In a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog, Sharon Oard Warner, discusses the building blocks of scene. “Scenes are the building blocks of narrative, regardless of the form that narrative takes,” Warner says. “All the significant moments in any narrative get conveyed through scenes. What’s less important ends up being summarized.”
Constructing a great scene starts with the basics:
- All scenes have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
- Most scenes are preceded by orienting information: who, what, when, where.
- Scenes are composed of action, description, dialogue, and thought, which takes turns sat the forefront.
- In general, the longer the scene, the more critical it is to the overall narrative.
- Scenes rarely include every detail of a conversation or confrontation.
- Longer fictional narratives will usually include one or more scene sequences, which also have their own beginning, middle, and end.
