4. Powerful Paragraphs & Seizing Scenes
Writing is simple.
We just need to keep in mind how events unfold in real life and we’re golden. In life, people take in stimuli and decide how to act. Then another stimulus arrives, and people react to that. As this sequence plays out, the person’s reactions will be that which allows them to progress towards whatever their goal is.
For example:
If you’re crossing the street, your goal is to get to the other side for work. As you approach the street, a car might drive by, and you stop.
Then, you cross the road and find a friend waving you over, so you go over to them and chat.
This sequence continues until you get to work and start tackling the problems of the day (goal). Let’s see how this plays out in actual prose on the paragraph level. Thereafter, we will build these into scenes.
Disclaimer: This blog contains a few links to educational books (my references, essentially). They are affiliate links, on which I might earn a small commission. They are great books, but you do not need them to understand the contents of this article! Onwards we go!
Writing Paragraphs
Example (Jen, whose goal is to get to work):
The streets of New York bustled as people rushed to their fancy office jobs. One of these people, Jen, carried her bag over her shoulder, crimping her ruffled hair and weighing down her coffee hand. After she finally got a swig of caffeine, she stepped onto the crosswalk where a car zoomed by.
A pulse of adrenaline jolted Jen awake with the power of ten coffees as wind sent her hair into a wild flurry. She stumbled and caught her footing, narrowly avoiding smushville. She raised a fist and shouted, “ Watch where you’re going!”
Her walk to the other side of the road was delightfully uneventful. She’d be late, but at least she’d make it to work in one piece. Or so she thought. Jake, an old crush from school, waved her down.
Jen’s legs walked in his direction. Work was the other way, but his smile sent flutters through her chest and made her lashes follow suit. She stopped fighting nature and waved, jogging up to him.
The action-reaction unfolding of ‘real life’ events in these paragraphs is obvious when looking at an event that has already occurred. The intuitive among you might be able to apply this with 80% accuracy without further instruction. But let’s take a look under the hood to ensure we cinch that 100% every time.
The 4 paragraphs follow the natural law of causality.
Paragraph 1 describes the setting and scenario; what motivates Jen to react (make sure to use character voice here, article coming soon)
Paragraph 2 is Jen’s reaction, which also obeys the natural law of causality.:
Her feeling/emotion (A pulse of adrenaline jolted Jen awake with the power of ten coffees)
Reflexive action (She stumbled and fought for her footing, narrowly avoiding getting smushed)
Conscious action/speech (She raised a fist and shouted, “ Watch where your’re going!”)
Paragraph 3 is another paragraph that details what next motivates a reaction from Jen.
Paragraph 4 is Jen’s reaction to Paragraph 3.
Reflexive action (Jen’s legs started walking in his direction. Work was the other way, but his smile sent flutters through her chest and made her lashes follow suit)
Conscious action/speech (She stopped fighting nature and waved, jogging up to him)
Note that in Paragraph 4 we skipped the feeling/emotion beat.
Any beat may be skipped, as long as the overall order follows feeling/reflex/conscious action.
But Reece, isn’t ‘his smile sent flutters through her chest’ a feeling?
Yes, it is. Exceptions may be made to vary sentence structure, etc. This is most often done in portions of our scene/paragraphs when we’re using telling/narration. Showing and causality go hand in hand. (Article on Narration vs Showing incoming soon). If you find that you’re breaking causality very often, you’re probably telling too much, and your paragraphs will feel choppy and hard to follow.
But Reece, do I have to keep this in mind ALL THE TIME while writing?
It will become muscle memory eventually. You should do it for a while, and pay attention to feedback from Beta Readers (and me if you join my Patreon, it’s a fun time over there :D )
Tip: To train this, I edited an entire book so that every paragraph obeyed these causality rules. That bird’s eye view also gave me a good feel for how often I should mix things up a bit to keep things interesting. This is one of the only techniques in writing where you will see an overnight improvement in your work. The same goes for the upcoming Scene structure. So, it’s time to zoom out of paragraphs and look at the bigger picture.
Writing Scenes
Have you ever felt like your scenes were just kind of meandering and not really going anywhere? Or perhaps one scene doesn’t really flow into the other? Well, I have a solution for you! The secret comes from a combination of three great writers and instructors, Dwight Swain, Robert Mckee, and John Truby. Don’t worry, you don’t have to read any textbooks. I’ve boiled it down over years of using their techniques and more, and here’s what matters:
Writing scenes in the same causal, action-reaction way as paragraphs is essential to make scenes that drive the story forward.
The basic idea is that every scene should have a clear goal for the main character and the scene should end with a ‘Sequel’ that shows the character reacting to the events of the scene and adjusting their goals/values based on what they've learned.
Structure of Scene-Sequel sequence
The ‘Scene’ begins with the main character's goal, which should be something that they want to achieve in the scene. This goal should be something that is important to the character and story.
