Scene Builder

Adam: In this episode, we explore what to look for in building strong scenes. How do you fix a scene that isn’t working? How do you build a scene from scratch? What is your audience’s experience? Next, on StoryOsophy. Hello. Welcome to StoryOsophy. This is Adam Jones.

Devin: And Devin Halden.

Adam: This week, we’re going to be talking about how to improve your scenes. How to take each scene or each section, event, sequence, a smaller chunk than an act or a movement, and refine it. What to look for. What questions to ask. Really, that’s the key. What questions should you be asking yourself? Because as soon as you pose those questions, the answers will show up for you. It’s like this problem-solving mechanism or equation. It will get delivered to you. So, these questions that we’re going to run through are great for refining a scene or even if you want to build a scene from scratch. These are great starter questions to figure out what the foundation of it is and some of the best details of it.

Like we had talked about last episode, we’re taking these final five episodes of Season 2 to look at what to do with your finished first draft. How to refine it. How to fix it up. What to look for. Before you give it out to your friends, family, trusty readers. If no one loves you, hire somebody.

Devin: You’re probably better off giving it to somebody that doesn’t love you because maybe you’ll at least get some honest feedback.

Adam: Yeah, that’s true. They’ll be straight up with you.

Devin: Don’t give it to mom. Give it to mom if you’re looking for you need to pick me up. Yeah. But don’t take it. It’s wonderful. It’s the perfect. Don’t even touch it. Don’t touch a thing. It’s perfect. Just like you.

Adam: So last episode, we talked about movements and sort of a larger, broader viewpoint of your story. How to section it off into larger, achievable chunks. We talked about them in like 15-minute blocks as a go-to. But how that translates over if it gets a little bigger, if it’s a shorter, like half-hour piece, if it’s a novel. And now we’re looking at each individual building block of those movements and events, scenes. So this is our scene builder episode. There’s a series of questions we’re going to run through. Some of them are specifically for building the scene. And then an additional set are for understanding what your audience might be experiencing. So it’s trying to get outside your head, sit in the seat, open the book, and try to understand from their point of view what you’re communicating to them. And it helps to refine the scene in a completely different way, an audience experience way. But that’s what we’re looking to do in this episode.

Devin: I personally use objective obstacle outcome as my checks and balances. So I have an objective obstacle outcome for the entire story, a very broad three O’s. But then when we start dissecting, like you can either dissect it into three acts, like each act is going to have an objective obstacle outcome. But then the way that we do it with Story Blueprint, we have six movements. Each movement has an objective, an obstacle, an outcome. But then you dissect that even more. And those movements are made up of events. And each event will have an objective obstacle outcome. And those events are made up by scenes. And each scene will also have an objective obstacle outcome. And so for me, that’s the checks and balance. It’s something that I’m tracking. And what Adam was also alluded to about the audience and what they’re experiencing, those are things that I like to track and try to constantly remember to track.

It’s hard sometimes to remember. Remember that you got to remind yourself.

Yeah, for me, it’s the it’s, it’s, and we’ve talked about this in previous episodes about what to track. But like, I’m tracking my characters experience at that moment in this, we’ll talk about the scene. And then the audience experience, like Adam was saying at that moment, and after a while, it becomes second nature. But for each scene, I keep track of what I want my characters to experiencing at this particular point in the story. And that’s both emotionally and externally, or plot driven, or what’s happening on screen that we’re seeing,

You know, in the story or on the page. And then while I’m tracking my character’s emotional and plot driven experience, I’m also tracking what I want my audience to feel at this moment. You know, what do I want them to know at this point? And what do I want them to discover at this point? And then you can dive even deeper into that analysis of the scene. And you can ask yourself, you know, the audience versus character questions. Do I want my character to know exactly what my audience or vice versa? Do I want my audience to know exactly what my characters know? Do I want them to know more? Like the example we gave in season one, I think it was season one

Adam: About the bomb under the table. Yeah, it’s the dramatic irony. Yeah. And mystery episode. It sort of differentiates. Yeah, that’s where it’s a big question between character and audiences. Now you’re talking about how you’re giving the information across the whole piece, whether the audience knows more or less than the character. And so those questions overlap. That’s why we sort of separate them into blocks a little bit. Right. But that’s where they cross over. Right. Those scene, the character, you know, oriented perspective in the audience.

Devin: And for people just jumping in, and I’ll just finish the analogy with the bomb under the table. We talked about it in another episode that the audience knew, that there’s a bomb under the table and was about to about to explode. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but the characters in the story that were sitting at this table, they did not know. And so that was a writer’s decision on the audience knows more than the character.

Adam: We also philosophically expanded on the idea and said, okay, let’s suggest the bomb is under a table. And then you have one scenario where the audience does know, but the characters don’t. Like we show with the camera, it’s under the table and neither of the characters know. Then you have another scenario where you show the bomb under the table and the audience knows, and then a character knows. So they’re both in the know. Right. And the third scenario is the characters know, but the audience has not seen under the table. So they don’t know there’s a bomb there. They just see two people acting weird. Yeah. And so you can see how just adjusting those little things about where the audience is with the character, how that changes the way the scene is being interpreted or presented or information that’s being revealed.

Just that little shared idea. And you could go off on a million and one tangents with the idea of like, maybe one character knows and the other one doesn’t. And how much that you can, like we said, StoryOsophy, the basics are in those three examples. Right. But then you can say, what if, and vary it off into a million different directions to create

Devin: A new flavor. Exactly. Yeah. And what if is the, you should, as a writer, that should be like your most common question to yourself is, well, what if this happened? And because the audience, you know, is a lot of people, and experience is very important to track. And I think a lot of times we are so worried about our characters or not worried, but we’re so focused on our characters. We forget about the audience experience. And I think it’s important to track and think about the entire story and how your audience is going to experience it through, you know, movement, movement to movement, event to event, scene to scene. And what’s also very important is your audience. And we kind of need to have the same knowledge or experience throughout your entire story. You know, in fact, that it makes for a much more unpredictable and exciting experience for your audience. If they don’t, you know, in one scene, you can give your audience this omniscience. They, they know something, the other characters in the scene don’t, they know what each character’s thinking or even plotting. And then on other scenes, you can have your audience know as much as your characters do, or everything happens is that happens to your characters just as a surprising to you as it is them or to your, your audience as it is them. You can have your, your characters or a specific character, like in like Sherlock Holmes stories, they know more than the audience and the characters. So we, as an audience are kind of sitting, we’re in the same group as the

Adam: Other characters. You can give a forced perspective, right? I was going to say in that bomb analogy with one character knowing the other one, not you sort of force the audience into the perspective of the person who knows the most, right? You know, you can give a forced perspective, you know, in that scenario, but if you didn’t show them the bomb, it’s the same, it’s the same analogy you’re given with the, the, Sherlock and the crowd he’s explaining the crime to. We’re not, if we’re with Sherlock, when he discovers it, great. We’re in that, we’re from that perspective, but most of the time he figures it out. We don’t know what he’s figured out. And we come from the ignorant and, you know, not, not, not in the knowledge, not in the know crowd.

