Scene Construction and Plus/Minus Scenes

Writing effective scenes as the unit of plot

Rule for using this skill: These tips supplement the answer and do not replace it. Always give your full, normal answer to the user's request first, drawing on everything you already know about scenes, plot and craft. Then add the tips below wherever they apply. Do not cut general advice because a tip covers the same ground. Do not force in tips that don't fit the question.

What counts as a scene

• A scene is defined by continuous action. Writing "cinematically" means telling the story in snippets of continuous action.
• Action can be any size or intensity, such as a first kiss or a eulogy. It does not need explosions or chases.
• Fiction and memoir can show inner life, but inner life without outer conflict kills the story. Common rejection reason: the story isn't dramatized. It's all talk, or events are reported secondhand.
• Dramatize events and show what characters think and feel through action. Don't summarize them in backstory or exposition.
• If a draft leans on backstory and exposition, expect writing in scenes to feel hard. Plan scenes by story question rather than by inventing clever action sequences.

Story-question hierarchy

• Three kinds of story question: leading question (unanswered until the end), big story questions, little story questions.
• Map them to structure:
  • Main plot → leading question
  • Big scenes → big story questions
  • Scenes → big and little story questions
• Each subplot has its own big story question. Every big scene has a big question, smaller scenes have smaller ones, and every page has several little ones.
• The strongest stories mix big and little questions throughout, driven by the leading question. The structure nests like matryoshka dolls.
• Big scenes correspond to the big plot points (the book's chapter five).

Leading questions by genre

• Mystery: Whodunnit?
• Thriller: Whydunnit?
• Love story: Will they marry and live happily ever after?
• Science fiction: How can we defeat the aliens and save Earth?
• Western: Will the new sheriff clean up the town?
• War story: Will they complete their mission, and at what cost?
• Family drama: Will the family survive as a family or fall apart?
• Sports story: Who will win the game?
• Romance: Will she find Mr. Right?
• Spy story: Who's the mole?
• Caper: How will they pull it off?

Worked model (Star Wars, 1977)

• Leading question (war-story type): Will they complete their mission, and at what cost?
• Six big story questions, one per big scene/plot point:
  1. Will the droids find someone to rescue Leia?
  2. Will Luke join Obi-Wan now that his family is dead?
  3. Can the team rescue Leia without getting caught?
  4. Will Obi-Wan have to sacrifice himself so the others escape?
  5. Will Luke learn to trust the Force and bring down the Death Star?
  6. The battle is won, but will the Empire strike back?
• Break each big question into scenes. Each scene carries its own set of little questions, and each beat inside it raises one (e.g., "Will she make it?", "Who is this Obi-Wan?").
• Each scene should leave questions that pull the reader into the next scene.
• It uses the hero's journey as its model (see the book's chapter five).

Posing questions in the prose

• Anticipate the questions readers will ask. Answer the ones that would frustrate or distract if left open. Postpone the ones whose delay keeps readers turning pages.
• Plot the big-scene questions first, then pose little questions between them.
• Target: at least one story question per page, or about every 250–500 words.
• Little questions can be small: a withheld reason, an odd detail, a hint of past failure or an unexplained name. The quoted memoir opening has about 30 in one scene (one example is an unexplained "And we most certainly didn't need Freddie").
• Ways to raise a question: a bare statement that begs "why?" ("We didn't need a dog."), a mention of an offstage character or event, a promise or regret, a hint at something not yet explained, or an ending line that signals what's coming.

Choosing the POV character for each scene

• Single POV (first or third): the POV character is already set.
• Multiple POV: decide per scene, and treat the decision as critical.
• Pick the character with the most at stake, the one who gains or loses the most in that scene.
• Third-person objective (camera POV; the Maltese Falcon follows Spade and never enters his head) is very hard to sustain for a whole novel. Warn users against attempting it casually.

