Yesterday I completed another scene/chapter, this time 1953 words. Over Thursday and Saturday, I spent a combined time of about 2 hours combining my initial dictation for the scene. Today I have put together the basic planning for the next 2 scenes. I’m working with an outline for the entire story, and know what each of my individual scenes are, but before I write them I need to put some more meat on the bone.

I’ve been using the following structure that I borrowed from Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody and combining it with some scene questions that I have taken from Fool Proof Outlining by Christopher Downing. Both are fantastic books and Fool Proof Outlining has the advantage of giving you a Scrivener Template to work with. It’s also been designed to work with dictation.

1 sentence scene summary, incl. POV’s objective

SCENE BASICS

WHO WAS THE POV CHARACTER?

WHAT WAS POV DOING AT THE BEGINNING?

WHAT DID POV NEED?

LIST THE OTHER CHARACTERS IN THE SCENE, ALONG WITH THEIR WANTS DURING THE SCENE?

WHO OR WHAT OBSTRUCTED POV’S NEED?

LIST THE TIMES THIS HAPPENS:

WHAT WAS THE MOMENT & EMOTION OF PEAK INTENSITY?

WHAT CONCERNS WERE RAISED BY THE END?

WHAT WAS POV DOING AT THE END, SHOWING THAT CONCERN?

SCENE PLAY-BY-PLAY #1

LIST THE MAJOR ACTION BEATS:

• SETUP: 
• An introduction to the scene, giving us a small bit of information about who the character is and where they are (literally and metaphorically) at this moment of the story.
• CATALYST: 
• Something that happens to send the scene in a new direction (even if it’s just a slight shift). Sometimes this is just a question that’s asked, or a goal/situation/opportunity that’s presented to the character.
• DEBATE: 
• not necessarily
• BREAK INTO 2: 
• A decision or active step that a character makes in the scene usually in an effort to answer the Catalyst question or pursue the Catalyst goal/situation/opportunity. (Note: this can be as simple as wanting to get someone off the phone and go back to sleep, like in the example above.)
• FUN AND GAMES: 
• not necessarily
• MIDPOINT: 
• A moment in which the character feels like they’re succeeding or failing in the above mentioned goal/situation/opportunity (False Victory/False Defeat), AND some kind of twist that sends the scene in another direction or raises the stakes of the scene.
• BAD GUYS CLOSE IN: 
• not necessarily
• ALL IS LOST: 
• A low point in the scene, usually coming with a sense of defeat or failure, or another turning point/twist.
• DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL: 
• not necessarily
• BREAK INTO 3: 
• Possibly another active step that will catapult the character and the reader into the next scene (Note: This beat can also come at the start of the next scene/chapter as the new Setup.)

SETTING

BRAINSTORM VIVID DETAILS THAT SHOW TIME, PLACE, WEATHER, & CULTURE FROM POV’S PERSPECTIVE:

LIST AT LEAST FEW MOMENTS WHEN POV PHYSICALLY INTERACTED WITH THE ENVIRONMENT:

WHAT SETTING DETAILS MIRRORED THE TENSION AND/OR THEME?

WHAT OBJECTS REVEALED DETAILS ABOUT PLOT & CHARACTER?

LIST A FEW MUNDANE DETAILS THAT ENGAGED POV’S SENSES, CREATING A SENSE OF REALISM:

CHARACTERS & PLOT

HOW DID POV ACTIVELY MOVE THE PLOT FORWARD?

LIST SPECIFIC VISCERAL/SOMATIC RESPONSES TO EMOTIONS OR ACTIONS, ESPECIALLY FOR THE MOMENT OF PEAK INTENSITY:

HOW DID POV’S CHARACTER FLAW SHOW UP?

HOW WAS POV FORCED TO REEVALUATE OR CHANGE?

DRAMATIC TENSION

HOW DID DANGER OR DEMISE LOOM (PHYSICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, OR PROFESSIONAL)?

BRAINSTORM AT LEAST TWO UNEXPECTED WAYS TO SHOW TENSION IN THE SCENE:

EXTRA STUFF

WHAT OPENING HOOK LURED POV (AND READER) DEEPER INTO THE SCENE?

WHAT WAS THE PROMPT TO THE NEXT SCENE?

WHAT FASCINATING IDEA, FACT, OR EVENT WAS TEASED TO COME LATER, EVEN SUBTLY?

WHAT SPECIFIC ACTIONS FURTHERED SUBPLOTS, W/O BEING MERE EXPOSITION OR AN INFO-DUMP?

WHAT WAS THE UNEXPLAINED, UNEXPECTED EVENT, ACTION, OR ITEM THAT WILL SURPRISE THE READER?

HOW WAS THE THEME CHALLENGED OR CHAMPIONED?

I plan out my scene (sometimes with pen and paper to break things up), dictate multiple drafts of it using Dragon, sometimes breaking the actual scene into separate dictation sessions, often whilst mobile and using a dictaphone and headset, and then combine the drafts in word. I use ProWritingAid to give it a quick check over for basic grammar and any other help it might give (I try not to spend too much time on this as I can always do it when completed, but I still run through the entire scene which can take longer than you might think it should), and then copy it into Scrivener so that my final first draft is all in one place.

However, the one thing I have started to cut out is all of the setting and extra information in the above. I found 2 things with this, (1) I take ages to go through them all and it allows me to procrastinate more, and (2) I write more naturally and with more flow if I’m not always checking notes etc and putting them into the writing. Logically I think it should improve my writing, but only if I can hold it in the back of my mind whilst writing, so it becomes a natural part of what I’m writing.