by Will Dunne
3. Analysis. How would you evaluate this thinking within the context of the whole story? For example, is it true or false, profound or trivial, helpful or harmful? Wayne's fundamental shift in interest from his own little world to Mrs. Walker's world is a healthy change that will lead eventually to his redemption.
4. New desire. Think about how this action reflects a change in what your character wants-either in the next scene or perhaps for the rest of the story. Short-term or long-term, briefly identify the new objective that results. In making the decision to woo Mrs. Walker, Wayne now wants to find out who she really is.
5. Personal impact. Identify one key way that the experience affects your character physically, psychologically, or socially. Wayne's interest in Mrs. Walker begins to make him more interesting and attractive to other people in his life.
6. Resulting event. Name one important event that this turning point causes-either next in the story or later on. This is a discovery, revelation, success, failure, or other experience that can be directly linked back to this turning point and occurs only because of it. Wayne will invite Mrs. Walker up to his room for dinner and end up spending the night with her.
7. New possibility. As an exercise, look for something completely new and identify another possible consequence of this turning-point actionsomething that could result either next in the story or later on. Try to find an event that could conceivably make sense for your particular character in your particular story, but is not actually there now. Take a creative leap and describe the new possibility. Wayne's affection for Mrs. Walker will prompt her to reveal her deepest secret: her son Bobby killed her husband Colonel Walker to put him out of his misery and is now serving a life sentence at San Quentin Prison.
8. Key short-term change. In summary, what is the most important shortterm change that occurs as a result of your character's turning-point action? Wayne becomes one who fights for what he wants instead of one who flees from what he doesn't want.
9. Key long-term change. In summary, what is the most important longterm change that occurs-directly or indirectly-as a result of your character's turning-point action? Wayne ends up in a meaningful relationship with Mrs. Walker.
WRAP-UP
Whether a turning point is something that happens to your character or something your character does, it has causes and effects worth exploring. Know how turning points arise and, for better or for worse, how they change the world of the story.
THE QUICK VERSION
Explore ways to build suspense in your story
BEST TIME FOR THIS
After you are well into story development
THE ART OF SUSPENSE
One of the functions of dramatic storytelling is to keep the audience in two places at once: the present and the future. This means that, as the audience participates in the "here and now" events of the story, they are also anticipating the possible outcomes of what they see. They are wondering what happens next. When this phenomenon occurs, the audience is in suspense.
Suspense is a critical element of not just thrillers but all dramatic stories. "Suspense" here refers to a state of being undecided or uncertain, and even in comedy is characterized by anxiety. If the audience is worried about what happens next, they are involved in the story. If they are not in a state of anticipation-a state of looking forward-you may have lost them, because they either don't care about the future of your characters or have already figured it out.
As Alfred Hitchcock pointed out in his interview with Francois Truffaut, suspense is different from surprise. When we are surprised, we had no idea what would happen. Something popped out of the blue and took us off guard. Surprise may produce an emotional reaction-perhaps a laugh or even a gasp-but lasts for only a moment. When we are in suspense, we have clues about how a situation may unfold, but cannot be sure of what the actual outcome will be. More than one outcome is possible, and we worry about which will occur. Suspense, unlike surprise, can last for a long time-even for the whole story, if handled properly.
To get involved and to anticipate outcomes, we need to know-or at least think we know-what the character is trying to accomplish here and now. This means that suspense is as much a product of knowledge as lack of knowledge. We believe we know what the character wants, but we don't know whether or not this objective will be achieved. Knowledge and lack of knowledge: both must be present for suspense.
Some of the questions that create suspense are small. They lead us, beat by beat, through the scene. Some of the questions are bigger. They lead us, scene by scene, through the story. Such questions tend to get answered soon after they are raised, so we keep gaining enough new knowledge to feel in on what's happening instead of shut out from it. One scene often answers a question raised by the previous scene.
In Tony Kushner's Angels in America, we are introduced to two men in an office. One is Roy Cohn, a powerful, ruthless lawyer juggling a barrage of demanding phone calls at his desk. The other is Joe Pitt, a Mormon who waits across the desk and manages to request that the shouting, cursing Cohn please not take the name of the Lord in vain. This scenario stirs up the question "Why are these two very different men together?"
The question is answered near the end of the scene: Roy has brought Joe here to offer him a big job in Washington with the Justice Department. This answer then raises a new question: "Will Joe accept the job and move to Washington?"This question, however, is not answered during the scene. Joe must think it over and talk with his wife first. Though a complete event has occurred-Joe gets a job offer-the scene ends in uncertainty. This leads us to wonder what will happen next, creates the need for another scene, and weaves a pattern of suspense where questions are answered as they are raised, and raised as they are answered.
