How to Write a Dynamite Scene Using the Snowflake Method

by Randy Ingermanson

  Claire’s not going home today, and she may never get home.

  And she’s going to need some serious protection from this evil man.

  That’s a Setback.

  Once again, the Scene Crucible is finished. Claire will never again be in this room. She’ll face Captain Randall again, but in a different place, at a different time, and with different circumstances. And she’ll know better what to expect from him. So she’ll be better prepared next time.

  He’ll be better prepared too.

  Example 3: The Setback for a Proactive Scene in The Godfather

  In the previous chapter, we saw Michael Corleone trying to hold off a team of Mafia killers. But he’s not prepared for the cops who descend on him and try to clear him away. Michael stands up to them and then asks the crooked police captain how much Sollozzo is paying him to help kill the Godfather.

  The captain tells two cops to hold Michael.

  Then he punches him in the face, breaking bones and knocking out teeth.

  (There are some remarkable similarities between this scene and the one we just looked at in Outlander, but they’re purely coincidental. The two stories have almost nothing else in common.)

  Michael has just had a major Setback. There’s a small bit of a Victory mixed in with it. Through the haze of Michael’s pain, he sees several cars pull up. Out jump a number of armed men, private detectives hired by the Corleone Family to stand guard over the Godfather in the hospital. A lawyer informs the police captain that the men are fully licensed to carry guns, and if the police captain has a problem with that, he’ll be standing in front of a judge in the morning.

  So Michael has achieved his Goal for this scene—he’s held off the killers until help arrived.

  But at tremendous cost. He’s just taken an injury that will be with him the rest of his life.

  And he’s made a powerful enemy in this police captain. The war with the enemies of the Corleone Family is not over.

  For Michael, the war is just beginning.

  The Scene Crucible has taken a toll on Michael, but it’s now finished and we won’t see it again. Michael won’t be guarding this turf ever again. He won’t be his father’s sole protector ever again. He will face this police captain again.

  But next time, they’ll both have a gun.

  The Agony of Victory, the Thrill of Setback

  In our examples, we’ve seen one Victory marred by a serious Setback, one full-on Setback, and one Setback sweetened a bit by a Victory.

  The Setback in each case is what drives the story forward, forcing the reader to turn the page.

  A straight-up Victory would be grounds for the reader to close the book and turn out the lights for the night.

  But a Victory mixed with a Setback is a whole different game. It’s just as effective as a pure Setback in keeping your reader up far past her bedtime.

  And that’s a victory for you, the author.

  Remember that the purpose of the Setback is to propel the story forward—and force your reader to turn the page to the next scene. So the Setback for your scene should be as short as possible, but no shorter. If you can do it in a sentence, that’s great. If it takes a paragraph, that’s okay. If it takes a lot of paragraphs, that’s less good. Can you do better?

  Then What Happens?

  Once you’ve ended your Proactive Scene, what comes next?

  Your reader turns the page because she must know how your POV Character will respond.

  You have three terrific options for your next scene:

  Heighten suspense by switching to a new POV Character in the next scene, picking up a different thread of your story. Your reader will continue to worry about the POV Character for this scene you just finished, and that’s good. That’s an open loop in your reader’s brain. You can always continue this thread later.

  Have this same POV Character quickly decide on a new Goal and launch immediately into a new Proactive Scene. This works fine when the next Goal is obvious, or when a new decision can be made quickly. Charge ahead!

  Have this same POV Character spend a bit more time figuring out what to do next. Do this when the next Goal is not obvious and some serious thought needs to go into the next Goal. If you decide to take this route, then you need to know how to write a Reactive Scene. We’ll tackle that in the next four chapters.

  Part Three

  Reactive Scenes

  Chapter Ten

  The Psychology of a Reactive Scene

  In the last four chapters, we’ve looked in depth at Proactive Scenes and how they build emotional muscle in a reader—by working the POV Character’s emotional muscle harder and harder until that muscle fails.

  We’re now going to look at Reactive Scenes. They also build emotional muscle, but they do it in a different way—by giving the POV Character time to rest and regenerate.

  Both kinds of scenes are necessary.

  The context of a Reactive Scene is the Setback of some previous Proactive Scene. The Setback puts pressure on the Character to quit. The Reactive Scene gives your Character a reason not to quit.

  Recall that there are three parts to a Reactive Scene:

  Reaction

  Dilemma

  Decision

  Let’s look at each of these to see why they’re necessary.

  Why a Reactive Scene Needs a Reaction

  When we talk about a Reaction, we mean mostly an emotional reaction. Of course there may be a bit of intellectual reaction (“I can’t believe that just happened!”) and possibly a bit of physical reaction (“Ouch, my whole body hurts!”), but the emotional part dominates here.

  All humans have emotions. When we get hit hard by life, we hurt. Your Character has just been smacked with a major Setback. She’s got to be hurting big-time. She needs to take time to feel that pain and work through it. Otherwise, she’ll seem inhuman, and your reader won’t identify with her.

