| All fiction is
made up of scenes that show the story happening.
These are connected together with transitions—a few
words or sentences that tell how much time has passed since the last
scene as well as where the main character is now. |
| Each scene
needs to have ALL the following things before the writer leaves that
scene and goes to a new one: |
 | Someone at
the center—the main
character, through whose heart and mind the story is told. |
|
| Emotion—what
the main character is feeling, and often this changes from the beginning
to the end of the scene. |
|
| Setting—a
sense of where the main character is.
Choose a few sensory details (smells, tastes, sounds,
sights) that show the specific place. |
|
| Action—what
is happening! The main
character must be doing something in each scene.
Doing includes thinking and talking, as well
as more active things. |
|
| Dialogue—talking!
Sometimes the main character can talk to himself, but mostly each
scene should involve the main character with another character, and the
two should talk. |
|
|
What do they talk about and why is dialogue so
important?
|
Dialogue provides information.
This counts as “showing” instead of telling the information
you want your reader to know.
|
|
Dialogue helps show what the character is like.
You can tell a lot about a person by what he says and how he says
it—e.g., is he funny? Mean?
Generous? Forgiving?
Nervous?
|
|
Dialogue can help describe a place.
|
|
Dialogue can briefly tell was has happened in the past—things
the reader needs to know. Here
again, this form of telling information counts as “showing.” |
|
| The main
character must change in some
way because of new information he has learned or because of new
situations he has lived through. |
|
