How to Write a Scene: Part 2

So yesterday, I blogged about the fact that at a fundamental level, screenwriting is scene-writing. What emerged in the post and comments is a kind of checklist to use when crafting a scene.

That brought to mind an interesting thread of events involving screenwriter John August. In 2007, John posted this on his blog:

One of the thing I admire most about Jane Espenson’s blog is that she talks very directly about the words on the page, giving names to techniques I use but never really think about. The two-percenter, for example.

So one of my goals for 2007 is to get a little more granular in my advice-giving, and talk less about Screenwriting and more about screenwriting — in particular, scene writing.

Spend a few years as a screenwriter, and writing a scene becomes an almost unconscious process. It’s like driving a car. Most of us don’t think about the ignition and the pedals and the turn signals — but we used to, back when we were learning. It used to flummox the hell out of us. Every intersection was unbelievably stressful, with worries of stalling the car and/or killing everyone on board.

It’s the same with writing a scene. The first few are brutal and clumsy. But once you’ve written (and rewritten) say, 500 scenes, the individual steps sort of vanish. But they’re still there, under the surface. It’s just that your instinct is making a lot of the decisions your conscious brain used to handle.

So here’s my attempt to introspect and describe what I’m doing that I’m not even aware I’m doing. Here’s How to Write a Scene.

Which led to this, an infographic. But that resulted in this:

Both versions are useful. The blog post is detailed; the infographic is handy. But screenwriter Zak Penn asked for something in-between:

Can you send me PDF of your scene writing checklist? Want to use when I speak to students, thought it was excellent.

It’s a good idea. So here’s the original post, slightly edited and reformatted to fit onto two pages you can print or email.

To wit, here it is:

And you can download a PDF of the infographic here.

So another checklist, this one from a renowned Hollywood screenwriter. Which of these questions and scene-writing tips resonate most with you?

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