What Makes a Good Story? — Great Scenes! Here's How to Write Them

characters plot scenes writing craft

It's not enough to have a great idea, a solid plot, and memorable characters. The story comes alive one scene at a time.

How do I write scenes? Use these 5 Steps to Write Great Scenes:

Write a SUMMARY of the scene
Get clear about the PURPOSE of the scene within the story
Tune in to the right EMOTIONAL ARC for the scene (and within the story)
Make the CONNECTIONS between the scene and the rest of the story
Select the STORY ELEMENTS that are right for the scene
(Conflict, Choice, Disruption, Subtext)

Let’s dig deeper into those 5 Steps to Write Great Scenes and then take action Writing the Scene: Beginning, Middle, and Ending. Ready? Let's go!

Before we start ...
do you want to write fiction faster,
while practicing your craft and your writing process to consistently get better?

Check out this link to the FREE "Write Fiction Faster ... and better" guide and workbook,
which comes with a FREE companion course
with 23 bite-sized video lessons and 4 worksheets.

5 Steps to Write Great Scenes

When asked what makes a great movie, the director, producer, and screenwriter Howard Hawks answered, "3 great scenes and no bad ones." That's good advice, not just for movies but for storytelling in general.

So how do we make sure that happens?

These are the 5 Steps to Write Great Scenes, using the acronym mnemonic "SPECS" which stands for Summary, Purpose, Emotional arc, Connections, and Story elements:

SUMMARY

Even if you approach writing as a true "Pantser" (that is, from the "seat of your pants," discovering the story as you write it, letting it grow organically in the telling), you will benefit from having a summary of the scene you're about to write — even if it's just in your head.

Write a summary of the scene. Write down — or at least consider — the answers to these basic questions:

Who are the characters? Which of your characters are present in this scene? Are there other characters that are not in the scene but are important (i.e. your characters are talking about or thinking about these absent characters)?
What's happening? What are the characters doing, saying, thinking — not in detail, just the gist of the action and topics of discussion and inner thought.
Where? Are we in the real world or a dream? What's the physical location? Are we inside or outside? Is it day or night? Get tangible about the scene — picture it.
When? Relative to today (when you are writing the story): is this in the present day, historical/imagined past, or imagined future? Within the story, is this scene in the present, past (i.e., a flashback), or the future (maybe some sort of vision or dream of the future)?
Who tells the story in this scene? What's the point of view? Whose skin is the reader walking in, and whose mind are they experiencing the scene through? This could, of course, be multiple points of view, moving from character to character within the scene. If you've already made the decision for your entire story, then most likely, every scene will be from the same point of view. Still, it's always possible that this particular scene is best told from another character's perspective — or from an omniscient ("god-like") or neutral narrator's point of view. Would that sort of switch make this scene interesting?

Take this challenge, even if that's the only thing you do: write the summary. This first step is the most important because it gets clarity about the basics of the scene. Of course, if you are an "Outliner" (also called a "Plotter"), you most likely have all the answers written down in your outline — for every scene, ahead of time.

PURPOSE

As you think about your scene, do you know why you are writing it — not in an existential way (why do we do anything), but within the story's context?

Get clear about the purpose of the scene. After all, if you can't tell its purpose, should you even write the scene? What would happen if you just skipped it and moved on to the next?

Assuming there is a purpose for the scene (whew, congratulations, you should write it), can you answer these questions?

Is the purpose of the scene to advance the plot? If so, do you know what needs to happen within the scene to take the next step in the story? If you are an "Outliner," just look at your outline — "yep, there it is, that's what needs to happen next." If you're a "Pantser," the journey may be more nebulous. It might feel like staring through the windshield of a car on a foggy, rainy night — but what stretch of the story road can you see through the headlights?
Is the purpose of the scene to reveal character? Let the reader (or the characters themselves) get to know more about the layers of the characters and their emotional arc, or perhaps let the reader learn something interesting, surprising, profound, sad, or funny about your story-people. What is it?
Is the purpose of the scene worldbuilding? Is this a scene-to-set-the-scene for the story? Is it a pure narrative description of (some aspect of) the story world? Consider letting the worldbuilding come alive through characters in action — which is often an even better way since it allows the reader to experience the story world directly.
Is the purpose of the scene to highlight the theme? That is, to delve into the deeper meaning of the story, either through narration, action, or dialogue.

