Where’s the tension?

One thing I encourage all writers to do, with every scene, regardless of genre, is this:

Make sure each scene has some central tension to it that the audience can feel.

That tension comes from a conflict or problem that a particular character is grappling with.

In other words, even on page one, ideally, “someone wants something, and there’s something in the way.”

But that alone is not enough…

Ideally that character is also doing something to try to resolve this. Which doesn’t instantly work.

What do we call that attempt, that conflict, and what instantly follows as they revise and “battle” in some way?

We call that a scene.

Okay, here comes a name drop:

I once worked with Sally Field who was directing an episode of the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon that I helped write.

She commented on a certain version of a scene that several of us were working on by saying, essentially, “That’s not a scene.” Or maybe she said, “Okay, yeah, but what’s the scene?”

Now it had a location with a scene heading. It had description and characters and dialogue in it. Those characters were talking to each other. And doing stuff. It had a beginning, middle and end, of sorts.

What it didn’t have, yet, was conflict. It didn’t have tension. It didn’t have someone wanting something, and something in the way, and a process to try to address that, which followed.

Many scenes in scripts I read have this same issue.

Characters are talking about something, doing something, observing something. Maybe they’re sharing opinions or other kinds of information. Or bonding as they get to know each other.

Oh the bonding. It can be deadly to show too much bonding. Audiences get bored, because they are essentially sadists. They can’t wait to get to the next problem and only care when someone has one that they’re trying to solve.

So usually in the best scripts that kind of happy or neutral stuff without strong “want pursuit” is kept to an absolute minimum. Things going well, people not conflicting, information being explored or shown, and anything without a clear problem and point-of-view. (Meaning it’s written in a way that focuses on the perspective, emotions and actions of that character who wants something.) We limit that, greatly.

You can get by with brief information exchange or things going well at the very beginning of a scene, before the conflict kicks in. Or brief interstitials between scenes. But if that’s the main thing that’s happening, over the course of a page or more? I think Sally Field would tell you that you don’t have a scene.

Aaron Sorkin would agree

Ever since I blogged about Aaron Sorkin’s “religion” of focusing on “intention and obstacle” in his writing, it’s become the blog post I share the most with people. Why?

Because it’s maybe the most basic and universally agreed-upon principle in dramatic (or comedic, or action, or thriller, etc.) writing: someone pursues a want and encounters difficulty. Then tries to deal with that.

But… it’s also not the way so many of the scenes and scripts I encounter work. So it’s the #1 thing I point out. The basic foundation to rewire one’s approach to writing around.

It took me a while to learn this myself. Quite a while. My early scripts “lacked conflict.” So I get it. There’s a lot we might want to do in a script, and a lot that’s appealed to us in others’ work that seems like the main event, the thing to focus on in writing.

In other words, it doesn’t jump out at us, initially, that virtually ever scene of everything we’ve ever loved has these core elements.

We notice other things about them and strive to do our own versions of those other things. All of which are important: good dialogue, distinct character voices, snappy description. Action and spectacle. Entertainment of one kind or another. Themes we want to explore. Being original. Being authentic.

I’m here to say all those things matter, but scripts and scenes tend to fall flat with professional readers (and audiences) if they aren’t powered underneath by a story and scene approach of “desire pursuit-obstacle-improvisation.”  Where said desire is clear to the audience and has relatably important stakes to the character pursuing it. This is what tends to make the reader/audience lean in, to be intrigued, and to care.

When a scene or section of a script (or movie or episode) seems slow, I think it’s almost always because there’s a lack of this. It doesn’t engage the audience because the desire/pursuit/conflict/adjustment mechanism isn’t keeping it moving forward.

Sometimes there are other issues with other of those elements mentioned above. Like it maybe doesn’t seem believable, or it’s confusing, or the dialogue is wooden, etc.

But first and foremost, as you conceptualize your stories and then break them (i.e. outline them scene by scene) I suggest that your intention is fixated primarily on this:

“Who is the main character here? What do they want and why is it important? What’s in the way? What do they do to try to solve that?” With each and every scene. 

And when you have a clear answer to all of that, it’s time to write that scene. Or move on to outlining the next one. I believe your stories regardless of genre will probably greatly benefit – as will your readers and audiences.