How to Write a Brilliant Novel: The Easy Step-By-Step Method of Crafting a Powerful Story (Go! Write Something Brilliant) (12 page)

The disaster can be found by asking the following questions:

1. What
   is
   the
   worst
   thing, externally, (circumstance
   or physically) that
   could happen to my character?
   
2. What is my character’s worst fear at the
   moment?
   
3. What is the worst information my character can receive right now?
   
4. What is the worst trouble my character can get into in this scene? Raise the stakes so that they are further from their overall
   goals.
   
5. Have
   I
   set
   up
   the
   danger
   for
   the
   readers
   before
   the
   scene
   begins?
   (Unexpected, yet plausible)
   
6. Have I made my reader
   care
   about my character? Can they sympathize? (Spell out the stakes often enough so the reader
   worries!)
   

To sum up, an Action Scene is an active event where there is a GOAL, a CONFLICT, and a DISASTER. Ideally, at the end of the Action scene, your character should be faced with a choice of some kind, some dilemma they have to solve.

A
ReAction
scene happens after an Action Scene. It can be short, and might be the beginning of another Action Scene, or a separate ReAction Scene. A ReAction Scene uses the information and events of the previous Action Scene and has three components: Response, Dilemma, Decision.

1. Response
   –
   The
   emotional
   and
   physical
   follow
   through
   to
   a
   disaster.
   You
   need
   to
   give your readers time to deal with the ramifications of what has just occurred in the scene. Your character must process their current state. Often it helps if they can also reiterate the stakes and what their motivations are. Make your character then
   take stock of his situation, and look at his . .
   .
   
2. Dilemma
   –
   This is
   the
   place where
   there
   are no good options,
   and gives the
   reader and the character the chance to worry and think through the what-ifs. First, they take
   a
   look
   at
   their
   options,
   and
   state
   their
   DILEMMA.
   Then,
   they’ll
   look
   at
   their choices. Should our hero pursue the prize, or return to the life he knows? Should Frodo
   give
   up the
   ring to
   the
   able-bodied
   Elves,
   or
   carry
   it
   himself
   to
   Mt.
   Doom? Stating the Dilemma and the
   choices,
   as
   well as the
   motivations
   for each,
   helps
   the reader get inside the mind of the main character and carry the burdens with him. Eventually,
   the
   character
   will
   come
   up
   with
   the
   least-horrible
   choice, in
   his
   opinion. Which leads him to a . .
   .
   
3. Decision
   --
   The
   act
   of
   making
   a
   choice
   between
   several
   options.
   Your
   character
   must have
   sufficient
   motivation
   for
   his
   Decision,
   and
   of
   course,
   it
   must
   contain
   some
   risk. But
   if he
   should succeed, there
   must
   also be
   adequate
   rewards. He
   establishes
   a new
   goal, one based on his values and his motivations, and most of all, his Noble Cause. It’s important that your character make the Decision for himself. We don’t like wishy-washy characters. But make the Decision something that makes sense to the reader, one they can agree with, or at least respect. And make it risky, but something that
   might
   work. Then your reader will be invested and turn the page. Once the decision is made, then he moves forward.
   

And now, you’re back to an Action Scene, which is why it’s such a powerful tool in creating a page turner. A fast-paced story will have ReAction Scenes cut down to the bone. A longer story will draw them out. But they do need to be there, or the reader will forget
why
they’re on the journey at all.

For each character, for each story thread, there should be interlacing Action and ReAction Scenes. Some clients have asked me: Does every Action Scene have to be immediately followed by a Reaction Scene? Not necessarily, if the Action Scenes are fast, and tumbling over each other. But at some point, the reader and hero must stop and gather their horses, count their ammo, and figure out what to do next.

A Note about Point of View.

Point of View (POV) is the perspective or viewpoint of your narrating character. The trend now is to have
one
point of view per Action/ReAction scene (not necessarily per chapter). You can separate them out by leaving line breaks or asterisks between the scenes.

For example, Chapter One might look like this:

Action Scene 1 – Your Hero in his Inciting Incident, written from his POV. Action Scene 2 – Your Heroine, in her Inciting Incident, written from her POV.

Reaction Scene 1 – Your Hero, responding to Action Scene 1 (and possibly Scene 2 if they are together) written from his POV.

Chapter Two might open with: A shortReAction Scene that segues into an Action Scene from the Heroine’s POV.

I know you’re saying, “What? Wait!” A ReAction and then Action . . . POV . . . I’m so confused. Stay with me here .I know this is confusing, so I’m going to help. I gave you all that information above so you know
what
you’re doing. We’ll cover POV in more detail later on. But, fleshing it out is really simple, I promise.

Here’s how the streamlined Action/ReAction
works:

As you enter the scene, regardless of the kind of scene (Action or ReAction), you need to set it up so the reader can keep up with what is in your head:

Start
with
Setting
(we’ll
get
to
that
in
the
next
section)
and
the
Current
State
of
Affairs
(Response and Dilemma).

Then establish the
Goals
(or Decision) of the scene. What does your character
hope to accomplish? Of course, sometimes
the
character doesn’t even
know,but you, as
the author, do know, and you want to hint at the
goal.

