2014 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 18

As noted in this recent post:

In May, it was 90s movies. In June, it has been 30 Days of Screenplays. What is that but the first two of three from that essential screenwriting mantra: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages.

Can you see where I’m going for July? That’s right: Write pages!

July is Scene-Writing Month here at Go Into The Story. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a prompt for writing a script scene. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. If you really want to get in the spirit of things, upload your scene here in the comments section of the original post. That way you can critique others’ pages and receive feedback on your scene as well.

Why scene-writing? Think about it: If the average scene is 1 1/2 to 2 pages long and a script is 100–120 pages, then a screenwriter writes between 50–80 scenes per screenplay. Thus in a very real way, screenwriting is scene-writing. The better we get at writing scenes, it stands to reason the better we get as a screenwriter.

Plus there’s this: To provide extra motivation for this series — to get people to WRITE PAGES — I am giving away some of my Core classes to Scene-Writing Challenge participants. That’s right: For free!

The Core curriculum provides a comprehensive, coherent, character-based approach to screenwriting theory, eight 1-week online classes. I only teach them once per year. Here is the schedule:

July 7 — Core I: Plot
July 21 — Core II: Concept
August 4 — Core III: Character
September 1 — Core IV: Style
September 15 — Core V: Dialogue
October 27 — Core VI: Scene
November 10 — Core VII: Theme
December 2 — Core VIII: Time

To qualify to take one Core class for free, write and submit ten [10] Scene-Writing Challenge posts. If you complete all twenty [20] Scene-Writing Challenge exercises, you get two Core classes for free.

You can choose any of the Core classes as your free gift.

That’s what I’m prepared to do to encourage you to write pages.

[Note: If you want to take Core I or Core II, which are scheduled for this month, I will hold those course sites open into August to allow you access to all of that content.]

A couple of logistical notes:

* Limit your scenes to 2 pages. First, most scenes are 2 pages or less in length. Second, out of fairness to everyone participating in the public scene-writing workshop, let’s not abuse anyone’s patience or time with really long scenes.

* Don’t be concerned about proper script format when you copy/paste your scene, rather the content and execution are the important thing. So as a default mode, do this: (1) Don’t worry about right-hand margins on scene description or dialogue, just keep typing until it manually shifts each line. (2) Don’t worry about character name position, rather do this:

SCARLETT: Rhett, Rhett... Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?RHETT: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

Today’s prompt: A scene with a cliffhanger.

One of the most basic goals we have as screenwriters is to keep the reader turning pages. Therefore the end of each scene is quite important because there is a jump that happens from one scene to the next. I like to think of those transitions as opportunities for a script reader to break out of story mode and start allowing their mind to think about errands, bills, parties, whatever chatter that is going on in the monkey part of their brain.

How to help sustain a reader’s interest in your story and making the jump with it to the next scene?

One thing you can do is end each scene with a cliffhanger.

Now I want you think of a cliffhanger as a scalable thing. It can literally be ending a scene with someone hanging from the edge of a cliff. Or it can be a conversation that ends badly and in an unresolved way. It can be an explosion whereby we don’t know the fate of the people involved. Or it can be a character sitting in a car, hand on the ignition… and we don’t know if they’re going to turn on the car and drive away or not.

So in today’s exercise, end your scene in a way so that you leave the reader hanging, compelling them to move to the next scene to find out what happens.

You can go anyway you want with this scene, but one key thing to look at is to get into the world view of each character. They will be separated by at least 6 decades. This represents a massive difference in their respective life experiences. See if you can find a hook there based on their age differences. Maybe a misunderstanding. Curiosity about each others’ life.

Finally be sure to pay attention to the way each talks. Clearly they will have a different language ‘library’ upon which to draw for their dialogue.

Write a 1–2 page scene, then copy/paste in comments.

Remember: If you are interested in qualifying for 1 or 2 free Core classes with me, please note the number of scenes you have written. If today is your first effort, note that it is Scene 1. The next one, Scene 2. If today is Scene 18, please note that. And so forth.

You are on an honor system, as I don’t have time to check every post, so do the right thing!

NOTE: If you have completed and posted 10 scenes, just email me to let me know which of the eight Core classes you’d like to take as my gift to you for your hard work!

NOTE: The Challenge ends on July 31st, meaning that is the last day I will accept scenes for credit toward free Core classes.

Finally, if you have what you think is a good suggestion for a scene-writing prompt, please post that as well.

It’s the 2014 Scene-Writing Challenge! Give a jolt to your creative and writing muscles… and win 1 or 2 free online classes with yours truly.

GOOD NEWS: To date, 14 writers have qualified for a free Core course and I have enrolled each of them. In fact, a few of them are enrolled in Core II: Concept which is running this week. How about you? 10 scenes = 1 Core course. 20 scenes = 2 Core courses.

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