So he gets to explain it to you. It’s a great choice for any sort of detective mystery story. Yeah, it is. It’s just a really good model for mining the most excitement from a story like that with a mystery. You know what I mean? And it’s a little bit more immersive. You can do it with that. You can do it with the bomb under a table. You can do it with a secret, a rumor, like a bit of information. There’s so many things that you can play with. And depending on how much the audience, like if this person has a secret and we, the audience know we’re on that, we’re from that perspective.

Now we may have, for the person who it might get used on, who’s the other person in the scene. Do you know what I mean? We, it might, that information might help us to find more, more empathy for that other character, depending on how it’s used. Giving the audience information in a scene is, is a choice you can make. And that’s part of the thing you’re going to do. And when you’re doing these, if you, if you have a, a scene that sticks or doesn’t work, or like I said, last episode, sometimes it’s swollen. It’s just too big and you don’t know what’s wrong with it or too small and you don’t know what’s wrong with it. You’re going to fix the, as Devin’s saying, the character and plot elements. First, you’re going to figure out, okay, do all these are my objective obstacle outcome in place? Great.

So now let me take the audience questions and see how I’m telling it. And maybe I can spice this up just by shifting the perspective with a couple of these. You know, like, audience experience. I mean, that’s the best way to put it. It’s just sort of zooming out to your audience experience level and it changes it. I mean, it can change it drastically, but also in a way that you never imagined. And you go, oh my gosh, of course, this is the way to do this scene. This is the most exciting because a lot of first drafts, like we were talking about with subtext episodes ago. Well, at least I do this. This is my, this is one of my first drafts and second drafts are not top notch.

They’re good, but they’re not great. And it’s because I write on the surface, I write all the character intentions and their motivation. They say it out loud. Well, I want this. Well, I don’t want you to have that. And even if during that first draft in like a, a polish or a word smithing pass, I finesse it. It doesn’t matter to me that they say it blatantly in those scenes on my first draft, because now I know exactly what they want in those scenes. They, maybe they don’t say it out loud and we bury it in subtext and things, like that, you know, that’s really important, you know, to examine, but also here, your first draft, usually you’re just writing the information that you think happens in the scene. So on that first pass, you’re not really thinking about, as Devin was saying, you need to remind yourself the audience experience. So you’re not really thinking on that level. So when you go back through it, you’ve got the info.

You know, when you reread your work for editing, you’re not just reading it to make sure there’s punctuation or grammar or any of that stuff’s right, which you should, because in this industry that really matters. People will not look past too many grammar, spelling, punctuation, or formatting errors. They just won’t. But that’s a later thing. You want to do that as a final pass, you know, in, like we’re saying, polishing and wordsmithing. But during this, you want to see, do the scenes work? The sort of overview with movements, you read it through the first time. You want to know how much time you’re spending on a certain build, right?

Your acts, your movement. And then you want to, as Devin’s saying, when he laid out this really sort of beautiful zoom into your script from act level to movement, you really need to be thinking on it on all those levels in a three O’s approach. And then when you zoom in on this level, you get to fine tune. It’s like tinkering. It’s like, you know, working on, as we drew the analogy of a story puzzle, building a puzzle. You’re just zoomed in on a certain color section of that puzzle. You zoomed in on one corner of it, on one feature, and refining it. And you can use these questions on all levels, but they work really well on the micro level, because they’re really pointed.

I wanted to mention real quick, your three O’s, I use them just as you do, but I also try to keep in my mind setups and payoffs, because that’s really my favorite. But they’re the same thing. The three O’s, the objective obstacle outcome, I just remind myself, it’s also setup, progressive complications, payoff. So, complications, progressive complications, it doesn’t, for me, it’s a little looser. It doesn’t necessarily have to be something that they’re fighting against, but it’s something that makes them have to rethink the journey or make a decision, you know, something that, but they’re all the same thing.

But setup and payoff. And payoff is a good way to remind yourself of, like, an overview mindset, whereas the three O’s is very good for character performer mindset. Like, if you’re a performer, that’s what you’re going in with as well. You want to know your secrets and your obstacles. That’s what you’re going to play. The three O’s is really character. It helps character a lot.

Devin: Yeah. It helps me focus on, because the way I, actually, the visual. My head, when I think objective obstacle outcome is, is two people standing on either side of a huge valley or gulch or, you know, canyon, and there’s just a one-person footbridge that is spanning it, and then they both, one person wants to get to the other side, the other person wants to get to the other side, and so they both start walking, and they don’t really see each other until they get to the middle. And so that’s the obstacle, is like, all right, well, who’s going to get to the other side? Who’s going to win this scene?

Who’s going to make the other person turn around and walk back to where they came from?

Adam: Oh, that’s an interesting analogy.

Devin: Yeah. Because that’s the, and then that’s the outcome. So that person won that scene. And you see it a lot of time. There’s some really good subtext written scenes that you’re seeing that chess match. You’re seeing that analogy play out on screen where, like, who’s going?

Adam: Who’s going to win this scene? Interesting.

Devin: And it’s not necessarily, they’re not getting, that’s why I try to, you have the overall objective of a story, of acts, of movements, of events, of scenes, because they’re not going to win, get their overall objective in this one scene. But in this scene, they either want to get a piece of information.

Adam: There’s a specific objective. Yeah, just for that. There’s some specific smaller objective. In the scene. Yeah. Devin and I always talk in visuals when we talk about these sort of, because they help us. It helps you to figure out a scene if you have a good visual for it. But I like this thing where it’s like, there’s, they’re at an impasse. They can’t figure this out unless one of them concedes. And it’s, it is sort of like a scenario that sets up a scene where one of them has to win. That works for some scenes, but it doesn’t work for. Yeah. All scenes, it’s a win thing.

But the idea of visually creating that obstacle the way across that bridge where it’s like, okay, here’s what I like about it. It’s motivation. It’s inspiration. It’s time spent on the journey. So if it’s a really long bridge.

