NOTES: Crafting Notes (2000) by Raymond Obstfeld
A SCENE
- Exposition to further plot
- Conflict
- Develop character via action
- Create SUSPENSE
Starting a scene
- In media res or jump cut from last scene
- Big Promise - creation anticipation with PROMISE
- Start with setting to establish THEME
- Start with TIME (waking up)
- Start with ACTION (catalyst)
- Buddy System
- 2 people talking about a main character
- Lets you create suspense easily
- Never in main characters head
- Character Description (UNRELIABILITY CREATES SUSPENSE) 1st or 3rd person
OPENING SENTENCE MUST HOOK
Scene length = not length but purpose and position against other scenes
- Information Dumps = Keep it short and misdirected (THAD)
- Technical Information = Keep it short
- Scenic Information = Keep it short
- Erotic = Keep it short, but sex = make it long
- Conversaion = long, reveals character
- Emotional = The TV cuts to commercial at a witty and moment of gravitas. THE NOVELIST DOES NOT. The novelist MUST keep going and working through the pain threshold
- SUSPENSE SUSPENSE SUSPENSE
- Locating Position = Conflict vs. Calm
HINT: Every Scene has a “Hot Spot”. The moment where things get nasty. Build around that.
**SETTING: Describe just enough, spread it out **
ENDING A SCENE
- Plot = cliff hanger
- Character = internal change
- Dialogue = in the middle of it
- Poignant description
- Symbolic action
HONE YOUR ENDINGS UNTIL THEY’RE SHARP - MOST TAKE TOO LONG
FOCUS ON Scene, Character, Plot
- Character = Tone - WANTS: Utlimate Want (Symbolic, Psychological), IMMEDIATE WANT (Concrete, Tangible)
- PLOT = ACTION (Push yourself. Write yourself into a corner. A moral dilemma works too)
- THEME = Focused on Internal Conflict
Payoff Scenes Promise ==> Stakes ==> Payoff
TYPES OF SCENES
FIRST MEETINGS
- protag & antag
- exes after haven’t seeing them in a while
- child/parent after a break up
- soon-to-be-lovers –> one good/one bad
- soon-to-be-lovers -> both good, but don’t get along
- protag and archetype –> Ferryman, Mentor, Gatekeeper
PROMISE/SET-UP
Talk about character you’re about to meet
PAYOFF
- Extraordinary character (processsion, someone we know intimately)
- Unsual setting
- Meeting’s important
- Compelling Dialogue
- Internal Monologue
STAKES DEFINE CHARACTER
A wants X because of Y
ACTION AND SUSPENSE - When Characters Collide
YOU MUST PUSH SOMEONE TO AGGRESSION (from argument to warfare)
- Mystery - murder
- Western - shootout
- Spy - Assassination
- Horror - Dismemberment
- Adventure - guns
- Drama - arguments, power play, intrigue, seduction
PROMISE = SUSPENSE PAYOFF = CONFRONTATION
PROMISE ACTION SCENE
Suspense = readers anxious to know what happens next Increase Suspense = Increase length before you pay off
MUST have action too - a taste of action to come, actiom must buid in steady increments Throwaway victims establishes stakes - Make THROWAWAY VICTIMS GOOD: care for/fascinated by character, intensity level of action/violence
Start with misdirection = mini suspense that’s not related to ACTUAL suspense Creates care for character (mini suspense about emotional thing)
QUESTIONS CREATE SUSPENSE
Payoff Action Scene - INTENSITY of VIOLENCE
Revenge fuelled stories
- Scale
- Number of people impacted
- Type of victims - children and old people
- Graphical detail - show (watch out here, if it gets TOO violent, reader hates you or loses interest)
- Foreshadow something bad
- Show reaction
- show hero rising up
- show consequences
FIGHT SCENES = CHARACTERS, not what, but internal monologue and external dialogue
It’s not “will they be killed”. Everybody knows the hero will survive. it’s “how will they get out of it”?
Increase thread, decrease options - cliff hanger. Mystery = dead body, the rest of the novel: who did it? Suspense - may have scheme (who’s the big villain) BUT THE HEART OF SUSPENSE IS REALLY A BIG CHASE SCENE. Heroes are after a McGuffin. Villains want to stop them.
2 types of McGuffins. Plot = secret thing that that gives you power Character = effect the search will have on character.