Of course, it could be — and often is — a combination of some or all of the above.

But what is the primary purpose, the real reason why this scene must be part of the story? Can you name it?

EMOTIONAL ARC

If you are an "Outliner," you are probably already familiar with the concept of a "narrative structure" or "beat sheet" where you block out the "arc" of the story from "Challenge" through "Complications" to "Conclusion."

If you prefer to write in the "Character" method, you will instead take one or more characters through an "arc" by deciding on the "Before" (who is your character before the story), "After" (who does your character become at the end), and "Turning Point" (what is the moment or perhaps several moments in the story when your character turns from the "before" to the "after" version of themself.)

Tune in to the right emotional arc for the scene (and within the story). What are emotional arcs? It's how you want the reader to feel, the sweep of emotions from the beginning to the end of the whole story and also within the scene. These are the 6 basic emotional arcs (proposed by Kurt Vonnegut and even scientifically investigated in a 2016 study by the Computational Story Lab at the University of Vermont, where the researchers analyzed the emotional impact of more than 1,000 stories):

Rise - this is a "rags to riches" story, where the emotion starts at a low point (things are not good) and rises to a triumphant finish. In the first "Rocky" movie, Rocky begins at a low point, and at the end, even though it's not a complete victory, his emotion is at a high, it's an emotional triumph.
Fall -- this is one of the forms of tragedy, starting at an emotional high and ending at the low point where all is lost. In Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" the story begins with the emotional high of Romeo and Juliet meeting and falling in love, and ends at the low point when they die.
Fall-Rise - Kurt Vonnegut called this "the man in the hole" story -- someone gets in trouble and digs their way out. The movie "Die Hard" fits this pattern.
Rise-Fall - think of the legend of Icarus who flew too close to the sun and then fell to earth.
Rise-Fall-Rise - this is the pattern of Cinderella who rises from a poor girl mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters to meeting the prince at the ball, then falls back into the same negative situation after the ball, then is found and rescued by the prince at the end.
Fall-Rise-Fall - the story of Oedipus fits this pattern: an infant prince is left on a mountainside and raised by poor shepherds, he rises to become the king, but then tragedy leaves him a blind wanderer.

Let's first look at this from the emotional arc within the story. Which of the six patterns above best fits your story? Where does the current scene fit within the story's emotional arc?

Next, let's look at the scene itself. Can you see a pattern from beginning to end of the scene? What should the reader feel as they read the scene? What is the emotional arc within the scene?

For more about Emotional Arcs, check out this article.

CONNECTIONS

Make the connections between the scene and the rest of the story. What are the links to other scenes in the story?

How did we get here, and where are we going next? Making sure you are clear about this basic question can also help you with making sure that you've thought through the transition from scene to scene. The answer can be pretty easy if you just wrote the prior scene and this is the next scene within the same location and time. However, if this scene is a time jump or location jump, how do you handle that jump in the story, so the reader is not confused— unless you purposefully want the reader to be confused?

Callbacks and foreshadowing are connection techniques that will make your story feel more integrated. A callback is where some earlier scene is recalled, either through dialogue, inner thought, or narration/observation. Foreshadowing means planting clues to future events, usually not obvious at the time, but with payback in a future scene (where the foreshadow in the current scene is recalled through a callback).

Opening and closing loops is a powerful method for bringing the reader along and keeping their interest, turning the pages. When you "open a loop", you are raising a question, giving a challenge, anything that either directly states or hints at something that needs to be addressed in the future. This creates anticipation and curiosity in the reader and is the stuff that tension is made of. When you "close a loop" that was opened in a previous scene (or earlier in the same scene), you give the reader a sense of completeness and resolution.