Devin: Yeah.

Adam: And they’ve spent all the time to get to the middle. That journey has meant more so that there’s more to. Fight for, not fight against. You get to understand that part too. Things sometimes don’t matter to people. And then, after time spent, after attempt spent, after emotional, mental, personal investment in, that thing now means a lot. That’s how everything gets its meaning. You know what I mean? With the people that you love most in your life, or generally the people you’ve spent the most time with, the more investment of time in a journey, the more meaning purpose of the journey becomes, or gets. English, please? Grammar? English grammar?

So, you don’t have to, they get to that center, they don’t have to be necessarily fighting against the other person, as a, in this, in your analogy, because the fact is, that person, they barely know each other. But that person is an obstacle. You know? It’s a lot of threshold guardians in Quest movies. They don’t even know the person. You know, they’re meeting for the first time, but they’re, they’re not allowed to let that person pass, or there’s a riddle they have to answer. You know what I mean? But some scenes, I think people, what you’re pointing at, and I think this is the key, is what almost every scene is, is a negotiation. Almost every conversation you have in your life is a negotiation.

You’re trying to figure out how to find a common ground with the person you’re talking to. Right? Or, in a lot of, a lot of ways, get what you want out of that conversation. So, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a fight. No. You know, they don’t have to conflict. They can try to manipulate each other. Exactly. That’s why Breaking Bad is so interesting to watch, is we are trying to figure out how Walter White is manipulating someone else. Like, you’re sort of mesmerized by when he’s failing at it. Or succeeding at it. But he’s engaged you in something where it’s not, it’s a weird sort of conflict. It’s not like head-on, it’s that understated subtextual, like, oh, but he’s trying to get somebody to think this way, or that way.

Right. But there’s so many ways to, once those two people meet on the bridge, approach how they negotiate. I think that’s the key to me. You’re either someone’s slave, someone’s tyrant, or you’re negotiating. That’s generally how it is. You’re giving your power away, exerting your power. Or you’re negotiating your power with someone.

Devin: And it all depends on where in the story, at what point in the story, that bridge is the obstacle. So, in the beginning of your story, and I guess you could just do it as just one long bridge, but if the hero, little h hero, in the beginning of the story, sets out on that bridge, and the antagonist shows up fairly quickly, well, the antagonist has the upper hand. You know, and the hero may be a little weaker at that point. And they’ll turn around, like, no, no, all right, I don’t, I don’t know how to negotiate this right now. So, I’m going to, I’m going to turn around and let them, let them pass.

Right. But then, as they get further and further, and then it’s a, so, it’s a good, it’s, visually, it’s a good analogy.

Adam: No, I was thinking about this analogy, too, the way you’re continuing it. Because, even from a character perspective, if, either one of them started that journey well before the other one, and was getting close to land on the other side, when the other one was starting, there would be very little conflict.

Devin: Yeah, right.

Adam: I mean, maybe they’re territorial or something, but if the person’s like, oh, what, you mean I just go back five steps and let you, and clear the path for you to, yeah, sure, no problem. But if they’ve spent the entire journey of their life getting there, you know, an emotional, mental dedication to it, like I said, time is that measurement of life. If you’re moving through space in a certain span of time, the more time you spend doing a thing, the more meaning it has. You can concede if you’re on one side, then they go, you know, vice versa. If the other, that person went to the other side, probably no problem.

Like I said, territorial, maybe, but that’s not the analogy we’re using. It’s just the distance on bridge. But even at three quarters, this person comes three quarters away, this person comes a quarter, eh. If it’s a really long bridge, are they really going to want to turn back? No, probably not. Right. But there’s more likelihood because that person’s passion, meaning, power of having traveled three quarters, they’re ready to be off that bridge. Do you know what I mean? So there may be more strength there. Halfway is the interesting analogy. And that’s always how you should think of starting a scene. If they were on equal footing, what’s this? And who has the upper hand and why?

Right. But I love this bridge analogy. This is great.

Devin: The other part of that for me is the decision of the negotiation. You know, when you’re face to face, it’s like, is it a physical altercation where someone’s just trying to throw the other person off? Yeah. Are they an asshole? Or is it a mental thing where, or, or, yeah, where it’s like, I’m going to be, I’m going to beat you with, with my, my knowledge that I’ve gained up until this point, I know something that, you know, whatever, that will, will manipulate your mind in a way. Where you may or may not concede.

Adam: Even bartering. I have this thing. I’ll give you this thing to let me pass. Or you turn around with me and we both go back and get the thing that some sort of bartering. Right, right. Like you may be coming from there, but I’m going to there to seek fortune.

Devin: Yeah.

Adam: Maybe a lie even, but they trick them into, you know, giving passage. Or like I said, you could just be a big jerk and throw the person off, like just a violent person. But once again, that’s, that’s the difference between. Yeah.

In, in motivation and storytelling, because we all know these different types of people. There is, like, like I’m saying, there’s the victim or a slave to someone else’s power. They will defer their power to anybody. You know what I mean? They just don’t, they don’t want conflict. That’s one of the reasons. So they just don’t do it. You know, they sort of hide and they’re deferential. And then you’ve got someone who exerts their power. And those two are, they work well together. Mm-hmm. Those two exist is because they’re commensurate parts of the other, you know, complementary parts. But they’re extremes. In the center is your negotiator, is the person who will negotiate with another’s will or mental process or emotional process to understand, maybe through manipulation in a negative way, figure out how to manipulate that person.

But really, which is more tyrant, it’s just subtle tyrant. Mm-hmm. And the overt tyrant is the person who throws you off the bridge. But the middle ground, the negotiator is trying to go, this is the person that’s doing like a, okay, perhaps we can both benefit from this.

Devin: Mm-hmm.

Adam: I don’t need to make a friend, but I don’t need to make an enemy. We can just be two people figuring this out. If you’ve ever watched Game of Thrones, that’s what Tyrion Lannister does every time he gets into trouble. He like makes friends with the people he’s trying to not be killed by. Right. He’s smart enough to understand we can do a win-win-win here. Maybe someone wins and someone loses. We can do scenarios in which everybody benefits.

Devin: What’s interesting about that, some of these decisions, and especially like some of those short-sighted decisions that characters make, that it’s something that is cringeworthy for someone watching, but it’s fun to watch a character that is so short-sighted and they’re only focused on getting around the obstacle that’s in front of them. Right. Like you’re saying, I don’t want to die, so I’m cringing. I’m going to say this. Oh, yeah. But then that creates a bigger problem because they get past that obstacle. They’re like, oh, wait, you just, but I created a bigger obstacle here. Fantastic. And so I’m going to say something to get out of here, but then that’s going to offend the person I just talked to or.

