Last month I discussed five qualities to look for in scenes that are giving you trouble. Here are five additional traits your scenes should possess in order for them to have maximum dramatic effect.
6. The action and dialogue are not on the nose.
Subtlety and subtext will get you a lot further than melodrama and relying on the obvious. It is much more involving to watch characters trying to avoid telling the truth than to just sit back and observe them as they willingly reveal everything. Finding a way to have a character express love, hate, anger or joy by means of contrary action or indirection is more challenging for the writer but more rewarding for the reader and/or audience, because this is where true creativity really shines. You can get as much information across with a lie as with the truth, but the lie has more art to it. After all, fiction is just that -- fiction.
7. There is some kind of time pressure.
This does not have to be as dramatic as a ticking bomb, but there should be a logical beginning and ending point in time for the scene. If the scene could potentially go on endlessly, this dissipates its sense of urgency and importance. You can add a time constraint simply by shifting the location of a scene. For instance, one character could be waiting for a train or be late for a meeting.
8. There is friction in the scene.
Anything you can do to make the scene more difficult for the characters involved will raise the stakes and increase the tension. Friction can take many forms: characters with opposing goals; physical or emotional obstacles for the main character of the scene; reluctance or resistance of some kind on the part of the character; difficulty created by the environment, etc. It can even come via a character’s misperception -- seeing friction that is not really there. For example, near the end of LOVE AFFAIR (the movie on which AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER was based), Charles Boyer pays a call on Irene Dunne. He wants to sit next to her on the sofa, but she does not move her legs to give him room. We know that this is because she is crippled, but Boyer believes she is hinting that she wants him to leave. The simple dialogue of the scene therefore contains considerable tension, as we root for Boyer to figure out the truth while fearing he will grow so uncomfortable that he will finally walk out, ending their relationship forever.
9. There is comedy in the scene.
This does not need to be true for all scenes, of course, but if you have a scene that seems too dry, try adding a comic moment of some kind. This can be a bit of witty dialogue, a wry observation, or an odd, unexpected obstacle or twist. Dramas benefit from humor as much as comedies do. Even the most tragic events in life are often peppered with moments of irony.
10. The scene has a triangle in it.
Again, this is not necessary for every scene, but if the tension is sagging, adding a third point in an interchange between two characters increases the tension. This third point may be a character or an object. A third character can create trouble by taking one person’s side over the other, or by simply being in the way, making it more difficult for the interaction between the two central characters to proceed. An object could be a physical obstacle for one or both characters, or it could be something that binds the characters together against their will. In ON THE WATERFRONT, Marlon Brando is trying to woo the reluctant Eva Marie Saint during a conversation in a park. In order to keep her as a captive audience, he picks up one of her gloves; she can’t leave until she gets the glove back from him. This makes the scene infinitely more tense and interesting than it would have been if they had just sat down and talked.
As you can see, many of these scene elements overlap. The common denominator for all of them is that they give the scene an extra dimension, usually by increasing the tension. The richer your individual scenes are, the stronger your screenplay will be overall -- and the more likely it will be to impress a reader.
