September is Scene-Writing Month: Day 6

As noted in this post, September 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: If you are thinking about using the Go On Your Own Quest schedule to pound out a first draft of an original screenplay, FADE IN is fast approaching — October 21 to be precise. What better way to get your writing muscles moving than a series of scene-writing exercises.

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.

* I’m sure someone will post a way for you to write scenes and upload them so they maintain proper script format, but that isn’t a big deal to me. 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: Write a scene that ends with a cliffhanger.

Per Wikipedia:

A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction. A cliffhanger is hoped to ensure the audience will return to see how the characters resolve the dilemma.

A little cinema history lesson. Back in the very beginning of what came to be called the movie business, filmmakers had to deal with the issue of changing reels. Typically there was one projector and one projectionist. A reel could hold anywhere from 10–15 minutes of film stock. So as movies grew in length, there were 3, 4, 5 or more reel changes. Each took a few minutes for the projectionist to remove one reel, load another, thread through the film, line it up, then restart the projector.

Obviously each reel change created a dilemma for filmmakers because they represented disruptions in the story. What did they do? They started writing in cliffhangers at the end of each reel, thus while the projectionist swapped reels, the audience could buzz amongst themselves about what was going to possibly happen, how could the hero get out of that trap, is the heroine really going to die, and so on.

We see this today in commercial television where the end of every act has some sort of open-ended situation, from puzzling to mysterious, uncertain to dangerous, to keep the viewer from flipping channels during commercials.

Therefore it behooves a writer to know how to end a scene that keeps a reader flipping pages. And one surefire way to do that is by ending a scene with a cliffhanger.

So write a scene up to 2 pages long in which you craft a scene ending with a cliffhanger.

Post your scene in comments for feedback.

If you don’t feel comfortable uploading your scenes, that’s okay. I encourage you to do the exercise privately. Let’s face it: Any writing is better than no writing.

To learn more about Go On Your Own Quest, go here.

Also The Black Board is joining in with National Sketch Writing Month, so if you’re a comedy writer and want to check that out, you can go here.

Tomorrow: Come back for another scene-writing prompt.

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