NOTES: Crafting Notes (2000) by Raymond Obstfeld

A SCENE

  1. Exposition to further plot
  2. Conflict
  3. Develop character via action
  4. Create SUSPENSE

Starting a scene

  1. In media res or jump cut from last scene
  2. Big Promise - creation anticipation with PROMISE
  3. Start with setting to establish THEME
  4. Start with TIME (waking up)
  5. Start with ACTION (catalyst)
  6. Buddy System
    • 2 people talking about a main character
    • Lets you create suspense easily
    • Never in main characters head
  7. Character Description (UNRELIABILITY CREATES SUSPENSE) 1st or 3rd person

OPENING SENTENCE MUST HOOK

Scene length = not length but purpose and position against other scenes

  1. Information Dumps = Keep it short and misdirected (THAD)
  2. Technical Information = Keep it short
  3. Scenic Information = Keep it short
  4. Erotic = Keep it short, but sex = make it long
  5. Conversaion = long, reveals character
  6. 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
  7. SUSPENSE SUSPENSE SUSPENSE
  8. 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

HONE YOUR ENDINGS UNTIL THEY’RE SHARP - MOST TAKE TOO LONG

FOCUS ON Scene, Character, Plot

Payoff Scenes Promise ==> Stakes ==> Payoff

TYPES OF SCENES

FIRST MEETINGS

PROMISE/SET-UP

Talk about character you’re about to meet

PAYOFF

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)

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

  1. Foreshadow something bad
  2. Show reaction
  3. show hero rising up
  4. 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

  1. Villains must get progressively harder to get rid of
  2. Protagonists must suffer greater tolls, sacrifices, losses
  3. 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

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 -

Establish EMOTIONAL STAKES Emphasize the importance of it.

  1. Protag just left a relationship and is feeling isolated
  2. Already kind of know each other, and one just starting
  3. 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

Sex often isn’t about sex.

ENDING SCENES

An ending must seem inevitable but not predictable.

BAD ENDINGS:

GOOD ENDINGS:

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

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

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

5. BLENDING - SEARCH AND DESTROY

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.