The Scene, Part ii: turning point complication
Can you consistently write page-turning scenes? Or do you find yourself reading one of your scenes and wondering why it doesn’t work, and how to fix it? Do you need some simple tools to help you determine which scenes work and which don’t?
The good news is that those tools do exist and the same tools that help you write scenes can help you fix the troubled scenes. In this article, we’ll look at the basic components of a good scene, and take a closer look at one of those critical tools, the turning point complication.
Why do turning point complications matter?
Without a turning point complication, your scene won’t work. No matter how interesting your overall plot is, how beautifully crafted your line-by-line writing is, or how clever your story idea is, a turning point complication is necessary.
But before we get into the specifics about the turning point complication, let’s do a quick overview of the basic scene structure so you can see where the turning point complication fits into the broader construction of a scene.
There are seven essential elements in a scene.
Without any one of them, your scene will fall short of reader expectations. Every working scene contains these seven elements. Professional editors use these seven elements to check your scenes and construct useful feedback for you as a writer. “Here’s what’s missing…, what’s excessive…, and here are the elements you need to maximize the readers’ enjoyment of your scene….”
Let’s further define what we’re referring to as a scene.
A working scene is a basic story unit in which something happens that changes the character or their situation from one state to another.
What happens is the first element of a scene, what we call the story event.
How the character changes is the second component of a scene, the character change.
In addition, both the story event and character change must specifically connect to your overall story arc and Story Type. (For examples of these states of change, story events, and for the difference between a scene and a chapter, please check out our online scene workshop where we’ll cover writing and editing scenes in detail and respond to your questions. There is a lot more to know about scenes than what we can cover in a blog post.)
We still have five of the seven elements of a scene to cover. These five happen within a scene and in the following order:
Turning point complication
Crisis
Climax
Resolution
We’re focusing on the turning point complication in this article. If you’d like to learn more about the other six components and see examples of them, go ahead and check out our scene workshop.
To take a deeper look at turning point complications, we need to examine complications within a scene.
At least one complication must lie in the path between the character and what they want.
Complications can be obstacles or opportunities. (Good for the character or bad. )
The job of the complications is to apply pressure on the character to forward the story, and to keep the action moving. Something must happen to your character that forces them to face a crisis choice.
If you have more than one complication in a scene, the complications need to mount, or progress, until they force the character into a choice that makes them change direction. This is what we mean when we talk about a scene turning. It’s the turning point complication.
While the variety of turning point complications in scenes is endless,
here are some examples presented by Story Type:
Action Story (primarily focused on adventure, revenge, escape, saving a victim, safety and danger, or life and death)
The villain directly challenges the protagonist. Ex. “Draw your sword.”
An unlikable victim asks for help in a high-stakes situation. Ex. The victim is being dragged away by the villain: “Please?”
An ally opposes the protagonist’s idea for a solution. Ex. The ally throws the important keys out the window.
Worldview Story (primarily focused on issues of maturation, coming of age, taking responsibility, or becoming wiser and less naive)
A character provides new and important information to the protagonist. Ex. The character’s mother ushers her to sit down as she says, “You weren’t adopted, you were stolen.”
A character asks the protagonist a difficult question. Ex. “Do you believe me?”
The protagonist discovers a risky opportunity. Ex. The character’s best friend wakes him from a deep sleep by saying, “We must keep what happened at dinner a secret.”
Love Story (primarily focused on familial love, friendship, marriage, or courtship)
A lover gives the other lover devastating news. Ex. “I don’t want to see you anymore.”
A character intervenes between two lovers. Ex. “See him again and you’ll never see a dime of our family’s money.”
A character makes an unexpected sexual advance. Ex. She leans in to kiss him.
We hope this focus on the turning point complication in scenes has better prepared you to write and edit your scenes.
For more on writing scenes, please check out our scene workshop where my colleague, Anne Hawley, and I will illuminate what makes a great scene using movie clips, examples of master scenes, and analyses of scenes that need work. You’ll learn how to analyze a scene and get practical and applicable tips for diagnosing and editing your scenes. There will be plenty of time in each session for questions and responses. As an addition to the course, you’ll have the option to choose me or Anne to analyze one of your scenes.
WRITE BETTER SCENES FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE WITH OUR LIVE ONLINE WORKSHOP
Let Anne Hawley and Rachelle Ramirez show you the practical steps it takes to write amazing scenes that will have readers hungry to turn the page. This live online workshop will take place February 7-9.