3 Ways to Supercharge Your Scenes

Have you ever read a novel where every scene compelled you to keep reading late into the night? 

Have you ever realized that your book could do the same thing if you apply three simple tools to it?

Today, we’re taking another break from our Character House series to discuss three ways to make sure every scene is compelling and purposeful. That means we’re going to dive into one of my favorite subjects in creative writing: scene structure!

The Secret to Storytelling

You might have heard that every scene needs conflict. This advice is a great place to start. But even when your story includes arguments, sword fights, or car chases, it might still feel stagnant. By contrast, some novels don’t include much “action” but still contain gripping scenes. 

Stories don’t require fighting, battles, or chase scenes. Rather, stories require change. Characters progress from lonely to together; villages progress from ravaged to recovering; missions progress from urgent to complete.

The following three tools will help you make sure every scene contains a meaningful change that propels your story forward. Get ready to supercharge your scenes!

1. Value Changes

What are value changes?

A value change is a change that occurs from the beginning to the end of a scene. During a scene, a character might go from unaware to aware, hopeful to hopeless, uncertain to confident, or troubled to peaceful.

According to author and professor Daniel Schwabauer, every scene needs to show the character learning something, making a decision, or facing an obstacle. This value change should result directly from the events of the scene.

Why use value changes?

Value changes can help you avoid purposeless scenes. If every scene includes an important change, you’ll never have a scene that ends in the same place it started!

Value changes can also create compelling chapter endings. At the end of an argument scene, one character might storm away, representing the value change of friends to enemies.

2. Emotional Tone Changes

What are emotional tone changes?

In his famous screenwriting book, Save the Cat!, Blake Snyder explains that each scene should have an emotional tone change. 

• In a positive to negative scene (+ / -), the character starts the scene with a positive emotion, but the events of the scene cause the character to end with a negative emotion. 
• In a negative to positive scene (- / +), the character starts the scene with a negative emotion, but the events of the scene cause the character to end with a positive emotion. 

Why use emotional tone changes?

Emotional tone changes create contrast. A character might hope to win a canoeing competition, but the chapter ends with the character’s miserable last-place finish. This juxtaposition of hope and despair creates more emotion than a chapter that starts and ends with bland indifference.

Similarly, emotional tone changes prevent predictability. The character expects A, but B happens instead. Victor hopes to find an important letter in a tunnel, but he gets cornered by soldiers instead. Chloe thinks her father will never understand her, but she’s able to reconcile with him instead. These surprises keep readers engaged. 

3. DOOR

Before we begin this section, here are some definitions. A story goal is the goal that the characters are trying to achieve throughout the story—overthrowing a villain, rebuilding a relationship, surviving the jungle, starting a restaurant, delivering a message, etc. 

By contrast, a scene goal is the goal that a character wants to achieve within a single scene. The story goal of surviving the jungle might involve smaller goals, such as finding food, escaping quicksand, fleeing a tiger, or crossing a raging river. These scene goals are small steps in the direction of the overall story goal.

What is DOOR?

Scene structure can be described with the acronym DOOR (Decision, Objective, Obstacle, Reaction). 

1. The character makes a Decision with the goal of achieving a particular Objective (scene goal).
2. However, an Obstacle stands in the character’s way. Obstacles come in two basic forms: Does the character achieve the objective? Either (A) yes, but achieving the goal carries an unforeseen cost, or (B) no, and another conflict arises. 
3. The character Reacts to the obstacle and makes a new Decision, which begins the cycle again.

Suppose a character named Tim is trying to survive being lost in the jungle. As the sun sets, Tim makes a Decision to build a fire, so his Objective is to find dry wood. Does Tim accomplish this goal? Yes, but he has no food to cook (Obstacle). Tim Reacts by considering his options, and he makes another Decision to hunt small animals for food. His new Objective is to hunt a rabbit for a meal. Does he accomplish this scene goal? No, and he twists his ankle in a patch of mushy sand (Obstacle). Tim must React to this obstacle and make a new Decision.

The DOOR cycle repeats throughout the novel, forcing the character to face progressively more difficult conflicts.

Why use DOOR?

DOOR can help you brainstorm plot twists. The answer to the question “Does the character achieve the scene goal?” is never simply yes or no. Rather, if the character achieves the scene goal, victory comes with a cost (yes, but). If the character doesn’t achieve the scene goal, the failure introduces an additional obstacle (no, and).

The DOOR tool also ensures that characters’ decisions follow naturally from previous events. They’re not just doing things because the plot needs them to; they’re reacting logically to their experiences.

Making Every Scene Matter

The tools of value changes, emotional tone changes, and DOOR can help you construct emotional and engaging scenes. Value changes make every scene matter, emotional tone changes make the readers feel the changes, and DOOR progresses the story through decisions, objectives, obstacles, and reactions.

All three of these tools share one common factor: they’re all about change. Shifting values, emotions, and obstacles shape the characters and story world, leaving readers transformed as well.

And that’s the goal of a good story. 

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What tools do you use to make your scenes purposeful?

You May Also Like

• The Character House, Pt. 13: 3 Ways to Build a Character House
• The Character House, Pt. 12: The 5 Stages of a Moving Character Arc
• The Character House, Pt. 11: Roof and Personality Traits
• The Character House, Pt. 10: Emotions and Home Utilities
• The Character House, Pt. 9: The Windows of Voice and Vulnerability