by Will Dunne
2. Reaction. Imagine different possible outcomes of the character's second strategy. A third strategy will be needed if either of the following happens:
• The second strategy succeeds but is not a final step in achieving the objective. There is still more to do.
• The second strategy fails to produce the desired outcome. If this is the case, identify the actual outcome and why it occurred.
A third strategy is not needed if your character has achieved the objective as a result of the second step. The scene is over and consists of only two beats.
DISCOVERING ADDITIONAL STRATEGIES AS YOU WRITE
You have now fleshed out ideas for two beats of action. This has given you a jumping-off point for the scene and a sense of what the first beat change will be. After you begin writing the scene, work in the moment with your character to find any additional strategies that he or she might try in pursuit of the objective. Remember that this changing plan of action will continue until the character finally succeeds or reaches a point of utter failure.
As you switch to new strategies, keep looking for the next easiest or next most timely step for this unique character and aim to make each new step more difficult than the one before so that the stakes keep slowing rising.
WRAP-UP
In the realm of character strategies, the term "easiest" is relative to the character and the situation. If you are thirsty and need water, for example, the easiest course of action would probably not be to climb into a spaceship and fly light-years away to a distant planet. Instead, you would probably just go into your kitchen and pour a glass of water at the sink. If you are the title character from The Man Who Fell to Earth, however, you would have to reevaluate, because you would be living on a planet where water is in short supply. For you, the easiest course of action would be the spaceship and the long journey-and that would only be the first step.
As you develop your script, keep looking for strategic choices that reveal important information about your character. Try to avoid generic responses and remember that character strategies are the stuff of each scene. They determine how the action unfolds, what types of behavior your characters manifest, what topics they discuss, and what sides of their unique personalities are revealed in the process. Most importantly, character strategies help you show, not tell, the story. What can we learn about your characters by observing the pursuit of their objectives?
THE QUICK VERSION
Explore character feelings and attitudes that influence scenic action
BEST TIME FOR THIS
During scene planning, writing, or revision
HOW CHARACTERS BEHAVE: A QUESTION OF ATTITUDE
Dramatic characters are emotional beings who care enough about their dramatic journeys to make us care about them, too. As they try different strategies to achieve their objectives, they have to keep making personal adjustments to the various positive and negative ways that the world responds to their efforts.
For example, a college graduate starting an important new job may be awed by her colleagues at first. She may grow cold toward a group who snubs her and then hostile to one who tries to get her fired. The adjustments from "awed" to "cold" to "hostile" reflect an emotional dynamic that changes as the character makes new discoveries about the situation at hand.
In drama, an "adjustment" is the feeling or attitude that a character visibly manifests at any given time in a scene. Some character adjustments are involuntary: the new employee's initial awe and later hostility are emotional responses that she cannot suppress. Other adjustments are voluntary: she chooses to act cold toward those who snub her. In some cases, what we observe is the true state of the character: a boy acts excited because he is excited. In other cases, what we see is only a facade used to implement a strategy: a girl acts friendly to someone she dislikes in order to obtain information. Or a man acts cocky to mask his insecurity.
Adjustments often tie to the discoveries that characters make as they pursue their scenic objectives. Whether large or small, positive or negative, each new discovery is a moment of evaluation that either reinforces the current adjustment or leads to a new one.
By focusing on adjustments, particularly the opening adjustment of each character in a scene, you can gain a clearer sense of how each will maneuver the action. Suppose that the character's objective is to convince his sis ter to lend him money, and that his first strategy is to tout the importance of family. If he is used to getting what he wants from his sister, his opening adjustment might be confident. Or, if he and his sister tend to disagree on money matters, he might instead be cautious. Or, if he is stressed out by financial pressures, his opening adjustment might be anxious. Whether voluntary or involuntary, true or false, each adjustment suggests a different way to use family relationships as a step toward asking for a loan.
ABOUT THE EXERCISE
Choose a scene that you want to write or revise. Focus on one character at a time, and use the following steps to find his or her adjustment at the start of the scene. You also can use this exercise to explore emotional and attitudinal changes that might occur as the scene unfolds. However, it is usually best not to plan such changes too much in advance, but to discover them in the moment as you write.
To do this exercise, you need to know what the character wants and what problem he or she faces as the scene starts. You also need to know how the character will begin to work toward his or her objective in spite of the problem. In other words, you need to know the character's opening strategy.
As you step through the exercise, remember that a "beat" is a unit of dramatic action in a scene and that a change of beat often reflects a change of adjustment. If you are not familiar with beats, see "Thinking in Beats" later in this guide.
EACH CHARACTERS OPENING ADJUSTMENT IN THE SCENE
Focus first on Character i, the main character of the scene. Then repeat the steps as indicated for anyone else present when the scene begins.
i. Choose an opening adjustment. Think about the character's objective, problem, and strategy when the scene starts. Use the table to help you find an opening adjustment that best fits this character here and now in the story.
