#40: How to Write a Well-Structured Scene

Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice

Savannah Gilbo

Education, Writing Advice, Plotting A Novel, Editing A Novel, Character Arcs, Fiction Writing Mistakes To Avoid, Story Development, Fiction Writing Tips, How To Outline A Novel, Character Development, Story Structure, Books, World Building, Arts, Writing Stronger Scenes, How To, Fiction

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2021

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today's episode, I'm going to walk you through how to write a well-structured scene. I'll also show you how this structure shows up in a scene from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Here's a preview of what's included: [02:50] A scene is a unit of story that takes place in more or less continuous space and time, features a specific cast of characters, is told from one point-of-view, and contains a value shift (or change) from beginning to end. [04:15] The first thing you need to kno...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, Savannah here. Before we get into today's episode, I wanted to share our next book
0:04.8	club pick with you because I'm super excited to dig into this book and see how and why it works.
0:09.9	Our next meeting is coming up on November 16th at 4 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Eastern, and we're going
0:15.7	to be digging into the fourth wing by Rebecca Yaros. Abigail and I are so excited to deconstruct
0:21.2	this book and these meetings are always so much fun. They're interactive, so in addition to our
0:26.2	presentation on why we think this story works and why we think it resonates with readers,
0:30.8	there are also polls and lots of opportunities to chat with other writers and ask us questions
0:36.2	and, you know, just participate in a group discussion about a really awesome book. As always,
0:41.2	our aim is to analyze a novel and translate our learnings into actionable tips, tools, and strategies
0:46.8	that you can take and implement in your own writing right away. So if you want to join us or if you
0:51.7	want to learn more about how the book club works, go to savannagilba.com forward slash book dash
0:57.2	club. One more time that savannagilba.com forward slash book dash club. Hope to see you there.
1:02.9	The first thing you need to know about writing a law structured scene is that every scene needs to
1:07.8	start with a point of view character's goal. So what does this person want to achieve or accomplish
1:12.9	or learn in this scene? Or what are they trying to do? And this could literally be anything. It could
1:18.0	be as simple as your character wanting to go down to the river to fill up a bucket of water so
1:22.4	that he can make breakfast or it can be as complex as your character wanting to confront and defeat
1:27.6	the evil dark lord. So that's the first thing. Your point of view character needs to have a goal
1:32.1	and then those five commandments come in and help you create a mini arc of change through the
1:37.2	conflict that your character faces. Welcome to the fiction writing made easy podcast. My name is
1:43.2	savannagilba and I'm here to help you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that
1:47.8	writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming. So each week I'll bring you a brand new episode
	...

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