Right. It’s so fun to watch something spiral out of control like that.

Adam: But this is also why I use that phrase progressive complications, because they’ve done it to themselves. And that’s what makes that scene more interesting. Right. Obstacles is really important. Right. Because that’s what you’re. I mean, you need to focus. Like I said, most acting classes in schools and schools of thought will teach you that secrets and obstacles are the key. You need something internal to be brewing emotionally, and you need something external to be showing to the audience it’s happening. Action oriented, physical out exterior action, which in our. In our language of writing, it’s character and plot, right? Internal, external. We do the same thing. But the progressive complications, like we’re saying with setup and payoff as well, the best thing with the three O’s is it’s called the three O’s.

Right. It’s easy to remember. That’s one of the best parts about it. And, you know, with this one, it just, I switch back and forth between them because they help shine a different light on different problems, you know, or different things to examine or build. But what you’re talking about is progressive obstacles. Do you know what I mean? This person, they say a lie and you’re like, oh, no, don’t tell them that because they’re going to the same party, stupid. Right, right. Right. It’s in rom-com. It happens all the time. And I will say that I have a big issue with it. And my sister and I, this is our biggest complaint in storytelling. We’re like, we hate it when someone, it’s a scene when if someone just says, no, that’s not what happened. What really happened was this one sentence explanation and everything is cleared up, clear as day, and it doesn’t happen. I absolutely, utterly hate those scenes.

I’m like, come on, man. Are you serious? Because it’s like someone made up something where they’re like, they had 15 hookers and drugs. And it’s like, no, my car broke down. My friend was with me. They can tell you it broke down. Like, I hate it. I can’t stand those scenes because I’m like, no one does this. No one ever does this. If they have a legitimate, perfect reasoning behind it, they always say it. They don’t just, you know, hang dog, sheepishly walk out of the room. Do you know what I mean? So be careful about what you lie about to complicate a scene because in a romantic comedy, sometimes it can, and my sister loves romantic comedies, but she will not be happy with that scene.

She will blow it. She’s like, why do they do that? She’s asking me as a writer. She’s like, why do they do that? I’m like, I’m not them. I can’t tell you. I care more about my stories than that. I don’t know what to tell you, but I’ll make sure I tell future generations. And anyone listening to StoryOsophy that they shouldn’t do that because you’ll be unhappy.

Devin: There’s another cringe where there’s something I was listening to this audio book on Audible and it was an R.L. Stine wrote this like short horror story. Like isn’t R.L. Stine the Goosebumps dude? And so he wrote this for Amazon. So it’s like an Amazon original Audible book. And so, and it was free. Like, every month you get to pick, like, two free titles. And I was like, oh, this one, I’m going to see how this is because a lot of the books that I listened to on Audible are just read. They’re either like nonfiction biographies or autobiographies are just read. And this is a performance. So it’s more of like the old school radio shows.

Oh, different characters are, are playing the roles. And the one, and I understand because we can’t see what’s happening or what happened that they have. They got to tell us, but I, but I always just wish they would either write it in a way where it wasn’t. Okay. And I’ll give you the example. Something happened that scared them or they were around a, a campfire and the guy telling the ghost story says, and then there was this blood geyser that happened. And then this thing happened behind everybody and it got them all wet with some goo, you know, instead of like, like it was just to scare them. And the next scene, they’re like, these kids are in there.

They’re in the cabin and they’re like, what do you think? I can’t, and this isn’t, this is paraphrasing, but it was like, what do you think was in that goo that Dan had Gary pour all over us back there at the campfire? And it’s like, okay. You know, it was like, figure out a different, like a more creative way.

Adam: You could do like a sound effect, like a squishy sound effect, like someone’s touching it. And they already did that. Be like, oh, I wonder what’s, what’s in this goo. Exactly. Like, you don’t need that full, big thing. You just need to hear the squish and we, the audience go, oh, I wonder what that is. And then you, you know what I mean? You’ve already got the audience in the same experiential mindset, thinking the same. That’s the beauty of those radio things. I don’t know if they’ve hit the mark quite yet.

Devin: I know. And that’s the thing is like, there’s a couple that I’ve listened to that are okay. Use their imagination. That’s the thing is like, you’re also not reinventing the wheel here. You can listen to old. Old radio shows that do that and they’re done really well. And they use your senses that they have access to, right? They use your, your. Beyond your imagination, but they’re using your, what you’re listening to, your earbuds, and they’re using that to a degree that is creative. It’s more creative than a lot of the stuff I’m hearing now, where they’re not, they think the audience isn’t smart enough to figure out like, okay, we understand that that noise you’re just-

Adam: They’re not trusting the audience’s imagination to be a big part of the experience. Yeah, that’s the problem. Because you can use sound and you can use- It’s Prairie Home Companion. It’s the same thing. Yeah. They get it. But Prairie Home Companion, at the same time, that is a lot about a, that’s all about the Garrison Keillor classic narrator. You know what I mean? We’ll be gone. There’s a quality to the narration of that. That’s a really big part of it, too. It’s not as radio showy as it is, like, just reading prose beautifully, in a way. Performing prose beautifully.

Devin: Oh, no, no, no. I’m talking about, I’m talking about a Prairie Home Companion, the actual radio show. That’s on, that’s on NPR, where, and that’s not anymore, unfortunately. But it was a radio show, where they had, they had characters, they were all on stage, they had sound effects. Yeah, yeah. They all played their own. But it was, yeah. And so, but it, like you’re saying, they didn’t, they trusted the audience to kind of understand. And even if you miss a couple things here and there, it takes you out of a story when it’s like, I don’t need you to read something verbatim back to me. Yeah.

Like, almost like reading scripts. Like, script notes, as if, you know, right on the, right through the radio.

Adam: That’s one of the issues with doing a, like a read-through or a script reading anyway, if you’re trying to get some feedback by getting an audience to listen to a script out loud to see where it needs work. Right. Is you do have to read a lot of the stage directions to have comprehension of what’s going on in the story. But you’re like, what they really want to do is be able to see it and then get into the meat of the performers. You know what I mean? Yeah. It’s a tricky thing because you’ve got to engage their imagination and you’ve got to give them just enough information.

Devin: It is.

Adam: Without overdoing it.

