Scenes - Building Blocks of Story

Scenes are the building blocks of story.

Each brick looks at the world from one point of view. Link these bricks together and you have a story, hopefully something compelling.

Jack M. Bickham in Scene and Structure, Writer's Digest Books (April 1999) , talks about the scene and sequel structure.

In creative nonfiction this is better described as scene and summary: action followed by a bit of summary followed by more action.

In fiction, each scene needs a point of view and a goal for that point of view character. Something happens, usually a setback followed by further disaster.

In creative nonfiction, the action cannot be invented but you can look through someone's eyes in the now and follow them as they face a problem.

This is a worthwhile read: Six Tips for Crafting Scenes Laurie Hertzel says "Scenes are the backbone of narrative. They're where the action of your story takes place, where the plot unfolds. "

- chris pash -