Writers all have scenes they love to write and scenes they find challenging to write. I love writing and find that my stories are usually very clear in my mind before I sit down and start typing. The one exception to this is what I’ll call “the ensemble scene.” These give me fits.
An ensemble piece in film or theatre is a scene or an entire play/film which has a number of stars instead of just one. Typically, it features individual stories which weave together to make a collective whole. A good analogy would be looking into a cut gem – each facet will provide a different view of the gem and by considering them all, we have a better understanding of the whole. Or there’s that old story of the three blind men and the elephant – taking their (mistaken) conclusions together, we see the whole of the creature they’re exploring and the truth that evades each of them individually.
What I mean by an ensemble scene (a term concocted by me) is a scene in which there are many characters, more than just two. Each character in such a scene has his or her own voice, perspective, agenda, character and character arc. Each character must contribute to the forward movement of the plot, but do so in a characteristic way. The scene may or may not be pivotal to the development of each character’s character arc – but it will change the perspective of at least one of them.
These scenes are powerful when they work, but getting them to work is by no means a gimme. The characterizations need to be more than two-dimensional for the supporting characters to be plausible. Each needs to say something or do something – otherwise he or she should simply be cut from the scene. And there is always the gloss of the perspective of the POV character to be maintained throughout.
It’s a feat in stage management, and lighting. Juggling would be another analogy. (Juggling knives!)
I suspect that these scenes are challenging for me because there’s a great deal of detail and direction to just keep in my head. I tend not to make detailed notes ahead of time when I write, but simply compose the scene in my thoughts as it falls from my fingertips. Dialogue is comparatively easy for me to write between two people – I keep their perspectives and goals in my thoughts as they banter, argue and cajole.
This week, however, I’m stage managing six characters in one scene. They need to argue, compare data, confess details and make a plan, all in one scene. It is tempting to kill off a couple of them, or send them on a mission elsewhere, but they really do all need to be in this particular scene.
I seem to end up with a lot of these scenes in my books (a hazard of writing linked books) so over the years, I’ve come up with a way to handle them. What I will do first is make a chart, listing the characters in a column at the left. I’ll make more columns to list the defining characteristic of each, another trait that only comes out under duress, the data each holds, a secret and an agenda. If I then draw a line on a separate piece of paper, indicating the beginning point of the scene (confusion, dismay) and its end point (the plan), I’ll be able to itemize the steps that lead to the development of the plan. Then I’ll check what those characters know and can contribute to the discussion, and maybe tweak their data. I’ll number the confessions that affect the direction of the scene – in order of revelation – then work through my chart as I write, giving each appropriate lines of dialogue.
The first cut will get me to the result, but it won’t be pretty. One thing that’s distinctive about these kinds of scenes for me is how much I have to revise and tweak them. I’ll probably edit it twenty times before I’m happy with it, but that chart is always the key to getting started.
Are there particular kinds of scenes you dislike writing? Do you have any tricks to get them down on the page – or at least to get started on composing them?
Deborah Cooke: Author 