How to Write a Scene

before I start the video I want to let you know that I've written an e-book called practical screenwriting in this ebook I cover things like how to beat writer's block um across the nation I go through the biggest mistakes screen writers make and identify what holds you back as a writer and I also give you a better way to look at story that's practical for writers who are actually trying to write not just fill their heads with more information click the link in the description to learn more when writing a scene there's two main things you need to take into account one writing the scene the first time and two rewriting the scene you should approach these stages differently when you're writing a first draft it's important to keep it simple bogging yourself down with ten different rules gimmicks and tactics will only slow your writing down when you're rewriting it's much easier to take this time to analyze what you've written in more detail this video will examine how to write a scene how to rewrite a scene and the differences between the two when you're writing that scene for the first time you really only need to be thinking about two main questions one what are the goals of my characters both in this scene and in the story and two what happens in the scene that changes the story and moves it forward first what are the goals of my characters both in this scene and in the story answering this question is necessary to understanding why the scene exists in the first place look at each of your characters and define what they want in the scene if you aren't able to clearly articulate what your characters want in the scene then the scene may be worthless or your characters may not be properly motivated while this seems simplistic constantly keeping this in mind can revolutionize your stories keeping your characters want in the forefront of your mind will help you organize and focus your story in a particular direction second what happens in the scene that changes the story and moves it forward seams should turn the story something about the story world should be different after the scene maybe it's a major story turn like the realization of important information or a confrontation with an antagonist or maybe it's much smaller like a moment where characters debate over what to do next all scenes should change the trajectory of the story in some way if all the characters leave the scene unchanged and something is wrong but why does a scene need to turn a story when a scene turns a story it creates a permanent change in the characters where they're internally or externally and ultimately it moves the moral ethical and philosophical conflict at the core of the story without these turns the story stalls the audience will lose interest and the core moral ethical and philosophical conflict will dry out the characters beliefs and goals must be challenged and attacked throughout the course of the story the audience cares about the story because they care about the characters and what the characters are fighting for if the character ceased to be challenged disrupted and thwarted then this story is done stories need a constant ebb and flow of emotion and power when scenes can consistently turn the story and change the characters you keep the audience engaged and you keep the reason for the story's existence alive let's take a look at two well-written scenes and identify the characters once as well as how the story is turned by the scene in 500 days of summer Tom and summer go to a bar together let's ask the first question what are the goals of my characters both in this scene and in the story Tom's overarching want is to be with summer and be in love when tom starts this particular scene by wanting to simply have a good night with summer summers overarching want is to figure out her worldview on love and relationships summers won in this scene is to simply get through this evening then a guy walks up and starts hitting on summer here the scene wants shift now Tom and summer want to get out of this situation and go back to their evening what happens in the scene that changes the story and moves it forward but thinks escalate as the guy continues to antagonize summer and Tom Tom makes a decision and punches the guy this turns the story Tom has acted and this action permanently changes the dynamic between Tom and summer the next scene begins with summer angry for how Tom acted in the scene and this result in a larger argument about the relationship the scene propels a story forward by creating a story turn now let's take a look at the social network what are the goals of my characters both in this scene and in the story in the social network mark is at a bar with his girlfriend Erica marks overall story goal is to stand out to be set apart and to be noticed in this scene mark simply wants to have a nice evening out with his girlfriend Erica doesn't really have an overall story goal in this scene Erica's goal is simply to have an enjoyable date what happens in the scene that changes the story and moves it forward mark is condescending and demeaning to Erica which causes Erica to break up with them this is a major turn for the story and sets mark on the path of eventually creating Facebook marks anger frustration and sadness from the break-up turns the story into the next scene where mark builds Facemash and ends up getting in trouble with the Harvard administration this first scene is the inciting incident when you're writing that first draft keep it simple don't bog yourself down trying to do 14 things if you get lost in that first draft just remember these two questions what are the goals of my characters both in the scene and in the story and what happens in the scene that changes the story and moves it forward remembering these simple questions can help you kill many of your bad scenes if you ruthlessly stick to them a lot of writers write scenes where the characters have no clear reason or motivation for B where they are or maybe they have a reason but nothing happens in the scene that actually changes the story in any real way scenes must stand alone and also stand as a part of the larger story each scene is interconnected with the scenes before and after it so now I want to talk about the most important thing to remember when thinking about your scenes purpose context when writers try to write a scene many times they think too much about that scene and not enough about the rest of the story scenes are first and foremost about context what happened before this scene and what will happen afterwards a scene can be well structured but still be unnecessary and therefore not a good scene for the screenplay sometimes you think you need to fix a certain scene when in reality the problem lies elsewhere and another part of the story let's take a look at two examples one is an example of a scene that fails because of its context and the other is an example of a scene that succeeds in Straight Outta Compton there's a scene where we meet Snoop Dogg snoop Dogg disrespects Suge Knight causing a quick conflict between Dre and Suge Knight but this scene doesn't actually work for the story let me explain at this point in this story the audience already knows that there's tension between Suge Knight and Dre and later we will see two more major scenes or they have much larger disagreements Snoop Dogg also holds no narrative weight in the story he only has a couple other scenes none