Devin: Yeah.

Adam: Yeah.

Devin: But there’s certainly opportunity.

Adam: That’s always an awkward thing is the reading of the script directions while you’re trying to do a table read or like an onstage little read for a small group for feedback. That’s always, even though it works, you know, you’re getting told these stage directions. It’s awkward. It’s like the stage manager sitting to the side and being like, so-and-so, enter stage left. Walks five paces, sits down. It’s cocky in there. It’s like we know the screen directions are supposed to be a little more exciting than that, but that’s what it feels like when you’re doing a live read of it.

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Adam: We’re going to get into these questions because they generate a lot of the best ways of approaching how to fix your story, how to build a scene from scratch. What Devin was speaking about in his bridge analogy is the first question. Who wants what, from whom, or from where? So in the bridge analogy, who wants what, they want passage from the other. And the from whom question, from the other. The from where question is, suppose it’s they need some sort… Some sort of help or assistance from someone more powerful or who has a magic item or something. So they go on a quest to get it from a specific place.

That’s more for a journey-oriented thing. It’s like, okay, so their car breaks down. They want to get it to a mechanic at a garage. There’s purposes behind all of the smaller activities within a scene, but that’s the big question for a quest in general. What do they want? Do they have to get it from someone or from something? Or what do they think they do? Because… As we say a lot on this podcast, usually that revelation comes from within. They realize they don’t need to get the thing from the other. It’s just a physical representation of what they’re looking for internally to sort of remedy whatever flaw might be something they’re wrestling with, character flaw.

But that’s, I mean, that’s major motivation. That’s a question that is at the core of every scene and every story is what, what do they want? And asking who wants what helps you to figure out what perspective this scene’s coming from. So that’s the first and primary question of any scene. And that’ll give you the basics if you’re trying to build a scene from scratch.

Devin: Right. And I think the main point of this episode, and even just the main point of thinking about these questions, is to ensure you don’t, you have a scene that’s actually moving the story forward. There’s a reason. There’s a reason it’s there. Because I’ve written a lot, I’ve written a lot of scenes. Like I’ll come up with some dialogue in my head in the shower or I’m driving and I’m like, oh, wow, that’s really good. Like, all right, I think it’s good. And then I write it and I put it in somewhere and it doesn’t do anything. Like there’s, the characters don’t want anything. You know, there’s no obstacle. There’s really a very vague, if any, objective.

And so the outcome ends up being, I ran out of ideas for the scene. But if I wasn’t thinking about the three O’s or if I wasn’t thinking about some of these questions, that’s, you know, this is kind of like time to kill your babies moment, looking at a scene and you’re wondering why it’s not working. And you ask yourself these questions and you come like, oh, well, that’s why, because neither of these people want anything. You know, there’s no, there’s nothing there. That’s, this is how you’re able to identify that.

Adam: If you identify and go, well, let me just take that little thing. That I thought was special or important about this scene and put it somewhere else.

Devin: Yeah.

Adam: Or, you know, and get rid of the, so what you’re saying is sort of, what’s important about it is when you ask yourself these questions, if the answers are really lame answers, it probably means that the scene, it’s not a good scene. And maybe it was the first scene you wrote.

Devin: Or if you’re talking yourself into answering. Yeah, that’s true. Well, they actually do want something.

Adam: Yeah, this, I mean, an ice cream cone’s enough for this scene. Right? Yeah. Just wants an ice cream cone. I would want that. If one of these gears starts working, if this scene’s like, oh, it wasn’t working before and now it’s working, the whole machine works better. And so other scenes around it and other payoff scenes later in later movements in your story and things or setups earlier, it will reverberate through the whole machinery of the story. Fixing one thing or removing one unnecessary thing. Like I call it a gear in this sense. Because you remove a gear that’s like, oh, this is just hanging out there.

It’s not doing anything. And then the other one is pivotal, but it’s not functioning properly. It’s screwed up a little bit. And so it’s not, the teeth of it aren’t jiving with the scene after it or before it. And so the whole machine’s not quite working at that point.

Devin: Dumping the cargo. You’re flying over the ocean in a plane and you realize you’re going to run out of gas. So in order to save gas, you need to make the plane lighter. You just start dumping stuff that you don’t. That isn’t crucial to keep this plane in the air.

Adam: That’s exactly right. So the first question is probably the most important. Who wants what? From whom? Or from where? The next one on our little list of questions here is how do they intend to get it? Now, this is a little bit of objective in mind. Okay. We know what they want, but how are they approaching it? That’s going to be specific to their personality or the circumstances. And you also want to think about how. Well, what is the furthest they’re willing to go and to do to get it? So like we were talking about on the bridge, if they’ve been on this journey forever, it’s going to mean a lot more for them to get to that land and they are not turning back.

So how far will they go further than the person that’s only taken five steps? That’s for sure. And how they intend to get it. That’s part of how you can build the fun of this scene. You know, whether they’re trying to get out of something like Devin was saying, making excuses that digs the hole deeper or they’re more intelligent. Like someone like Tyrion Lannister who tries to negotiate with people who are me because he says his small guy much larger physically than him. And so he knows he can’t fight them. He has to figure out a different way. So how do they intend to get it would depend on their personality, their perspective and whatever obstacles they see present.

Devin: That’s a good point. The antagonist or the person that’s the obstacle having something that you don’t. Have whether it’s like a superpower, some magic or they’re just literally they have a strength you like you’re saying you can’t there’s you can’t fight them. You can recognize a strength where you might fall short. You have to think of a different way to negotiate to achieve that the outcome that you desire for that that in that particular scene. That’s a good element to add.

Adam: And sometimes people are aware or unaware of their weaknesses. Their strengths and I think that’s what you’re saying is the person who makes up an excuse and you as the audience are smarter and you go, oh, geez, that’s not going to work. We recognize that they’re unaware. Yep. Yep. That they’re not that smart. They don’t know that they don’t know the other person smarter or how or maybe as we’re saying self reflective enough self aware enough to go. I’m not the smartest person. And so I’m not going to say anything. I’m going to watch and see who’s in charge and just go in that direction. That’s how I’m going to deal with power.

The other thing is, think of when you’re dealing with the obstacles of what’s happening and how much passion or intention they’re going to put behind this. You do want to think of, and this is a practical way of building a scene, what obstacles could they face? Not do they face, because that’s just observational. That’s not going to help you fix your scene. Could they face is the big question. And what Devin said earlier, what if is the greatest question that you can be asking. Also, I have my little trick of using your hand and thinking of your hand or your palm as a decision point of something that’s going on, an obstacle.

