Writing the Perfect Scene
The role of choice in crafting scenes that hit hard.
we’re baaaaack! with full length episodes!
the perfect scene
resources
Lyssa’s writing corner
Anna’s writing corner
Next week
1. we’re baaaaack! with full length episodes!
Hello our little pretties, and your little dogs, too! Thanks for sticking around after our extended summer hiatus. We abandoned you at Camp Turning to Story, then we planned to return in mid-September for season three… and then we had delay after delay after delay. Between the hurricane catastrophe in western North Carolina, where Anna lives, and each of our writing deadlines, we squeaked out a few recordings, but weren’t able to release as quickly as we hoped.
But- for the first time ever on Turning to Story- we have FINISHED our manuscripts! That’s right; Anna’s baking book and Lyssa’s forever Book 2 are out of our hands. Which means we’re gearing up to draft again, but this time learning from the mistakes that led to multiple rewrites. More on that soon.
In the mean time, pull up a chair, dust off your headphones, and get ready to listen to us giggle and nerd out about The Perfect Scene.
2. the perfect scene
During the first two seasons of TTS, we’ve asked ourselves, over and over, “how do we hook readers? What keeps them turning from one page to the next?” Today, Anna gifts us a new answer to consider: the role of CHOICE in scenes.
Powerful scenes often center around decision-making. These decisions can seem small (will Katniss let her mother do her hair before The Reaping?) or overtly important to the plot (will your Main Character and their entourage embark on the Quest before them?) When they’re done well, however, it doesn’t matter if they’re big or small, because they’ll be rife with thematic content at the heart and soul of your story, along with character agency, philosophical considerations, and stakes that keep your readers turning the page.
Take this Katniss hair example. Since the traumatic loss of her father, Katniss has become a parentified child, taking care of her mother and sister, which leads her to resent her mother. It’s hard for her to let other people take care of her— a character issue that becomes incredibly important as the story continues, and is at the heart of her interactions with other characters (like Haymitch, Cinna, and even Peeta). In this tiny little hair decision, Katniss must choose to either (A) ignore her mother’s attempts at being maternal or to (B) permit her mother to take care of her. All on the helpless backdrop of children being sent to slaughter, where their hair won’t matter.
Katniss chooses (B) and gives her mother this small kindness. In turn, her hair becomes a provincial symbol of family, that is both a personal reminder to her throughout the games, along with a symbol of love and rebellion that lasts throughout the trilogy. Little choice —> big thematic consequences.
Do you have any scenes that aren’t working? If so, it’s likely that choice is not at the heart of it— and if it is, the choice isn’t tied to crucial story elements. See if you can fix a scene that isn’t working by brainstorming decisions. In this episode, we apply our id lists and the connective tissue of our 7-layer plot dips to choice, looking to improve smaller scenes by using this lens.
3. resources
Anna heavily references this video, aptly titled “How to Write a Perfect Scene,” by Jacob Tyler Mowery, during the first half of the episode. Def worth a watch.
She also quotes Jim Mercurio on the importance of a scene (but wasn’t positive on his name, hence this fact check).
Examples used in this episode include:
Little Miss Sunshine, yet again
The Hunger Games, yet again
Liselle Sambury’s Delicious Monsters (I mean LOOK at that cover)
The Bear comes up in Craft Corner, as it should.
HUGE shout out to the creator of our Craft Corner jingle, Nathan J Philips! We will never stop laughing over this brilliant piece of audio!
And here is the link to the YouTube video you simply must watch, from Storybakes with Katie Sue. It’s chock full of Turning to Story inside jokes, and we’re still not over it!
4. Lyssa’s writing corner
I was planning on opening this writing corner with “I’m handing in my book, y’all!” but that is quite literally the opening to my last writing corner, back in March. During the last 7 months, I have revised this book several times—but I did NOT rewrite it, please clap. I officially handed it in a few days ago and am finally proud of it.
If you’re interested in my musings about how writing on deadline is like weaving a tapestry with ten balls of yarn, keep an eye out for my infrequent author newsletter, which also releases today.
Since handing in my book, I have taken the past few days to catch up on non-writerly things (including throwing a Halloween party and taking care of a sick kiddo who is on day 4 of a fever). But tomorrow, I’m returning to the outline of my next project, which I’m hoping to resume drafting on November 1st, if I’m ready. This new project will test the extremely detailed outlining process that Anna and I have put together over the past year of Turning to Story. If it succeeds, then we’ve found a way to produce fast first drafts that DON’T require massive rewrites. We’ll report on our progress each week! But for now, here I am in my Morticia Addams era:
5. Anna’s writing corner
Well, hello there! It’s been a while since we’ve seen a writing corner update, so brace yourself… Baking book is fully on submission and out of my hands for the last time… unless publishing pays me to touch it again. Haha. For real though, I’m very proud of where this book has ended up, and I’m very proud of the work I’ve put in. It’s been through so many iterations, and each version has made it that much stronger. It might have been a pretty unconventional, winding path, but I wouldn’t change a moment. Okay, maybe I would wish for less tears and anxiety about the things I can’t control.
Anyway, this means I’m entirely free to write something new, and I cannot wait to dive in. I’ve been spending the last few weeks/months outlining what I’ve dubbed as Night Market WIP, which means poring through old TTS episodes to relearn a lot of the tips and tricks we’ve covered. I’m plot dipping, lie vs misbeliefing, and romance arching until I feel like every beat hits me just as hard as the last. This week, I’m figuring out the final character sheets, filling in some Yummy Yummy Trope Tropes™️ (Lyssa’s phrase that we’ve now adopted in the podcast).
It feels so good to be onto something new, to stretch my newfound craft muscles, and flex like your neighbor who recently started CrossFit.
6. next week
Thanks for making it to the end! Next week, tune in for the list every romance absolutely needs…
this honestly broke my brain a little in the best way! off to try it out and see if it helps with the drafting blues!
MISSED YOU!!!!!!