2. Analyze the adjustment:
• Is the adjustment a conscious choice that the character has made or an involuntary emotional or personal response to the circumstances at hand?
• Is the adjustment a true state of the character here and now, or a false front to carry out a strategy or hide vulnerability? If the adjustment is a true state, why does the character feel that way? If the adjustment is a false front, why is the character projecting it and how does the character really feel?
3. Explore new possibilities:
• To learn something new about the scene and how it might unfold, repeat step i with a different answer. Then repeat step 2 and respond appropriately.
• You now have two sets of answers for step i and possibly also for step 2. Repeat step i again with yet another answer. As you do this, push yourself to find a third adjustment as different as possible from your original choice. Remember that this is only an exercise to explore story possibilities. Then repeat step 2 again and respond appropriately.
4. Explore the adjustment of whoever else is in the scene. For each of the other characters in the scene, repeat steps i and 2.
THE FIRST BEAT OF THE SCENE
Use the best of what you found to imagine what happens in the opening beat of the scene. Try to see it in your mind's eye. Remember that this beat will be driven by one character's strategy to achieve an objective and that the dramatic action will be influenced by each character's adjustment. The beat will end when the first strategy succeeds, reaches the failure point, or gets interrupted. When you have a working sense of what happens in this first unit of action, go to the next part of the exercise.
THE SECOND BEAT
Answer these questions after you have thought through the first beat of the scene:
i. Did the character's first strategy su
cceed or fail, and why?
2. What has the character discovered as a result of this success or failure?
3. How does the character feel as a result of this discovery?
4. Does the character still have the same problem or has a new obstacle emerged? If a new conflict is present, what is it?
5. What is the character's second strategy after the success or failure of the first strategy?
6. What is the character's adjustment now? Use the table again to find an adjustment that best fits your character. If the adjustment will stay the same, think about changing another character's adjustment so that the dynamics of the next beat will be different.
7. Is the new adjustment a conscious choice that the character has made or an involuntary emotional or personal response to the current situation?
8. Is the new adjustment a true state of the character or a false front to carry out a strategy or hide vulnerability? If the adjustment is a true state, why does the character feel that way? If the adjustment is a false front, why is the character projecting it and how does the character really feel?
LAUNCHING THE SCENE
By taking the time to explore character adjustments, you have a working sense of how the first two beats of the scene might unfold. Use the best of what you found to write these beats and the dramatic action that ensues. Remember that the scene will end when the character driving it finally achieves or fails to achieve the scenic objective. Until then, look at each new character strategy as an opportunity to explore new adjustments and find new story material. Try to find these emotional and attitudinal changes instinctively without leaving the moment of the scene. Go back to the table of adjustments only if you get stuck.
WRAP-UP
Adjustments show how characters feel-or appear to feel-as they try to overcome obstacles and get what they want. These emotionally based attitudes keep shifting as the character continues to make new discoveries about the world of the story beat by beat, scene by scene. Adjustments often determine the outcome of a scene. Positive adjustments may help some characters succeed. Negative adjustments may cause some characters to fail.
For the dramatic writer, adjustments are tools to bring variety to character behavior at the scenic level and to show, not tell, the story. As you develop scenes, try to stay aware of each character's ever-changing adjustment to the here and now, and be particularly mindful of each character's opening adjustment. Whether it is a true display of the character's inner life or a posture tied to a character strategy, this jumping-off place can help you leap into the action and make something specific happen from the time the scene begins.
THE QUICK VERSION
Define and explore the main event of a scene
BEST TIME FOR THIS
During scene planning, writing, or revision
CENTERING A SCENE ON ONE MAIN EVENT
The scene you are developing now will be one of the events in your character's dramatic journey. Ideally, though many actions may be taken and many topics discussed, the scene will center around one turning-point experience that changes the world of the story in a significant way, reveals something new about the characters, and moves the story forward. What will be the main event of the scene? How will this grow out of past events? How will it pave the way for future events?
ABOUT THE EXERCISE
To do this exercise, you need to have a rough idea of what might happen in your scene. From this starting point, you can explore new possibilities and determine how to shape the event in a way that works best for your story. Stay open to new ideas and feel free to keep revising your core description of the scene.
Exercise examples are from scene 25 of Frozen by Bryony Lavery. The scene takes place in the visiting room of a prison. Character i is Nancy, a middle-aged, middle-class woman whose daughter was murdered twenty years ago during a series of brutal killings in London. Character 2 is Ralph, the killer, who has since been arrested and jailed. Though Nancy and Ralph have had a horrific connection for two decades, this is the first time they have ever met face to face. What happens in the scene: Nancy forgives Ralph for the murder of her daughter.