Next, there is the conflict, which is the obstacle that the main character must overcome in order to achieve their goal. This conflict should be something that is challenging for the character, and if it truly puts their goal at stake, it will naturally create tension in the scene.
The disaster is the point in the scene where the conflict takes a turn for the worse and things start to look hopeless. The character and reader begin to feel that they might not be able to achieve the goal.
Here’s where the magic starts. It is all about the way you think about the story beats that makes all the difference here. Think of the above 3 points (goal, conflict, disaster) as the motivator, as we had in the paragraph section above. What do you think is going to follow? That’s right. The character must now react.
The reaction is the character's response to the disaster. This is where the character's emotions are shown, and they begin to adjust their goals based on what has happened.
The dilemma is the moment when the character must decide what to do next. This is the turning point of the scene and is where the character's values are tested.
The decision is the character's final choice and how they will move forward. This is where they either give up or find a new way to achieve their goal, and it changes their values.
These 3 points (reaction, dilemma, decision) is called the ‘Sequel’, and as you might be realising, the decision in this Sequel will lead to the goal of the next Scene. I.e. If at the end of a scene Tarzan decides to forgo finding the long-lost treasure to instead save Jane, the goal of the next scene will be to save Jane. This sequence of Scene-Sequel, Scene-Sequel will carry your reader like a freak train to the end of the story. Pick them up and never let them go until then.
It's important to note that scenes should change a character's values. A change in values will add depth to a character, make them more relatable to the reader, and give the scene more consequence. This means that the character's beliefs, wants, needs, or even their position on current problems, will be challenged and will shift as a result of each scene.
Warning: If these shifts don’t happen, what was the point of the scene? Was the goal really important enough to warrant a scene? Probably not, which means putting that goal at risk isn’t really going to be high stakes, so there isn’t going to be any tension. Which means the reader will probably move on to something more captivating.
Make sure your character’s goals, conflicts, and values are always aligned and shifting with the dilemmas so that you always have tension, a sense of change, and scenes where every word matters. Let’s take a look at an example.
Example from my story Final Blink:
Goal: Inari wants to understand why they have to give so much of their harvest as an offering to their deity.
Conflict: The village struggles for food and the farmers, Inari’s father being one of them, work so hard that they collapse. Inari questions their deity in prayer, pleading for an explanation and change.
Disaster: The village Councillor overhears Inari's questioning and condemns her for blasphemy.
Reaction: Inari is flustered and tries to defend herself.
Dilemma: Her words fall on deaf ears, so she is torn between her desire to stand up for the farmers and her fear of being cast out by the Councillor.
Decision: Inari decides to keep her questions to herself and apologize to the Councillor, but makes a vow to continue seeking answers in secret.
(Value shift: Direct, honest girl now willing to take more drastic measures)
In essence, this is what fiction novels looks like under the hood:
Scene 1:
Character has certain values/beliefs which result in them having a Goal.
Paragraph level Stimulus will come up
And they will react
More Stimulus like dialogue etc and more
Reactions until
Conflict
Stimulus is this scene’s obstacle to the above goal, introducing tension
Reactions follow
Stimulus
Reaction
…
Disaster
HUGE Stimulus, this is the conflict escalating, shit hitting fan, goal looking impossible
Sequel 1
Reaction
Reaction to HUGE Stimulus
More Stimulus like dialogue etc
Dilemma
Until Reaction: character has to choose how to move forward (a dilemma is an irreversible choice between 2 unwanted choices. It’s no fun if it’s easy)
Decision
This can also be seen as a ‘Reaction’. A final call is made and this sets the…
Scene TWO
…character’s goal for this scene is decision from last scene.
Stimulus
Reaction
Conflict
And so on.
Exercise
Write out the Scene-Sequel structure of a character who is determined to play soccer on the road with his friends, but his mother says that it is too dangerous.
Choose any point in this scene and write 2 paragraphs (Stimulus and Reaction) to show the scene at prose level
Writing is easy
Okay. So while that might feel like a lot, it’s basically what you will end up doing if you write for a couple decades, get beta reader feedback along the way, tweak your work, and then suddenly something clicks and readers enjoy your work more. This is no joke. Take any novel and you will find this sequence. Even en medias res uses this, simply moving the disaster to the beginning to hook readers.
This technique is not a formula. It is life. Sometimes, some steps might be left out or implied, but the order will remain. Why? Because that is life. That is causality. It’s what happens to you every second of the day, and it is what you’re trying to get people to experience in your books. Learn it, and learn it well.
I have created a Scene-Sequel structure in template form. It is also formatted as Agents expect, has room to keep notes right in your manuscript, and there’s a trick included to remove all structure/notes with a couple clicks so you can send a perfectly formatted manuscript out to readers and agents in seconds, then get back to writing/editing immediately. Sign up to my Newsletter below for the download link!
And if you want feedback on your work, check out my Patreon. Studying is good, but feedback is what takes you to the next level.
Happy writing!
Reece Naidu