And when you extend your fingers, you use each finger as a representative of one of five options. That they could choose. And what it does is, it doesn’t keep you limited to, well, they have to do this because this is what they should do. And this is what that character’s like. Yeah, and that’s going to write you a safe story where you really don’t find that dynamic up and down tug of war that is fun for a story. But also with giving yourself like five options, you pick like, Option number one is safe. And option number five is extreme, right? The most extreme thing that you can think that character would do.

And in between, you pick some logical ones and some daring ones. One of those is going to sort of jump out at you. And if not, here’s one of the cool, fun tricks to try too. Take all those five options you’ve given yourself and see if you can order them, put them in an order. That would make the most dynamic scene out of them. It’s an exercise. This is, and I’m telling you, this is one of my favorite exercises for sort of what if-ing a character in a scene. And you start to realize, well, if I did all those five, that would make this scene pretty amazing.

And you’re like, oh, well, there’s my scene. I guess it’s written, isn’t it? But it comes from a place where you’re non-linearly thinking of the most dynamic idea. Instead of thinking, what does my character do next and next and next? You get your five big moments by just sort of playing with your character and options. And then you order them. Then it works in that to help you out. So what obstacles could they face? Obstacles are really the building block of what’s going to happen action-wise within your scene. And progressive complications, you think about it, it’s sort of like the character’s negotiation. You think about it, it’s sort of like the character’s negotiation of those obstacles.

Because it should get more complicated. But it doesn’t have to be, per Devin’s example, the person is necessarily digging their own hole. That’s just a good way of doing it. Here’s where you get to consequences and stakes. The next question has to do with that. What happens if they don’t get it? And what happens if they do get it? And then why? Now, when you start to think about those things, like I said, stakes. That’s what these questions are about, is raising your stakes. Then you have either consequences of what they don’t get or hope of relief in some way or something like that. And if they do get it, if it’s a romantic comedy, maybe it’s a date.

Maybe it’s a second date. Maybe it’s a yes to a wedding proposal.

What if they do get it is happening? And so it can vary a lot. But why would that happen, too?

Devin: Well, this is a good area to do a setup and payoff to our setup, where it seems like the hero didn’t get what they wanted. Like they they lost this negotiation in the scene only to find out a couple of scenes later or much later in the story that that was all a setup. Like they wanted to get captured, you know, they want, that was their way into the castle or whatever, but, or, or they, they wanted the antagonist to feel as if they had the upper hand or feel as if they’re stupid or they’re dumb. They don’t understand. And which will actually bring down the guard. It will make the antagonist less dangerous later because they’re thinking about that moment where it’s like, well, he’s, he won’t be able to. And of course I don’t have a fricking example. So I’m stumbling through this, but it’s a, it’s a good place to do a setup where you can, or even the audience believes that guy, he’s, he failed miserably in that scene.

And then later you’re like, Oh crap. That was just a setup.

Adam: Here’s a good one. It’s Sherlock Game of Shadows with Robert Downey Jr. When he lets Moriarty capture him and get close enough so he can steal his book. Yeah. Perfect. You think that it’s like, Oh no, this is his worst moment. And later on you’re like, Oh, he switched the ledgers. What a genius. Those movies are so fricking good. I know. They’re so good. I mean, you got Guy Ritchie. Thank you, Guy Ritchie. And, and Robert Downey Jr. To me, that’s plenty to start with. And then Jude Law is always awesome. He’s a good performer. He’s a really good performer.

Devin: He plays a great Watson.

Adam: Yes, he did. I’m like, that’s one of my favorite roles he’s done. Cause he, he brings this charm to Watson. That’s really good. But it’s, it’s still the button down uptight quality to him. Do you know what I mean? Like, and that’s hard to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He does a great job.

Devin: And it’s also, it’s a great, they’ve chose a great moment to, to enter the story of Sherlock Holmes and Watson, like their lives. Because in the very first one, is that Game of Shadows? Watson is. The second one was Game of Shadows. Just, he’s had enough of what they’re doing with Sherlock Holmes. He’s just, so you get that right away. This, this dynamic they have as a, and without, of course, most people know Watson, the Sherlock Holmes, like the relationship. But if you didn’t, you’d understand right away that. Watson, as he’s right, he’s had enough of, of the being detective and things like that. And he’s had enough of Sherlock, but he’s, but Sherlock continues to suck him in, you know? So he’s like, you, you’re retiring. So I guess you don’t want to come on this fun adventure. And he, he, he knows, he knows how to manipulate. It’s, it’s that, the meeting at the, in the center of the bridge. He knows how to get Watson to turn around and retreat and always do what he wants him to do.

Adam: Yeah. Those movies are great, man. Just so good.

Devin: Yeah. I love them.

Adam: And I love the fight scene where he’s like, thinks seconds ahead and incapacitates the big, that’s one of my favorite fights. But that’s all Guy Ritchie stuff right there. I love it.

Devin: Yeah, it is.

Adam: I love Guy Ritchie. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is one of my faves and RocknRolla. I love RocknRolla. Yeah. Real simple questions that help you to figure out what’s going on a scene. Where are they going? Like the character sometimes is traveling and we don’t know where they’re going. Maybe we leave that information out from the audience where they’re going, but they’re going somewhere. Are they approaching or leaving? You know, a good start or beginning of a scene is what, what direction are they traveling in? Like what’s happening in that? And I know it sounds basic, but you ask yourself these questions and the scene starts to build itself. What are they doing? What if they’re not traveling? What if they’re just sitting still? Are they at their job? Are they thinking about something? Are they eating, cooking breakfast, grooming themselves?

Like, what are they doing? If there’s someone else in the scene, how are they communicating with that person? Do they feel comfortable? Are they like openly laughing, having a good time with them? Or are they reserved, afraid of them? Are they not open with that person? Because ways of showing character dynamics, for instance, let’s, let’s think of it like this. Juxtapose scenes. In one scene, the main character is sitting with someone and not saying a word. Let’s say at their house with a loved one, maybe we go, well, there must be some sort of fight or something, or they don’t get along with them, or they’re very closed off. And then you cut, or you juxtapose it, sharp cut to work where they’re with a coworker they really get along with, and they’re laughing. Well, these look like two different people.