  Your reader wants to step inside your Character’s skin. To feel your Character’s pain. To empathize. (Unless your reader is a psychopath and can’t feel empathy.)

  So in the Reaction, you’ll punch a lot of emotive buttons in your reader. I can’t list them here, because that depends entirely on what the Setback was. The Reaction should show whatever emotions are appropriate to the Setback. They should be at whatever strength is appropriate to the Character. We’ll look at some examples in the next chapter.

  Eventually, the emotive Reaction will burn itself out. Then it’s time to move on, but which way should your Character move?

  Why a Reactive Scene Needs a Dilemma

  Your Character now faces a Dilemma. If the Setback in the previous Proactive Scene was a good Setback, there aren’t any good options.

  There are only bad options. The question is which is the least bad option.

  That calls for your Character to set aside her emotions and think things out rationally, as best she can. Let’s remember that few people ever set aside their emotions completely. There’s usually an emotive piece that goes into our reasoning. Marketers know this very well, and a wily marketer will manipulate your emotions into a decision and then give you loads of reasons why that decision is “smart.” A wily author may well do the same with her characters.

  But your Dilemma will at least appear to be rational. If your Character is Sherlock Holmes, then he’ll be mostly rational in his reasoning. (Even Sherlock has emotions.) If your Character is Sonny Corleone, the Godfather’s reckless son, he’ll be a whole lot less rational. (But even Sonny can follow logic when he’s not in a rage.)

  No matter who your Character is, he’s going to believe he’s being rational during the Dilemma part of your scene. That’s the key. Whether his reasoning is actually sound or unsound, your Character thinks it’s solid.

  And the whole point of working through the Dilemma is to narrow the options down to one.

  Why a Reactive Scene Needs a Decision

  In real life, we often punt on decisions. We decide not to decide. But we kn
ow, deep down, that’s bogus. That’s a bad way to live our lives. We don’t admire people who don’t make a decision.

  We admire people who are decisive.

  We want to be decisive.

  So we want to watch people being decisive, because it builds emotional muscle memory in ourselves.

  Your reader is rooting for your Character to make a Decision. Not a bad Decision—that’s not something to admire. And not necessarily a good Decision—that’s too much to hope for when your Character is in a tight box.

  Your reader is just hoping your Character will make the best Decision possible, given the options.

  And your reader doesn’t want your Character dillydallying. Your reader wants your Character to get past her pain, look at her choices, think clearly, make a Decision, and get on with the story.

  Advice on Reactions, Dilemmas, and Decisions

  Get through the Reaction at a natural speed. That speed depends on who your Character is and how tough the Setback was. Don’t be inhumanly quick. Don’t wallow too long.

  Your Dilemma will take most of the scene. Your Character should consider each option in turn and rule it out, until only one is left. Take as long as you need to do justice to each option, but don’t waste time. Your reader is not reading for the intellectual exercise of working through a Dilemma. Your reader is drumming her fingers, waiting for you to get on to the next Proactive Scene.

  When your Character has pruned her list of options down to one, that’s the Decision. She needs to be sure it’s got at least a chance of success. She does not need to know for sure how to make it work—that’s for the next scene.

  A Decision is not a Decision until your Character commits. Once she commits, the scene is over, and it’s on to the next one.

  But Do You Really Need a Reactive Scene?

  Reactive Scenes tend to be much lower tension than Proactive Scenes. The modern trend is to use fewer Reactive Scenes. So you have a choice here:

  You may choose to show a Reactive Scene as a fully fleshed-out scene.

  You may choose to tell a Reactive Scene in a couple of paragraphs of narrative summary.

  You may choose to skip ahead to the next Proactive Scene, leaving your reader to figure out what happened in the Reactive Scene.

  How do you decide? You let the pace of your story guide you.

  A Reactive Scene will slow down the pace of your story. If you want a story with an ultra-fast pace, then skimp on the Reactive Scenes. If you want a leisurely pace for your story, then show them all in full.

  If you choose not to do a full Reactive Scene, you should still know in your own mind what was the Character’s Reaction, what was the Dilemma, what was the Decision, and why that Decision was the best option.

  If you choose to do a Reactive Scene, then follow the right order. The Reaction comes first, because emotions trump reason, at least until the emotions burn down. The Dilemma comes second, because reason is slower than emotion. The Decision comes last, because as soon as you have a Decision, the scene is over.

  A Decision forces your reader to turn the page to see if the Decision is going to work. The psychology is similar to that for a Proactive Scene. Again, you are creating an open loop in your reader’s brain. Will this high-risk Decision work? Or will it only make things worse? Remember that when you create an open loop, your reader can’t rest until she closes that loop. Even if it’s 3 a.m., your reader needs to turn the page to see what happens next.

  Chapter Eleven

  How to Create a Dynamite Reaction

  Let’s do a quick review.