of which affect the plot the scene isn't necessarily bad on its own it could be used to introduce an important character and change the dynamic between two major characters but in context with the rest of this particular story the scene is unnecessary now let's look at another scene where a new secondary character with only a few scenes is introduced late into the story and this scene from No Country for Old Men we are introduced to Carson wells Wells is a character that only has a few scenes in the story yet he has a major impact on the events immediately from the beginning of the scene we understand that Wells has a relation to sugar Wells is some sort of hunter in this scene he enters the story to be damage control against sugar now let's examine the context in the scenes before this Anton Chigurh has been massacring people on the hunt for a stolen case of money in the scenes that follow Wells hunts down the case of money but ends up running into sugar even someone as intelligent and prepared as Wells still can't take this man down this deepens our view of sugar as an otherworldly force rather than a man who can be stopped this also creates even more fear for the other main characters at Tom and Llewellyn this scene introduces us to a character who will reveal more information about the antagonist as well as heighten our fear of him scenes did not exist in a bubble seams should be deeply connected with the rest of the story and if they are not they should be removed now that you've gotten through the struggle of getting your first draft out you can now come back and start analyzing the scene to make changes when rewriting a scene there's a few different questions to consider what do the characters want what is the specific problem in the scene what creates the same conflict what do the characters do to try to get what they want and how does the scene change the overall story if you're trying to find the problem in a scene using these questions will likely help you pinpoint the exact issue what do the characters want again what are the goals of your characters both in the story as a whole and in this scene in particular if you can't clearly define this your scene will suffer for it what is a specific problem in the scene what creates the scene conflict what is the obstacle that creates the conflict in this scene if there isn't one you have a problem seems without conflict and obstacles usually end up being straight exposition this is boring lazy and definitely something we want to avoid what do the characters do to try to get what they want what actions - the characters take are those actions necessary could they take even stronger actions in this scene to get what they want how would that change the scene and the story how does the scene change the overall story how does the story turn as a result of what happens in the scene what launches us into the next scenes and what happened in the scenes before that led us to this scene let's go back to those two scenes from before starting with 500 days of summer what do the characters want again Tom's overarching Wyant is to be with summer and be in love and Tom starts this particular scene by wanting to simply have a good night with summer summers overarching want is to figure out her worldview on love in relationships summers won in this scene is to simply get through this evening what is a specific problem in the scene what creates the scene conflict the annoying guy at the bar creates the conflict not only does he create an external obstacle but he creates a rift between Tom and summer what do the characters do to try to get what they want summer tries to get the guy to leave by telling him that she isn't interested but Tom goes as far as to get into a fight with the guy how does the scene change the overall story Tom's action to get into the fight snowballs and changes the nature of his and summers relationship permanently now let's look back at the social network scene what do the characters want Mark's overall story goal is to stand out to be set apart and to be noticed in this scene mark wants to have a nice evening out with his girlfriend Erica Erica's goal is to simply have an enjoyable date what is a specific problem in the scene what creates the scene conflict mark creates the same conflict by rambling about how he can make himself stand out from the crowd and also being demeaning and condescending to Erica what do the characters do to try to get what they want for a while mark continues to be condescending as he thinks about his main goal which is to stand out and to be unique however once Erica breaks up with mark he tries to convince her to stay how does the scene change the overall story Erica leaves fully breaking up with mark this action pushes us into the next scene as mark reacting to the break-up begins building Facemash now the goal of rewriting is to fix the problems in a story so I want to take a look at a bad scene and diagnose some problems that you may run into when writing now let's take a look at this scene from Justice League what do the characters want first let's look at the context we come into the scene as the Justice League are on their way to take on the main antagonist Steppenwolf in the climax the larger one is to save the world from Steppenwolf in this scene they want to create a plan of attack for this final fight what is a specific problem in the scene what creates the conflict in this scene there isn't really a problem just exposition and this is an issue because there's no problem there's no real conflict and because there's no conflict the beginning of the scene is simply character standing around explaining their plan to the audience what do the characters do to try to get what they want there isn't any sort of trying to get what they want because there's no obstacle or problem the characters stand around and learn new information then once they learn that information the point of the scene is done yet it continues the second half of the scene is an attempt at humor through Aquaman sitting on the lasso of truth the story has to halt for this long joke to be made which stalls the story and interrupts the rhythm it simply doesn't work the mess of the scene continues to get worse how does the scene change the overall story we learned some new exposition and get an idea of the Justice League's plan of attack but the story isn't emotionally turned we learn this and simply move on expositionally the story turns because we learn new information about how the Justice League plans to take down their enemy but emotionally and rhythmically the scene fails to push the story forward in a compelling way see how these simple questions can help you identify problems in a particular scene use these questions when examining your own scenes to help you create an overall stronger narrative remember that writing and rewriting should be approached differently when you're writing for the first time keep it simple use these questions to keep you on track scenes must also exist within the context of the rest of the story if they do not they should be removed when you're rewriting you can get more analytical and use these questions so that you can find and fix your scenes problems hey everyone if you enjoyed this video please leave a like and subscribe for more videos on storytelling and screenwriting and if you're interested in getting the e-book click the link on the screen now I'll see you next week