They look like two different characters, but all of a sudden, with just that information between those two scenes, we get relationships and this person becomes more complex. They’re not going to be one or the other. There are different layers and why those layers exist depend on their communication with the other people in the scenes. So how they’re communicating is important to showing the audience in a lot of ways a bit about the character, a glimpse into the character. What popped in my head too was the recent Joaquin Phoenix Joker, where he’s doing faces with the kid on the bus, making happy faces and the mom scolds him.

He’s dealing with adults who he can’t interact with, but this kid he can be a comedian with and openly, you know? So you get to see these different aspects of character by how they communicate with a child or with a child. How they communicate with other people in the scene. It’s a good test to make them communicate with a child. Just to see.

Anyway, in communicating, there’s a lot of, like I said, this is how I would break it down. You are either a tyrant, a victim, or negotiating, and most people are negotiating. If not, you’re sort of at an extreme, but it lets you know what a basic character flaw is on that sort of seesaw of power and communication of will. Yeah. You give your will up freely just to please someone else. That’s a victim mindset. That’s from having your power taken away. The tyrant is over abusing and extending their power over someone else. And someone who’s negotiating, for the most part, respects the will and power of the other individual and is talking to them on a certain level.

All characters may dip into any of these extremes on the other side during a scene. You may have more power over someone in one scene. In the other scene, you have to go to your big, big boss. They come down on you. And so, power dynamics is what this is about. Negotiating, tyrant, slave. That’s a lot about what’s going on in the scene. Not obstacles and stuff like that, but what’s going on in the scene. And that can help you, like I say, if you’re starting to build a scene. That’s great foundational questioning. This one is one of Devin’s favorite questions right here. Why now? Why does this event or scene or even story happen now?

What happened before it? What if it were to happen earlier or later in your story? These are questions of why now? Why does it need to happen at this point? Why is this link in your chain of events? Does it need to be here? Can you remove it? Put it over somewhere else? And will it make it better? Will it make it stronger? And they get paired with what should happen next and what could happen next. That’s all built in. Into the why now. Because you’re thinking back and forward.

Devin: I was thinking about the analogy that I just brought up about, okay, you’re flying from Hawaii to California. You have a certain amount of fuel on the plane. And you’re running out of fuel. What can you get rid of to make sure that the plane is light enough so it won’t drain all the fuel and you’ll make it to California? And for me, why now is one of those moments. It’s not necessarily saying why. Why is this scene? Why did you write this scene? It just means, is this scene providing information about the story and these characters that you want your audience to know now? And why now also has to do with what do the characters know, too?

Adam: Where you enter the story, like you were saying about Sherlock, why are we in this part of their story? If this is the most boring part, why?

Like, there are plenty of movies where we’ve seen it where you’re like, a person’s walking from destination to destination, and something happens during that. And if not, you would think to yourself, why in the heck are we just watching them walk? Right. You know what I mean? Why are we here now with this? There has to be a reason or a purpose.

Devin: And it’s the economy of the page that we’ve talked about several times in the past, too, is especially with screenwriting. Right. You need to make sure. You need to make sure every line, there’s a reason every line on that page is there. And every line that makes up a scene is like, well, why is this scene here? Like, why do I need it here? And so part of the why now for me is part of the economy of the page, but more so it’s the economy of the measurement, the length of a of a movement, or the length of an event measurement, the measurement part of it. Yeah. And so can I move this? Is this really? Is it really bulky here? Like, is there? If I have this scene here? Is there a huge lag where nothing really important happens? Where? And so like, that’s the main that’s the main question you’re asking is like, can I move this? Can I move it later on where it’s really thin where something else is thin and and actually moving stuff around by actually doing that exercise can actually change the story itself, maybe in a very positive direction better make it better improving, right?

Adam: There’s sometimes where I will hear characters talk, like just dialogue, like I just, I know they need to have this conversation and I’ll write a dialogue scene thinking, you know, this is either stationary or they’re in a moving vehicle, like basic. So you sort of get the idea, but I’ll write the information down and I’ll have that you, you, we’ve done this with the project we’re working on. We’ll have this dialogue. And I know that there are things that need to be discussed and yet it’s not the right time. It’s like, no, no, no. They would have known this a little before this. So we need to move this back. And then you find out that this, this place where they had this dialogue, it’s like, it sort of drags here. It doesn’t, this does not work here.

It’s not that it’s a bad… Right. I mean, sometimes it can be a bad bit of dialogue, but it’s not like it’s a bad bit of dialogue or anything, but it doesn’t belong there. And so you, you take it, remove it and you move it where it belongs. And eventually you’ll find a scene. You’re like, oh yeah, I needed a break between these two segments of this person’s build. Exactly. So it’s a great intermission scene for them to discuss this, but you can, you can sort of extract the good stuff. And I always have an extras document whenever I’m working on any piece. And it’s like, no, no one should ever go in those documents because they would, it would just, it’s awful. It’s like a dumping grounds. It’s late. Each one’s labeled, but it’s spare dialogue and all kinds of stuff. And it’s probably the worst stuff ever.

But if I need to move something, I’ll move it over there and leave it there and label it. And then when I know where it needs to go, I’ll grab it from there and put it there. But it’s my junk drawer. It’s my junk drawer in the kitchen. Everybody needs a junk drawer. Yeah, that’s what it is. That’s their story. It is important to sort of break that down. If you ask yourself these questions when you’re trying to build a scene or especially fix a scene, or mainly when you’re trying to fix a scene, if you ask yourself these questions and your answer is, I don’t know consistently, probably that scene does not have meat to it.

It doesn’t have a lot of substance. But ways to, it might have information. Here’s my, one of my favorite questions that I, that I do when I’m trying to take a scene that, that has information and sort of works, but it’s not engaging, right? It’s not really engaging is ask yourself what tension or suspense is there in this scene? What is something that I could maybe withhold from the audience so that they wonder what the answer is until the end of the scene. So you create by just removing a little bit and putting it later, this curiosity thing that triggers with your audience. This will start to lead us into the audience experience questions, but it does come from how much the characters know first. But how do you keep your audience in anticipation? That’s really the big question with suspense or tension. But I love to, suspense is one of my favorites. It doesn’t matter what genre you’re writing, suspense and mystery, always play.

Always, to an audience, always.

Devin: Yes, it does.

Adam: All right, good.

