Scenic Structures

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “Scenic Structures”? It might be a quaint old building in a romanticized setting. You may also picture a well-known landmark like the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, the Alhambra or even the pyramids.

Unfortunately, these aren’t the types of structures crowding my brain this week. After looking into how plot is a process, I decided I needed to get a better grasp on the basic unit of a scene. Enter Jack M. Bickham’s Scene & Structure.

Bickham provides a more detailed look at how scenes and sequels work within the plot and how their construction. Understanding of what I’d done wrong in the first draft of the short story snapped into focus.

The story still has huge problems with the plot and the non-crises in it, but the mechanical feel of each scene had resulted from a very mechanical approach. I had been too intent on following a rigid formula instead of just trusting my instincts and allowing the variations to come naturally. I bet you knew scenes and sequels don’t have to be given equal weight.

I may never go back to that story, but it was a valuable exercise. I may try a different tact, taking the same basic situation of “Boy and Girl thrown together by snowstorm”, but the rest of it pretty much needs to go.

I’m going to find that happens, a lot. It’s OK. It’s ok to write crap in a first draft. The trick is learning how to improve on it and what to actually keep.

I looked back over some of my older attempts, and UGH! Almost unreadable. The first attempt contained vast quantities of purple prose. The enthusiasm was there, but you could tell I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I’m trying to fix that.