For example, a woman comes home from her husband’s funeral. At the beginning of the scene, as the author, you might say something like:

“Of course, he’d left her with nothing but a giant mortgage, a three-year-old, and a fixer-up list that could wallpaper her cold bedroom.” Her goal might be to just go upstairs and climb into bed, and maybe never emerge. She doesn’t know that the purpose of the scene is to find his secret will that’s hidden under the mattress. No, her goal is to just to go upstairs and deal with her emotions. And then she gets so upset she rips all the sheets off the bed— revealing the envelope containing the will. If you establish these goals at the beginning of the scene, it sets up the elements you can use to cause conflict and create the disaster- ending scene.

Don’t forget to fortify the
Motivations
of your character’s action and decisions. A woman who has a houseful of guests after a funeral probably isn’t going to go to bed.
But
, after her mother-in-law says something terribly harsh (and especially if they have a bad relationship), she might go
hide
in her room. And have a bit of an emotional breakdown. Establish the motivations for every action/decision. That’s the end of the ReAction portion of your scene.

Then you move into the Action portion of the scene. You’ll have conflict, played out in dialogue and action, and you’ll end with a new
disaster.

Here’s a quick example from my thriller
Wiser than Serpents
(http://www.susanmaywarren.com/B_WiserthanSerpents.html), where undercover agent Yanna is hunting for her kidnapped sister, and David, undercover Delta force operative/man who loves her, who didn’t know she was mixed up in this until this very moment, esca
pe from Kwan, Yanna’s captor.

[Start scene]

[Setting, and Current State of Affairs, goals e.g. the ReAction drawn from the previous scene.]

Think, Yanna, think!
Yanna stared up at David, at the horror on his face as he clutched her stupid little knife, and her brain went blank. Aside from being exactly the last scenario she would have conjured up for meeting David again, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that right now his brain was checking out every possible egress route from the tiny boat cabin, every possible angle where he wouldn’t have to blow his cover to save her life.

And p
robably coming up empty.

[Motivation for decision/action]

Contrary to current appearances, Yanna made her living using her brain and solving problems. And from her viewpoint, David had only one option.

Kill her, or be killed.

And, neither of those seemed acceptable. At least, not to her.

[Starting the Action!]

Yanna caught eyes with David.
And then, with everything inside her, she kicked out at Kwan’s gun hand.1

[End scene]

We’ll return to this passage later, as we build the other elements of a scene, but hopefully you get the rhythm. It contains a short ReAction, because the book is a fast-paced thriller.

“But I don’t write thrillers!”

No problem.
Here’s a non-thriller scene, with a longer beginning
ReAction.

This excerpt is from
Finding Stefanie
. Gideon is a subplot character who wakes up in Stefanie’s house after a horrible event. He’s eighteen and on the run with his two kid sisters.

[Start scene]

[Setting and Hook]

He’d died and gone to paradise. Only, Gideon knew he didn’t deserve paradise, so perhaps this was simply a dream. Or maybe just an old west movie, because everything about this place screamed cowboys and horses and an episode of one of those ancient
Lone Ranger
shows. From the warm, dry single bed, with the wool red and black checkered blanket, to the bull riding posters on the walls, the trophies lining the dresser, a coiled rope hung on the bedpost of the other single bed, to more trophies on the opposite dresser.

Whoever had lived here had “overachiever” written all over them. Still, Gideon lay in the bed, rested for the first time in – he did the mental math and couldn’t re
member the last time he hadn’t slept with one eye open, waiting for the nightmares, both real and imagined.

[State of Current Affairs, Response]

No nightmares last night. Except, of course, the big one – the fact that he’d burned down the house of mega-rich, mega-star Lincoln Cash. Yes, that should make the news and send the cops running in his direction. Apparently, he still had the knack for knowing how to really blow it, and big. Gideon’s eyes had nearly fallen from his sockets when he’d seen the movie star walk up – in fact, he would have considered brain-altering smoke inhalation before he believed that Lincoln Cash owned the house he’d commandeered, and by accessory, incinerated. But Stefanie Noble – she introduced herself and her big brother Nick, the guy who had probably saved his life, when they reached their ranch – had no problem identifying the actor.

[Motivation]

[Text Copyright © 2008 by Susan May Warren, Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books
S.A.]

He wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve Stefanie Noble’s loaded shotgun defense – he’d expected to be led off in handcuffs, right back to juvie hall. He made a mental note never to cross Stefanie Noble.

Although it felt good, way too good, to have someone on his side.

[Goals,
Decision
–
Gideon
wants
to
make
sure
everyone
is
okay,
and
then
keep
moving
with his
sisters.
The
last
thing
he
wants
is
to
get
caught
and
have
them
go
back
to
foster
care.]

Especially when she offered him a place to stay, as much as he hated to say yes. But Haley and Macy needed some place warm. One night, he’d told himself. One safe, quiet night. And tomorrow he’d hike back to the ranch, fetch the Impala, pile hi
s sisters inside, and head…somewhere.