So audience experience questions, these are not that complicated. We’re actually going to run through them, but these are things you do have to keep in mind. And if you have a scene that you want to beef up a little bit, these are great to look at, especially in filmed media, because some of them have to do with, I mean, I guess not. Novels you can do use your imagination in the same capacity. Basic character questions who’s seen is this, or who are we following? Whose perspective leads this scene? Most of the time, one character’s you’re, you’re given one character’s perspective over another. Sometimes it’s omniscient and you’ve got everybody’s point of view from a broad point of view. But even if you did like basic family thing and like the mom or the dad knew more about something than the kid did, you sort of are lending yourself towards the mom and dad perspective because you’re letting, you’re sharing information with them. So just whose scene is it? Who are you following? Because if you want to beef your scene up, you can always take it from the other person’s point of view and run it through that way. Once you determine whose scene it is, you go, oh, oh, I’ve just been doing it from their perspective. Let me think about it from the other person’s perspective. And then suddenly your scene becomes dynamic. So that’s important. How are you presenting the scene from whose point of view?

And they focus pull, and we see a padlock. And we’re like, oh. So our first focus is the car headlights beyond the fence approaching. And then our focus is pulled to the fence itself, where there’s a padlock. And it’s like, oh, okay, that’s a locked gate. And suddenly two hands come in from the edge of frame and unlock it. So nothing, I mean, that could be a really boring scene. But because of the information they’re deciding to show you step by step, they’re revealing stuff to you. And that show, I mean, was amazing at doing that. That’s why it’s sort of very captivating in a lot of ways, is their level of visual intrigue was like, okay, here’s the information for the scene. How are we presenting it?

Could we present it in a way that creates more suspense? Out of nothing. Out of car headlights, a gate and padlock, and a pair of hands. Because we still go, whose hands are these? Yeah, there’s mystery there, too. In all of them. Like, where is the gate leading to? Who’s in the car beyond it? Like, there’s so many questions we have. And that’s just the hook of one scene. So big questions. What are they discovering? How are they discovering? It can really spice up your scene based on how the audience interprets it, you know? Yeah. And how much of it is just the audience? Yeah. And how much secrecy and depth you can build in the character side of it, too, you know? But those are the big ones. What and how are you discovering it, set-up payoff-wise?

Because you can, like I said, that little example from Breaking Bad, you have like three or four set-ups right there that get paid off in the next 30 seconds, minute of the show. The answers are immediate, but you’re still engaged, like, set-up payoff. Set-up payoff, set-up payoff. It’s so brilliantly done.

Devin: Yeah, right.

Adam: And at the same, let me, this leads into the other ones, too. Big ones for filmed media. What are the sounds and images in the scene? Can you paint a more vivid picture of what the surroundings are? How you’re presenting the surroundings? What the sounds are? And even when you get to a novel, you’re engaging the audience’s imagination, you can extend it to what does that smell like? What does that taste like? What does it feel like? Like, filmed media, you only have those two major components. I mean, you can show some cinnamon buns, but it’s going to require the imagination of your audience to smell them, just like the book.

Devin: Right.

Adam: I saw something online where someone was like, my roommate thought that I made cinnamon buns. I made bacon. His finger swipe was not satisfactory. So it’s just bacon grease in the bottom of a pan?

Devin: Fucking girls.

The only thing I would add to this is what we already talked about. What we already talked about is the, what does my audience know? Do they know less, the same, or more than the characters in the scene? Because that’s one of those tracking elements.

Adam: And you got to think about all three of those. But what you said earlier is also important. It doesn’t have to be just one of those choices for the scene. No. It can be one of those choices for the first 15 seconds of opening that gate, and then it switches to… Exactly. We know who it is. Oh, it’s Walter White, and he’s going into the redneck neo-Nazi compound. Oh, okay. Now we know all this information, but we go, what’s going to happen next, right? We, the audience, and we know less than Walter because he’s got a plan. You’ve suddenly switched in this way to a different vantage point.

Right. But that question, making sure you keep track of that, like how much does the audience know bit by bit, and knowing that you can switch between those three, whether they know the same, less, or more, helps to… And that switches you between suspense, mystery, and dramatic irony as tools, you know, to build in your story. Something that is also in the midst of it, too, is the mood of the scene. What is the mood of the scene? And that, we use the word tone a lot, the tone of a piece, and tone and genre are sort of connected, but tone is the mood of the scene.

So is it somber? Is it upbeat? Is it colorful? Is it, you know, is it dulled? There’s, you know, is it cold? Is it warm? Like, and how are you showing that to the audience?

So the mood of a scene is where you can find your tone of a piece. And if you find that you do a certain mood all the time… That’s called your voice. That’s your David Lynch or Richard Linklater, however you present your voice consistently, or your tone or mood consistently, that ends up being your voice. We talk about, Tim Burton is a prime example. What are the best moments in the scene? Like, is there something that you’re like, oh, this is a really good bit, I like this. Build to it, don’t have it be the first thing in the scene and then nothing great happens after it, you’re going to have a really crappy scene, even though your best moment is in it.

You’re sort of letting your audience down after that, so gauge what your best bits are. Even if it’s a bit of dialogue where someone trumps someone else, they finally put them in their place, or they finally do this thing, it’s like a triumphant bit of dialogue. That’s also the thing, not just the moments, you know, physically, but dialogue-wise, what’s the best line of dialogue in the scene? You know, maybe you want to punctuate the scene with that. Maybe that’s the end, to button it up. But these are all things the audience needs to know. That’s what the audience is going to interact with, and to step back and look at these handful of questions lets you imagine what they might perceive. You’re never going to get it right exactly, but it’s a neat way of tricking your mind to see if what you communicated, or what you were intending to communicate, actually got communicated on the page or to your audience.

If you’re having trouble with a scene, run these questions through for yourself. This is a great way to, you can do events, scenes. You can do movements with this, too. This is all geared up to have your first draft refined so that you can send it out to people and get some feedback. Gear yourself up for feedback, have some confidence, openness, know that everything’s not going to be perfect, it’s only a first draft. Try not to make any excuses for your work, just listen and ask questions about your reader’s lack of clarity or interest so you can fix it, understand why and fix it. But before that, Fix it up a little bit yourself, don’t be lazy.

Don’t be, don’t be lazy. Come on, fix it yourself, don’t be lazy. Come on, come on. Next week we’re going to be talking about theme, and how to better build your theme and infuse it into your story, so join us next week for Theme Building. Please subscribe and rate us on iTunes, follow us on social media, share with your friends and send us your questions and comments. For additional resources and links to films, series and books we talk about here, visit our website. While you’re there, sign up for our newsletter for updates on story building tools and special offers at StoryOsophy.com. It’s wonderful, it’s the perfect, don’t even touch it, don’t touch a thing, it’s perfect, just like you.