Drama also creates suspense by stirring up a grand question that draws us in at the beginning and doesn't get answered until the end. This keeps us ever involved and looking forward with uncertainty. The grand question is what holds us in suspense during those small, quiet moments of the story. It is what keeps us from leaving at intermission or dozing off in our seats if we didn't like this scene or that. It is the big question always somewhere in the back of our minds waiting to be answered.
How will Hamlet avenge his father's mysterious death? What drives George and Martha to play dangerous games with people they've just met? How will George and Lennie ever make their dream of a rabbit farm come true? Grand questions like these keep us glued to our seats for hours if we empathize with the characters, know what they want, and worry about their destinies. We have both knowledge and lack of knowledge. We await the outcome. We watch in suspense.
ABOUT THE EXERCISE
This exercise asks you to think of your story as a series of questions and answers. You may need to find new material to complete some of the steps. Stay true to what you know about your story and take creative leaps from there. Examples are from A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams.
SUSPENSE AT THE STORY LEVEL
Think about the questions your story raises and how they do or don't get answered:
i. Grand question. Imagine your main character's dramatic journey as a question-not three questions, not two questions, but one question: a grand question. This is the biggest question that your story raises. Ideally, it is stirred up near the beginning of the story and never fully answered until the end. For example, the grand question might be "Will Blanche find a safe refuge in a cruel world?" Identify the grand question of your story.
2. Prompts. Suspense results from both knowledge and lack of knowledge. In order to ask a question, we must first acquire certain information. These are the facts that form part of a picture, but not all of it, and help us figure out what to ask. Such facts must be established as quickly as possible so that the suspense of the story can begin to build early on. Will Blanche find a safe refuge in a cruel world? To stir up this question, author Williams establishes the following facts about Blanche:
• She has entered a harsh
environment: a French Quarter where heat bakes everything in sight, prostitutes wait on corners, and the forlorn songs of flower women echo through the streets.
• She has arrived at a new home where she doesn't fit: her married sister's home is a small, shabby apartment with little room for a third.
• She is a desperate person who's not what she seems. When alone, Blanche rummages through the apartment to find liquor and down a strong belt. With Stella later, however, Blanche pretends she's not much of a drinker.
• She no longer has a home of her own. This is revealed when Blanche tells Stella that Belle Reve, their family estate, has been lost.
All of these facts are established in the opening two scenes of the play and lead us to form a question about this desperate, homeless woman finding herself in a harsh environment where her only shelter is an apartment with no room for her. What's she going to do? Will Blanche find a safe refuge in this cruel world? This is the grand question that the play has raised and will proceed to answer.
Think about your story and the grand question it raises. What knowledge do we need in order to begin asking this question? Identify at least three facts that are introduced early in the story to prompt the grand question and begin building suspense. State each fact simply and objectively.
3. Final answer. What is the final answer to the grand question of your story? This is the information that is not provided until the end. It is what we discover as a result of watching all of the story events unfold. Will Blanche find a safe refuge in a cruel world? The final answer is "Yes, but it's a mental asylum."
Think about the final answer to your grand question. If it is a complex question, the answer may be complex, too, as in Streetcar, where Blanche gets what she wants, but it's not what she expected. Identify the final answer to your grand question. Try to include a "but" qualification that deepens or colors its meaning.
4. Supporting evidence. Think about the final answer to your grand ques tion and the events that must occur before it can be answered logically and truthfully. In Streetcar, the final answer-"Yes, but it's a mental asylum"can be true only if Blanche has no other options. During the story, therefore, the following events will occur:
• Blanche will lose the only place she has left to stay: the home of Stanley and Stella. Blanche accomplishes this by alienating and then enraging Stanley. He wants her out of his home so badly he buys her a bus ticket himself.
• She will lose Mitch, her last hope for marriage and a home of her own. She accomplishes this by lying to Mitch about her age and tawdry past, and then getting Stanley angry enough to rat on her to Mitch.
• She will lose herself: the shreds of what's left of her ability to take care of herself. This happens when she is attacked by Stanley in the climactic scene and ends up with nothing left to rely on but the kindness of strangers.
Once developments like these have occurred, the final answer to the grand question of Streetcar becomes logical and truthful. Think about your main character's actions and what happens as a result of them. Name three of the most important events that must occur in the story to make the answer to your grand question logical and truthful. State each event simply and objectively.
SUSPENSE AT THE SCENIC LEVEL
Choose any one scene from your story for suspense analysis. You've already explored material from your early story, so, to avoid duplication, you might want to choose a later scene. The following examples are from scene g of Streetcar.
i. Scenic question. The grand question of your story breaks down into smaller but still important questions that move us from scene to scene and, within each scene, from beat to beat. In Streetcar, when Stanley informs Mitch that Blanche is not a genteel aristocrat but a prostitute fleeing a scandal, the question is raised "Will Blanche be able to keep Mitch now that he knows the truth?" This is the question that scene g will answer.
