How to Write Powerhouse Scenes

You can master characterization and plotting...

...but if you don't understand how to write great scenes,

you'll still fail.

Scenes are the building blocks of your story.

If your scenes are too weak, your story will crumble.

It won't matter how awesome your characters are, or how many cool twists you've got.

The best characters and the most amazing ideas can't save a story if the scenes don't work.

Every scene in your story must...

• Escalate conflict
• Reveal character
• Generate suspense
• Advance the plot

Once you understand scene structure, you'll have the tools you need to do all this (and more).

When you get this, it becomes easy to see how the events in your story should unfold -- no more writer's block.

When you master it, you become an expert storyteller, able ramp up tension and suspense so your readers can't put down your books until they get to the end.

You do this by getting structure right at both the macro and micro levels.

MACRO STRUCTURE

Macro-structure includes the big building blocks of the scene.

A strong opening.

Compelling conflicts that reveal character and escalate as the scene unfolds.

An ending that creates suspense so that readers have to find out what happens next.

MICRO STRUCTURE

You also have to put the scene together properly at the atomic level. Beginning, middle and end are where you start, but they're not enough.

You need to know how to present events in the most dramatically-compelling order.

You have to get character reactions just right.

Most important, you must set up a rhythm in your scenes that gives readers the illusion that they're living your story.

Scenes are the building blocks of fiction. If you can't write a good scene, you can't write a story.