STORY ELEMENTS

Select the story elements that are right for the scene. You should consider conflict, choice, disruption, and subtext. Not all of them have to be in any one scene — although they could be. In most scenes at least one of these should be included.

Conflict

What do the characters in the scene want? This can be something external and tangible or an inner desire. Now, how do the characters struggle for what they want within the scene, or do they join forces against some other character that is off-scene? The conflict can be overtly stated and visible — imagine two characters holding each other at gunpoint — or it can be unstated and purely internal. Perhaps the characters don't even realize their conflict, but the reader is in on it.

Choice

Is there a choice to be made in the scene? If so, which character(s) make the choice? What will be the consequences of this choice either to be played out within the scene itself or in a future scene (i.e. an "open loop".)

Disruption

"When in Doubt Have a Man Come Through a Door with a Gun in His Hand" - Raymond Chandler

Disruptions are unexpected turns of events— unexpected by the characters, reader, and, yes, perhaps even you, the writer. They could be pre-planned in the plot, or they could be an element you introduce to shake yourself up in your own writing. You should consider your disruption an "open loop" so that it's not purely random— when the man walks through the door with a gun, you owe it to your reader to, at some point in the story, let them know who he was, why he was there, what he wanted, and what connections he had to any other character or event in the story. You may not know the answers to this when you introduce the disruption, but that's the beauty of writing fiction: sometimes you need to trust your instincts and give the story some elbow room to grow on its own.

Subtext

The word "subtext" is derived from a Latin word that means "to work below or weave under." These are themes or information about the characters or the situation that are not directly stated, only implied or hinted at.

It can be as esoteric as Hemingway's iceberg theory (aka "theory of omission") where the story is focused solely on surface elements, and the underlying themes are never mentioned, but these underlying, unspoken themes lend weight and gravitas to the story, just as the great bulk of an iceberg is under the surface of the water. For example, in the short story "Big Two-Hearted River," the external story, and even all the character's thoughts, are about a fishing trip, but what is going on at a deeper level is the character coming to terms with (or avoiding coming to terms with) his experiences in World War I.

Subtext can be present when the words don't match the action. Think of a character who says, "I am so very happy," and then breaks down in heartwrenching sobs. Something unstated is going on. That is subtext.

Writing the Scene:
Beginning, Middle, and Ending

Now you have the “steps” — the concepts — so let’s get practical and write the scene.

Imagine, as you read this, that you are writing a scene in a story you're working on currently. Or, better yet, grab that story, open your document, and write along.

Every scene is a miniature story. That means that every scene has some aspect of the three elements of a story: challenge, complications, and conclusion — at least conceptually.

If that's a little hard to picture for the scene you have in mind, let's just agree that every scene has a beginning, middle, and ending.

BEGINNING

When you begin the scene, you have some choices:

Character - Begin your scene directly with one (or more) character(s) talking and taking action. This is especially good if you are introducing new characters. Get them into play, like chess pieces, immediately through a description or a dialogue between two characters to help start defining them.
Action - If you're writing an action scene, then consider jumping straight in, hooking the reader by having them join in the middle of the action and letting them catch up.
Narrative - Let the narrator describe the situation or have a character think or speak a monologue.
Setting - Set the scene by describing the location - the street, houses, vehicles, rooms, and key objects. Consider mood and senses:
- Mood: what is the atmosphere? What's the weather like? Is it raining? Is it dark? What are the feelings and "energy" in the scene?
- Senses: We tend to lead with the visuals, what we see, with hearing implied since we "listen" to the characters' spoken dialogue. But what other things can we hear in the scene? A dog barking? What can we smell? Cooking smells, something rotting? What can we taste? The coffee is bitter, too strong, wish I had some sugar and cream. Physical feeling? The hand on my shoulder, fingers digging into my skin.