LEVELS Of VILLAINS
- Villains must get progressively harder to get rid of
- Protagonists must suffer greater tolls, sacrifices, losses
- Each villain must die in more satisfying ways. You can drag it out physically Or more psychically painful (villain loses family, love, pride, defeated, scheme thwarted)
COMIC SCENES
Humor ease a dark drama Humor means someone is redeemable, is human
Types of humor goofball - pure laughter, no meaning satire/ romantic = makes a statement - show world vision
Satire = exaggerated Shifts stakes - danger is real end with devatstaion of protagonish
Satire is a cautionary tale
Romantic comedy
- boy meets girl - falls in love
- boy lose girls - must separate
- boy gets girl - overcomes ego, villain
- THERE IS ALWAYS A DUES EX MACHINA that brings lovers back together.
- It’s us making a statement that the universe helps fate along for love.'
Sitcom forces conflict and confrontation just like drama = but sitcoms make fun of it.
SEX, ROMANCE and LUST
Pursuit = romantic aspect Culmination = not just naked bodies… but BARE SOULS
Romance is theory Sex is physical, techniuqe, always different than you imagine.
HOWEVER -
- Romance scnes are not promise scenes to sex as pay off.
- Romance scenes are in themselves the pay off
- Readers care if they’ll get together or stay together.
Establish EMOTIONAL STAKES Emphasize the importance of it.
- Protag just left a relationship and is feeling isolated
- Already kind of know each other, and one just starting
- Not met yet, suspense in WHEN they WILL meet
Romance = HOPE
TYPES OF ROMANTIC STORIES
Redemption
Set up - many failed relationships, puts up walls, distrust people, affairs, but not love Pay off - Fall in love, loves partner and community. Opens up again.
Salvation
Set up - antisocial, theif, liar, womanizer, can’t find love not because of failures, but NEVER did before Pay Off - embraces new life and lifestyle
Completion
Set up - two characters fall in love but unable to recognize it, unable to express it or unable to accept it Pay Off - lovers find each other
Sex Scenes
- Implied - closed bedroom door Modest - poetic - EMPHASIZES SPIRITUAL BOND Explicit - to help you show their passion and intensity and why they do crazy stuff.
Sex often isn’t about sex.
ENDING SCENES
An ending must seem inevitable but not predictable.
BAD ENDINGS:
- No ending ending - nothing is resolved, abruptly ends
- Twilight Zone ending - twist is slipped in to explain everything (but makes everything you read a waste of time)
- “But this really happened” ending = real life is bland and unbelievable and doesn’t build on past events
- Poetic Justice ending = contrived and phony
- Tiger of the lady = either/or ending (2 doors) = leaves reader to figure it out for themselves (author= lazy)
- You figure it out = vague ending, treats characters and plot as crossword puzzle.
GOOD ENDINGS:
- The Act - initiate action
- The Fall Out - the conflict =- hero realizes stuff
- The Reconciliation = reflect on action
Good endings RESOLVE QUESTIONS and is a LOGICAL CONCLUSION from previous scenes But done in a way that expalins everything.
STICK TO A 3-4 HOUR WRITING SCHEDULE NOT FOR SELF-DISCIPLINE BUT FOR RHYTHM
REVISIONS AND STRUCTURE
Revise each scene as you write Keeps options open Each ACT must end in MAJOR ACTION SCENE
1 STRUCTURE =
use scene cards, BME, hot spot, setting, passive/action, talking heads, No build up, anticlimax, builds to satifying dramatic payoff.
2. TEXTURE = Clear compelling PLOT
- too much/too little description (anytime it gest poetic, cut it. Focus on one aspect, like smell)
- cliches
- too many adjectives
- info dump
- information in wrong place
DON’T USE A THESAURUS. YOU’LL JUST REPLACE A DULL WORD WITH A DULL AND COMPLEX WORD. THE WORD yoU"RE LOOKING FOR ISN’T A SYNONYM. IT’S SOMETHING RICHER AND MORE EVOCATIVE
3. DIALOGUE = Elicity personality through conversation
- too many tag lines
- too little tag lines
- tag lines in wrong place
- TMI tag lines
- Info dump
- bland/melodramatic lines
Tag lines are crutches. If your characters were unique enough, they’d each have their own voice, cadence and tone. It’s not WHAT they say, but HOW they say it.
DIALOGUE - check out Elmore Leonard, Ross Thomas, Lorrie Moore, Jane Smiley, Petter De Vries
4. EDITING = tighten pace and continuity
-Repetitions thru implication
- Slow passages CUT CUT CUT
5. BLENDING - SEARCH AND DESTROY
- soft spots
- unclear character motivations
- contrived actions
ADD OR EXPAND SCENES TO FORESHADOW FUTURE SCENES… If you find “problems” with believing a character motivation.
BEGIN YOUR NEXT WORK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.