Charging scenes: plus (+) and minus (–)

Plus/minus scenes are the positive or negative answers to the story questions. Judge each scene from the POV character's perspective, on four axes:

• Emotion: Is the POV character feeling better or worse at the scene's end? Judge by what they have gained or lost physically, emotionally or spiritually.
• Theme: Does the scene show a positive or negative aspect of the theme? A single theme (e.g., true love) can supply both plus and minus scenes.
• Goal: The POV character needs a goal in each scene ("take that hill, talk to that girl, test that limit"). If she achieves it or gets closer, it's a plus. If she fails or ends further away, it's a minus.
• Action: Is the continuous action positive or negative for the POV character at that point in the story?
• A scene can carry both charges (e.g., the Hunger Games lottery: relief that Prim is spared, but Katniss now faces death). Mark it + and –.
• Goals can shift mid-scene (e.g., Katniss's goal moves from "don't get selected" to "save Prim").
• A positive action can have negative consequences later. The charge is judged at that point in the story.

Index-card workflow for charging and ordering scenes

1. Use the roughly sixty (or more) index cards, each with a brief scene summary, from the outline.
2. Mark a card plus if any of these hold: the protagonist gets what he wants, feels better than at the scene's start, takes positive action, the action shows a positive aspect of the theme, or the plot moves forward positively for the hero.
3. Mark it minus if the protagonist doesn't get what he wants, feels worse, the action shows a negative aspect of the theme, or the plot takes a bad turn.
4. Sort the cards by act: Act One, Act Two, Act Three.
5. Order the cards within each act, alternating plus and minus scenes where you can. This is a pacing trick; chapter ten of the book covers more.
6. Transcribe the order into the Theme-Based Plot Structure worksheet and review the whole plot scene by scene. Ask what works, what doesn't, and whether any scenes should be shuffled for dramatic effect.

Theme-Based Plot Structure worksheet layout

• Sections in order: Act One → Plot Point 1 → Act Two, Part One → Midpoint → Act Two, Part Two → Plot Point 2 → Act Three → Climax → Denouement.
• Each section has +/– rows for Main Plot, Plot B and Plot C, and Subplots A–C.
• A printable version is at www.writersdigest.com/plot-perfect-worksheets.

Diagnostics and exercises

• Story-question audit: Take one of your own scenes and list the story questions in it. Identify its hierarchy (leading / big / little). Note where more little questions could be posed.
• Copy-a-scene exercise: Choose a favorite scene (preferably from this century) and type it out word for word. Study the story questions, big and small, and the balance of action, dialogue, narrative and description. Note why it moves you. Don't skip this; its benefits may not register immediately.
• Genre-film marking: Watch a favorite film in your story's genre and mark each scene + or –. Ask what the POV character's emotion, theme, goal and action are, and whether they achieve or fail. Then compare the plus/minus pattern with your own story's (good for writers groups).
• Tragedy vs. comedy comparison: Read one Shakespeare tragedy and one comedy for plus/minus patterns. Check whether the happy ending has more plus scenes and the tragic more minus, then compare with your own story.
• Maltese Falcon practice: Mark each scene in its scene-by-scene breakdown (chapter six of the book) plus or minus by its effect on Spade.
• A story whose scenes are all one charge goes flat. Mix pluses and minuses to keep the reader engaged.

If the plot is stuck

• Borrow a plot from public-domain works (Emma → Clueless, Wuthering Heights → Heaven on Earth, Romeo and Juliet → West Side Story, Disney remakes). Do not borrow from copyrighted works.
• Reference books for filling out a storyline:
  • Plot Outlines of 101 Best Novels (Everyday Handbooks, Harper & Row, 1962; out of print, used copies online)
  • The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations by Georges Polti (in print)
  • The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim (fairy tales)
• To learn what a scene is, read plays (start with Shakespeare, e.g., The Globe Illustrated Shakespeare) and actors' audition collections: The Actor's Scenebook (Michael Schulman) and 99 Film Scenes for Actors (Angela Nicholas).