MIDDLE

The middle of the scene should involve some form of complications. Here's a list for your consideration:

Action and Reaction - Stuff happens. Your characters are in motion, either grappling with each other or against a common obstacle. What is the reaction to that initial action?
Danger - This can be a creeping foreboding type of danger — maybe it's in the mood of the scene, what the characters are saying or thinking, worrying about. Or it could be immediate danger, something that's occurring that is putting the characters in danger. We most often think of immediate danger as something external. But you can also have an internal danger, an emotional threat, a secret that might be discovered.
Revelation - This can be plot-related or character-related revelations. Plot revelation is finding that clue to the puzzle, learning a new piece of information about the situation or the story world. Character revelation could be about the character's true nature, how they behave under pressure, how they make a moral choice— or that they have a hidden connection to another character: "Luke, I am your father."
Obstacles - What is something getting in the way of the character achieving their goals in this scene?
Confrontations - Whether those are physical people grappling and fighting, or whether it's in dialogue where there is verbal conflict.
Twists and Turns - An unexpected turn of events. This sounds a lot like "disruptions" (see the story elements above), but it also includes a pre-planned twist that becomes a pivot point. There is a change in a character's allegiance or some major shift in the plot.
Raising the Stakes - The heat was already on, but now something happens that raises the temperature. For example, one character is captured and held at gunpoint or even killed. What's the reaction of the other characters to this?
Victory/Defeat (False?) - Your characters triumph (victory), or do they? It could be a "false victory" that will lead to a tragedy. There is a major setback (defeat), or is it a "false defeat" that is really the turning point that will lead to a future triumph?
Contemplation - Inner narrative, perhaps working out a character-driven change or realization, or just reflecting on and processing what has happened or what has been said, letting the reader process along with the narrator.
Withholding - You as the writer are purposefully hiding from the reader some information, emotion, objects, and even characters that are actually present in the scene so that you can later reveal this withheld information either in this scene or a future scene. This means that you need to "write around" the withheld information, knowing that it's there. You never look in that corner of the room, until it's time to reveal the monster that was there all along.

ENDING

Here are some ways you can bring the scene in for a landing, sometimes called having a "button" for the scene:

Revelatory Dialogue - Create that strong ending by letting a character reveal something important — I already mentioned the "Luke, I am your father" revelation, and how about the "She's my sister, she's my daughter" from Chinatown <— check out the video clip.
Visual Image - Consider using a powerful image as the ending. For example, you can describe the setting after the action. If you started the scene with a description of the "before" setting, you can include a callback so that the two descriptions serve as "before" and "after" bookends for the scene.
Character Summary - Instead of a visual image, you can describe the characters at the end of the scene, highlighting the change they have gone through, either externally or internally, or both.
Concluding Words - This can be either dialogue or narration. Perhaps you let a character have an important realization, either spoken in dialogue or through interior thoughts narration.
Cliffhanger - Including a "Cliffhanger" section as part of the "Conclusion" is an option for the story as a whole, but unless you are writing a series of novels (or interrelated short stories), the end-the-story-with-a-cliffhanger is an unusual choice. However, ending a scene on a cliffhanger is a great way to pull the reader into the next scene.

Resources

So those are my thoughts on 5 Steps to Write Great Scenes and on Writing the Scene: Beginning, Middle, and Ending.

Here are some resources if you want to dig deeper.

GREAT BOOKS ON WRITING SCENES

These are articles that may be helpful as you write your story, one scene at a time:

MY FAVORITE ALL-PURPOSE RESOURCE

The Writer's Treasure Chest - everything in one place, curated, organized

FREE COURSE, GUIDE AND WORKBOOK

Do you want to write fiction faster, while practicing your craft and your writing process to consistently get better? Check out this link to the "Write Fiction Faster ... and better" guide and workbook, which comes with a companion course with 23 bite-sized video lessons and 4 worksheets.

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