Making a Scene

In chapter 8 of The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing Les Standiford suggests writing novels more like movie scenes: each scene has it’s own beginning, middle, and end and uses as few words as possible to enrich character, provide necessary information, and/or move the plot forward. “Exposition” and “thought” aren’t available so scenes must be shown using only action, dialogue, and description.

Today I’m going to practice a one-page scene:

A healthy, middle-aged man and woman hold hands walking along the beach when a bottle washes ashore. They stop suddenly, look at each other in alarm and break into a run. The man is faster than the woman, but she pulls down his shorts to make him trip. When he realizes she’s passing him he gives her a clothesline and she falls into the sand. Before he can get his shorts back up she jumps onto his back and chokes him while he crawls toward the bottle. She’s pulling his head backwards when he finally pops the cork and pulls out a tiny piece of paper which she snatches away and eats.

The man points triumphantly. “I knew it! I knew you were a spy!”

“Then you should’ve come prepared, baby.” She draws a pistol.

He drops his hands and smiles looking very comfortable. “What makes you think I didn’t?”

She pulls the trigger and gets nothing but an electric jolt. He closes the gap in two steps and knocks her out cold.