Ideally, your scene also addresses an important question that is triggered near the start of the scene or that has been raised previously-for example, a question that was left undecided or uncertain in the last scene. The current scene then goes about the task of answering this question. Think about what happens in your scene. Identify the most important question that it tackles and indicate when this question is raised: during the scene or before it.
2. Scenic answer. While the grand question isn't answered until the end of the story, the scenic- and beat-level questions get answered along the way while the audience is still involved in them. In Streetcar, it doesn't take Mitch long to act on the tawdry news about Blanche. Once the question is raised-"Will Blanche be able to keep Mitch now that he knows the truth?"-we are into the scene which answers it. A drunk Mitch comes to the apartment to confront her as a whore, hold a lightbulb to her face to see her true age, and break off the relationship in disgust. When the scene is over, the answer to the question is clear: "No, Blanche has lost Mitch forever." Think again about your scene and the main question it tackles. Write the answer that is shown to us by the scene.
3. Supporting evidence. When a scene tackles a question that has been raised earlier, certain events must occur during the scene to make the answer logical and truthful. Suppose the answer to the scenic question is: "No, Blanche has lost Mitch forever." To make the answer logical and truthful, the scene must show us certain events, such as:
• The truth must be aired. Mitch has to confront Blanche with the sordid details that he now knows about her.
• Mitch must destroy everything between them by treating Blanche like a whore and letting her know that they are finished.
• Blanche must do everything she can to win Mitch back and she must clearly fail.
These scenic developments show us that the answer to the question is true. The relationship between Blanche and Mitch is over, and there is no way it will ever be repaired. Think about the question and answer you just identified for the scene you are analyzing. Identify at least three things that must happen during the scene to make that answer logical and truthful.
4. New question. While a good scene tackles an important question and then answers it, suspense continues because during that answer a new question is raised. When the scene ends, something else is undecided or undetermined. As we witness the failure of the relationship between Mitch and Blanche, for example, we are left with a new question: "What will Blanche do with no hope for love?" This leads us to the next scene, where Blanche retreats into a mad world of fantasy with old fancy clothes from her trunk and ends up being raped by her sister's husband. What new question does your scene raise before it ends? Write the new question to show what is uncertain or undecided at the end of the scene.
WRAP-UP
You've begun to explore how you can use questions and answers to keep the audience engaged. Continue to think about the grand question that your story raises and the final answer it provides. Has the grand question been raised soon enough and clearly enough? Is it an interesting and meaningful question that will hold the audience in suspense for a whole story? Has the final answer been revealed as late as possible? Can it include something unexpected? Whether the answer is positive or negative, does it feel satisfactory for the type of story you are developing?
As you write the beats of the scenes, and the scenes of the story, keep the audience in suspense by giving them the information they need to ask smaller questions along the way. Don't make them wait too long for the answers. Does each scene address a question raised by an earlier scene? Does the scene end with something uncertain so that we want to see what happens next? Can the unanswered question at the end be more interesting? How and when does this question get answered?
THE QUICK VERSION
Use foreshadowing to strengthen your story's throughline
BEST TIME FOR THIS
Any time during story development
FIGURING OUT HOW AND WHY EVENTS FIT TOGETHER IN A SEQUENCE
In a horror movie, when a thunderstorm suddenly begins to rage, we know that trouble lies ahead
. If we are engaged in the story, we will now wait to see how and when that trouble occurs. While thunder and lightning have become cliches to foreshadow conflict, they illustrate part of a preparation process essential to the development of any type of dramatic story. This process has two basic steps: setup and payoff.
In some cases, such as the ominous thunderstorm, we understand the significance of the setup as it occurs. It's what shifts our attention forward and makes us worry about what will happen next. In other cases, we do not understand the significance of the setup until later. For example, a botanist sets out to find a rare flower that blooms only in moonlight in a faraway corner of the world. His search is successful but results in an animal attack that he survives without serious injury. Back home a month later, he begins to experience blackouts. A fortuneteller reveals that he bears the mark of a werewolf. This pronouncement is a payoff that makes us think back to the animal attack we saw earlier. We now realize that the attacker was a werewolf and understand how the fortuneteller's words could be true.
A setup that foreshadows conflict and shifts our attention forward, like the thunderstorm, is sometimes called a "pointer." A setup that later authenticates conflict and shifts our attention backward, like the exotic animal attack, is a "plant." Just as a pointer suggests that something might happen later, a plant tells us in retrospect that what's happening now is a believable development in the world of this story. In both cases, the setup is what makes the payoff work. More often than not, the payoff then becomes a setup for another payoff later.
Whether or not you view your story as suspenseful, you are probably creating a series of setups and payoffs as you develop the throughline. Such patterns are an instinctive part of figuring out how and why story events fit together in a sequence. You may benefit from becoming more aware of these preparation tactics and how they can add storytelling power to your script.