Writers and Creatives:
The initial elements of a scene.
Definition:
Scenes are canisters.
Scenes are holding devices.
Scenes are vessels.
Scenes are containers that enclose dialogues or monologues or frames or pictures.
Scenes are what stories are built upon.
Scenes are construction devices.
Scenes are discovery centers.
Scenes are relationship builders or breakers.
Scenes are essential to your work.
Some pieces of A “SCENE:”
· Characters: who is in the scene? What role do they play? Why is this, or these characters present?
· “In Frame” + “Out of Frame:” scenes connect pieces of your story-puzzle. Each scene has to have an element of completion, and ideally an element of ‘something is gone missing’
· Large or Small: stories build drama and crescendo and then rescind. Each scene that you imagine, build and construct has to fit somewhere inside of the symphony of movements that you are imagining and then casting into stone
· Texture and Tactile: scenes require textures. Do you wish for there to be a solemnity about the encounters? Do you wish for there to be a gentleness spoken and felt and conveyed? Do you wish for angers and wrath and tear-downs to happen? Do you seek calmness in the face of the greater storm? Texture and tactile. There has to be elements that cause sensations to tingle and emotions to awaken and move
· Evocative: each scene simply must evoke some emotion. You are a writer. You are a creative. You are a builder. Your work must move people. Your work must elicit an emotional and rationale response
· Tensions: someone wiser than myself said that each sentence has to either build or break apart tension. Your reads have to sense something that is both unusual and outright disruptive
· Provocateur: my writing has been called ‘provocative’. And I have been called and labeled a, “Provocateur.” These are compliments and high marks. I say this not for me but for you. You must probe. The scenes you build must require thought and carry readers into lands of distress and internal questioning
Scenes. Your writing and storytelling are built upon and around the foundational proposition of scene building.
Travel Far.
Steve Bonenberger
Shepherd to Creatives Everywhere