a good intuitive understanding.

indianroads said:

Scenes ... should ... be entertaining at some level, but don't necessarily have to include a gunfight or a big argument....

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Right. The main requirement for scenes, above all else, is that they be engaging in some way. This can be in small ways as well as large, as you pointed out.

Putting a microscope on scenes, we see they are made up of events.

The doorbell chimed.
Sarah walked to the door.
She opened the door.
A police officer stood there.

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Each of those events can be entertaining, or at least informative. Or not.

• If an event has no entertainment or informational value we can likely leave it out entirely.
• If an event has only small value we can summarize it, TELL it.
• If an event has a large value we likely must dwell upon it in some detail, SHOW it.

So in the example the first and last events are at least a tiny bit important. If either of the middle two events are not important or interesting we can leave it out.

The doorbell chimed while Sarah was in the kitchen. When she opened her door a police woman was standing on her front stoop.

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The walk to the door was left out because it was not important enough to mention it. Our readers will fill in the blank event.

In another scene the walk might be very important to the story, if (say) Sarah was having difficulty walking. This might be from a handicap, or because she was injured or ill. The trip to the door might thus be a heroic event, worth recounting in detail every single step.

In yet a third scene the last event might be very important.

The doorbell chimed while Sarah was in the kitchen. When she opened her door a police woman was on her front stoop, leaning against the door frame, her head down and blood bright on her jacket and on the concrete where it had dripped.

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Fair point, I will rephrase ;-)

I've never understood any of the technical articles that I've read on scene structure, or how they ostensibly applied to what I was or wasn't doing.

Harlequin said:

...I will rephrase ;-) I've never understood any of the technical articles that I've read on scene structure, or how they ostensibly applied to what I was or wasn't doing.

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You're not alone. Too often they are so poorly written they might be used as examples of poor writing. And sometimes their points are just flat out wrong.

As working-to-be authors we often give too much attention to theory and puzzle over finicky details of them. Theory almost never is useful in creating a story, beyond such basics as "It has a beginning middle end."

Where it can be useful is when we've created a story (or a chapter) & need to puzzle out and fix the parts that don't work.

A scene should do something. That's all they're there for.

Do your scenes accomplish anything? For example, they could drive the plot forward (e.g. Killer stalks his next victim.) They could reveal character (Killer has a talk with his girlfriend about killing an annoying mouse in his apartment, but the readers know he's talking about his victim.) They could give the reader an emotional high (Killer kills, inciting terror; or, if it's a black comedy, Killer fails spectacularly to kill the victim, inciting LOLs.)

Scenes shouldn't be *just* exposition dumps (Killer sits on a fence remembering why he's going to kill Victim) or explanation of things that really don't need explanations (Killer goes shopping for knives, duct tape, etc. just so the reader knows he has them, when the reader really doesn't need to know that at all.)

Worrying about making every single scene conform to some "rules" instead of doing it in the way that feels right to me would kill the joy of writing. Every scene should accomplish something in terms of character and story progression, and I'm fine with rules on a larger scale because they often just make sense, but beyond that, I don't worry about this stuff.