  As we’ve said a number of times, a scene in your story needs to be its own miniature story, complete with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

  The beginning part of a Reactive Scene is the Reaction. Just as with a Proactive Scene, you should identify the POV Character as quickly as possible, preferably in the first sentence. And you should launch into the Reaction as soon as you can.

  That raises an obvious question.

  How Do You Know When a Reaction Is Good?

  Part of the reason for having a Reaction is to give your reader a powerful emotional experience. You don’t do that merely by naming the emotions your Character is feeling. You want to show those emotions. To make your reader feel those emotions.

  A Reaction Should Show the Character’s Emotions

  And how do you do that?

  We’ll see some examples shortly, but the key idea is to show the physical reactions the Character is feeling. Is she crying? Laughing? Blushing? Clenching her fists in rage? Show those things, and you won’t have to say that your Character is sad or happy or embarrassed or furious.

  There’s no standard term used by fiction writers for the process of showing a character’s emotions. In my book Writing Fiction for Dummies, I adopted the term “Interior Emotion.”

  There are a zillion techniques for showing Interior Emotion. I can’t possibly cover them all here. You could write a whole book on the subject. I covered this a bit in Writing Fiction for Dummies, but I strongly recommend Margie Lawson’s course Empowering Characters’ Emotions, which you can buy on her website at www.MargieLawson.com. I also like The Emotion Thesaurus, by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.

  A Reaction Should Be in Line with the Character’s Personality

  Some people just aren’t very emotional. Other people seem to always have their emotional meters maxed out.

  Different people express their emotions in different ways.

  For each of your POV Characters, you need to figure out what their temperament is like and make sure their emotional responses are in line with who they are.

  Scarlett O’Hara just isn’t going to have the same Reaction as Jack Reacher. Scarlett is very emotional. Reacher isn’t. They’re both going to feel pain, joy, embarrassment, exhilaration, fear, disgust, and sadness, but they’ll do it their own way.

  Each of your Characters will do it their own unique way too. Figure out what that is and stick to it.

  A Reaction Should Reflect the Character’s Values, Ambition, and Story Goal

  In chapter 7, we talked about Values, Ambition, and Story Goal. Those things drive your Character. They determine what sort of Goal your POV Character will have in a Proactive Scene. When your POV Character gets smacked with a Setback, those same Values, Ambition, and Story Goal may very well also drive her Reaction. Not always, but sometimes.

  A Reaction Should Be Proportional to the Setback

  A minor Setback means a minor Reaction. You might be able to get through the Reaction in a sentence, or maybe a paragraph.

  A major Setback means a major Reaction. You might need to spend a few pages to work through all the feelings.

  My rule of thumb is that a Reaction is like salt—a little goes a long way. The Reaction definitely adds something powerful and good to your story, but there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing. So don’t get carried away with the Reaction. Work through it and move on before your reader gets tired of the drama.

  Some Example Reactions for Reactive Scenes

  That’s enough theory on how to show a Reaction. In earlier chapters, we’ve looked at examples of the Goal, Conflict, and Setback/Victory for Proactive Scenes from three major novels. Now let’s look at the Reactions from the Reactive Scenes that follow directly after.

  Example 1: A Reaction for a Reactive Scene in The Hunger Games

  Chapter 14 of The Hunger Games ended with Katniss escaping Peeta and Cato, carrying her precious bow and arrows. She runs in a blind frenzy until the hallucinations from the tracker jacker venom take over. Then she blacks out.

  Chapter 15 begins with her waking up.

  There’s a paragraph of narrative summary during which time slips by and everything feels all hazy and muddled, as it should when you’re coming back slowly to consciousness. Just one paragraph.

  Then we go into a couple of pages of Interior Emotion, as Katniss’s body slowly returns to normal, enough so she can feel her
pain and begin unwinding the emotions she needs to work through.

  Her whole body aches. And she’s wet all over. And she can barely summon the will to move.

  Katniss is so stiff, she wonders how long she’s been out. At least a day, she thinks. Maybe longer.

  Her whole mouth tastes rotten. Katniss is beginning to return to normal.

  She begins flashing back to home, remembering what it was like before the Games, when she dreamed of escaping her dreary life with her friend Gale. But thinking of Gale makes her think of Peeta, who saved her life. Why would he do that? Katniss is beginning to come back to rational thought, but she still can’t think why Peeta saved her.

  She remembers at last that she has the bow and arrows. She feels excitement over that. Archery is her superpower. She has a chance!

  Katniss is actually beginning to feel hope.

  And with that, her Reaction is complete. Let’s go through our checklist:

  Did the Reaction show Katniss’s emotions using the methods of Interior Emotion? Yes, all except the first paragraph.

  Was the Reaction in line with Katniss’s personality? Yes. The entire Reaction is vintage Katniss. She feels the pain and then turns rational.

  Was the Reaction in line with her Values, Ambition, and Story Goal? Yes. It begins, as it must, with pain. But soon enough it morphs into the emotions of a survivor. One of her key Values is that nothing is more important than survival. She’s not wallowing in her pain. She’s moving past her pain to a new hope. She might actually win.