Nerd's guide to scene design – Graeme Ing, Author

Nerd's guide to scene design

SceneDesign1A few weeks ago I had to design the huge, climatic scene for my latest book. Doing so had scared me for ages, and it's amazing how long I can procrastinate for. I wanted every character from the book to play a part, thus tying together all the loose ends in what I hope will be an intensely satisfying finale! Well that's what we authors tell ourselves, and only hope that our readers agree! ๐Ÿ™‚

If you don't know by now that I'm a geek and nerd, then you aren't paying much attention are you? heh. As an anal engineer, I tend to utilize lists and outlines, but over time I've learned to merge this tendency with my creative side and indulge in freeform brain diagrams. What? Stop looking at me like that. OK, so they're just scribbles on pieces of paper, but I can see the order in the chaos, even if you can't.

So the first thing I did was jot down the names of every character and faction that would feature in this monumental scene. Take a look at the image below:

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Here I have my scene-by-scene outline and my cast. Then I wrote down the goals and motivations of each cast member. What are they doing here? What do they hope to achieve? How do theyย win the scene orย lose it? How do they relate to every other character/faction in the scene? Luckily this mirrored the relationship diagram that I had already drawn up for the entire book. Then I scribbled ideas about how everyone could achieve their goals. If A does this, how will B retaliate, and what will C and D be doing all this time? Wouldn't it be unexpected if E sided with B? What if A thought C was on his side but C was really working for F? OK, so you get the idea.

Then came the blow-by-blow, or “I should have bought stock in the Post-It company”:

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Working through every idea from my pages and pages of scribbles, I wrote one action or event per Post-It note and stuck ย it to my desk. It made sense to start with the villain(s) and lay out their actions as if no one stood in their way, then I went back and did the hero, working out how he could disrupt the antagonist's plans. It's super easy to shuffle these yellow squares around, and I found it easier than cutting-and-pasting on the computer. I learned this tip from screenwriting books years ago.

After that, I systematically worked through every character and faction and layered in their actions and reactions. I spent hours scratching out ideas, changing events and moving them around for greatest drama and suspense. Many times, a fresh idea sent a handful of Post-Its to the trash. Soon, I was forced to stack my Post-Its as I ran out of room on my desk. This one scene took over 100 Post-It's of which nearly 50 stayed in the final version. It also took over a week of revisiting the sea of yellow and reworking it night after night.

Then things turned from geeky to nerdy, and I dug into my D&D figurine collection. (I warned you this got nerdy!):

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This scene was so complicated that I had to act it out to make sure it flowed smoothly and that no characters ended up standing stupidly about for long periods. I assigned a figurine to each character and placed them in position. Then the fun began! After putting all of my Post-It notes in a single pile, I simply read through them and manipulated the figurines appropriately. This is where I found out that A couldn't see B and C interacting, and that D and E would easily overpower A unless F was there to assist. Was everyone moving and reacting appropriately or was the scene too static? Was everyone getting their time in the limelight? Oh the headaches of being an author! ๐Ÿ˜‰

During this stage, more Post-Its got rearranged and edited, but eventually I'm happy. After putting my toys away, I returned to the keyboard and typed out the scene outline, enlarging on the few key sentences written on each Post-It. Now I had everything I need to actually write the scene, knowing that I can concentrate on the creative details and dialog because I know exactly how the scene will flow.

You can stop shaking your head now. No, I don't do this for every scene, just a couple of crucial, complex scenes that I don't trust myself to wing it at the keyboard. Now who said designing a scene couldn't be fun? ๐Ÿ™‚

 

 

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5 comments
Angela Brown says May 26, 2013

This is both hilarious and intriguing. It’s often cool to have something or someone to act out our scenes with, but I commend you to taking the step in making it so with your figurines. Excellent to visualize and execute and adjust as needed ๐Ÿ™‚

Reply
Jeff Hargett says May 26, 2013

Those post-its make me think Scrivener would be a good investment for you. ๐Ÿ™‚ I picked up my copy just last week. Love your process though. Makes for a well-rounded, authentic scene.

Happy writing!

Reply
    Graeme says May 26, 2013

    Hello Jeff,
    You are completely right, and I’ve been using Scrivener for years. Love it. I tried doing this with their cork board mode but somehow the Post-Its were more malleable. I could pull them off to the side, stack them and generally mess about with them easier than at the keyboard.

    I think you’re going to love Scrivener. Thanks for dropping by. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
Cher Green says January 21, 2014

Interesting process. I’ve played around with the Post-It notes and it does help. Scrivener made an extreme difference for me. It pushed me a little closer to being a plotter over pantzer, but I’m still working though it, attempting to discover MY process.

Reply
    Graeme says January 21, 2014

    Hello Cher, thanks for dropping by. There’s something very visceral about moving Post-Its around isn’t there? I don’t know how you pantsers do it the other way.

    Reply
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