THE MAIN EVENT OF THE SCENE
Think about what's happened in your story so far: who your characters are, where they are now in the dramatic journey, and where they might be heading from here. Then flesh out the following:
i. Core description. In one simple sentence, as short as possible, describe the main event of the scene as best you can. Think of this as a high-level, bare-bones, core description of what happens-for example, "Nancy for gives Ralph." That's a three-word synopsis. How economically can you sum up your scenic event? Try it now and remember that this is only a starting point.
• Reality check. If you used more than twelve words in your core description, you are getting way too complicated. Reduce it now to twelve words or fewer. What really matters most?
2. Prior event. The events of your story have a cause-and-effect relationship that strengthens the throughline and holds the dramatic journey together. Think about the scenic event you described as the result of at least one previous event-something that happened earlier in the story or backstory. Then try this:
• Copy your core description-for example, "Nancy forgives Ralph." If you wish to edit your summary, keep it to twelve words or fewer.
• Add a clause that taps the power of the word "because" and describes a prior event that caused or contributed to the current event-for example, "Nancy forgives Ralph ... because her daughter Ingrid convinced her that it's the only way Nancy can move on with her life after twenty years of emotional paralysis."
3. Character trait. Dramatic events are caused not only by what happened earlier but also by who the characters are now. Think about the traits of your characters and their physical, intellectual, and emotional states at this particular time in the story. Focus on one personal factor that could contribute to what happens in the current scene. Then try this:
• Recopy your core description-for example, "Nancy forgives Ralph." If you wish to edit your summary, keep it to twelve words or fewer.
• Add a clause that taps the power of the word "because" and describes a character trait or condition that contributes to what happens in the scene-for example, "Nancy forgives Ralph ... because she is desperate enough to try anything that might free her from her anger and grief."
4. Something more. Try to shake up your thinking about the scene and see it in a new way. Imagine that there is actually more to it than you first envisioned. Perhaps the action goes further, or something greater happens, or something new is revealed. As you look for new ideas, don't be afraid to take creative leaps-big ones-but stay true to your characters. Then try this:
• Recopy your core description-for example, "Nancy forgives Ralph." If you wish to edit your summary, keep it to twelve words or fewer.
• Add a clause that taps the power of the word "and" and describes a new possibility for the scene, something greater or more that could happen-for example, "Nancy forgives Ralph ... and he strikes back at her with an uncontrollable burst of hostility and rage."
5. Something different. What if your scene had a different truth and perhaps a different focus from what you first envisioned? As an exercise, imag ine that your core description needs to be qualified in some way so that the true meaning or true impact of the scene becomes clear. Then try this:
• Recopy your core description-for example, "Nancy forgives Ralph" If you wish to edit your summary, keep it to twelve words or fewer.
• Add a clause that taps the power of the word "but" and qualifies or brings new meaning to the dramatic action of the scene-for example, "Nancy forgives Ralph ... but only after she has forced him to see the reality of his crimes and suffer unbearable anguish."
6. Future impact on Character i. In the chain of events that add up to a dramatic story, each event is not only the effect of a previous event, but also the cause of a new one. Because that happened then, this is happening
now. And, because this is happening now, something else will happen later. The events connect. As you write a scene, therefore, it can be helpful to know where it will lead. Consider possible results of the scenic event: how it might affect Character i, change the world of the story, and move the dramatic journey forward. Then try this:
• Recopy your core description-for example, "Nancy forgives Ralph." If you wish to edit your summary, keep it to twelve words or fewer.
• Add a clause that taps the power of the word "consequently" and describes one important future impact of the scene on Character I: an effect that we will see in the next scene or later on-for example, "Nancy forgives Ralph.... Consequently, she will be freed from the anger and grief that has frozen her for twenty years."
7. Future impact on Character 2. If a scenic event matters, it will affect everyone present. Think some more about the possible consequences of your scenic event and how it might affect the second most important character here. Then try this:
• Recopy your core description-for example, "Nancy forgives Ralph." If you wish to edit this summary, keep it to twelve words or fewer.
• Add a clause that again taps the power of the word "consequently" but this time describes an important future impact of the scene on Character 2: an effect we will see in the next scene or later on-for example, "Nancy forgives Ralph.... Consequently, he will experience such remorse that he will hang himself in his prison cell."
ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY OF THE SCENE
You've now developed seven different summaries of the scene you want to develop. Summary i is a core description of the main event. Summaries 2 and 3 focus on why this event occurs. Number 4 explores the possibility of adding more content; 5 suggests unexpected meaning; and 6 and 7 identify important results of the event. By looking at the scene from these different high-level angles, you may have learned something new about it or clarified your thinking about what happens.