Channel: Tyler Mowery

Views: 131,543

Rating: 4.9662809 out of 5

Keywords: film analysis, movie review, tyler mowery, nerdwriter, lessons from the screenplay, every frame a painting, screenwriting, script breakdown, writing, workshop, writing course, teach screenwriting, oscar best screenplay, film school, how to write a scene, 500 days of summer, justice league, no country for old men, straight outta compton, the social network

Id: wRdFxWXvtJY

Length: 15min 43sec (943 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Anewdaytomorrow]

Really well done! It helped me. I just wish you showed clips of scenes to show where they went wrong. Letting them play out so we hear the dialog

[u/Ghost2Eleven]

Really good animation on this video! And the advice is good and succinct, but am I the only one who can’t wrap my head around the idea that someone whose sole writing credit is a short film from three years ago has written a book on screenwriting technique? Lol. Not saying good teaching requires more than the ability to distill ideas simply and engagingly, which this does well, but man. This narrator sounds young. Maybe it just made me feel old. Ha. Now that I’ve said this, I hope he becomes the biggest writer ever. Good content!

[u/braindroid]

While I agree with the techniques and principles presented here, this whole essay presupposes that you are writing a purely character driven story. It's normal for action films like Justice League to have plot-driven scenes that provide little character conflict and rather focus on moving the plot forward.

Not that I think that's good. But different approaches are valid. They just appeal to different genres.

[u/ElliottHeller]

This is simple and effective. Sometimes you really just need to answer one or two questions to put yourself back on track.

[u/hasnothingnice2say]

the screenplay is a tool. too often writer get hung up on the mechanics of the tool rather than storytelling. everyone should be learning the same goal: how to tell a story, e.g. how to make a scene. writers just contribute to that goal through writing. production designers do it through set design, editors do it through juxtaposition of shots and scene, cinematographers do it with framing, light, and camera movement. it's all the same goal.