Static Scenes that still Move the Story Forward
I've just read a tutorial about scenic techniques in novel-writing that recommends that a story should have a rhythm of static scenes and dramatic scenes. Here's an excerpt:
Dramatic scenes are tense and often eventful; something happens – a murder, a car chase, a demand for divorce. But dramatic scenes are not always sensational. They may explore subtle conflict or muted emotion, so that nothing ‘happens’ but everything is highly charged.
Static scenes contain more ordinary and restful moments, the lulls that occur before or after tension. But static scenes are not frozen like paintings. They should never stall the story or just fill in the moments between events. Their function is to provide verisimilitude and tension release.
The gist is that a novel writer should alternate between dramatic and static scenes to protect the wider story from being either too melodramatic or too dull/cosy.
On an intellectual level (and as a reader), this makes sense, but it leaves me unsure about how to write a static scene that still moves a story forward. So there's my question: what are the ways of writing a static scene that provides tension release for the reader but still moves the story forward?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/37398. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
"Conflict" should be present throughout the book on every page, in this sense: the reader wants to know what is about to happen next. Not for the entire book, but they want to read the next three minutes (about three pages) to see something resolved. A "page turner" is precisely that, a weaving of these things that are resolved, but before they are, some other conflict is present, so they need to read some more to resolve that, and so on. The best books we ever read, we read in as close to one sitting as our time allows; because we are constantly looking to resolve the latest conflict, or unknown.
For verisimilitude, we cannot be in an active fight for our lives for more than an hour without rest. (IRL, most physical fights end in a few minutes).
So the battles are interspersed with travel, thinking, planning, and other forms of physical rest, implied (like sleep) or shown (sitting around a campfire listening to stories that subtly impart information about characters or the plot).
But even in these times of rest or play or sex, we can have "conflict" in this sense, the reader wants to see what happens next. "Static" is a very poor choice of words for these scenes; it implies nothing changes. I would think of them as "recovery" scenes, but now the "action" is in the dialogue, arguments, recriminations, sorrow, new plans, grief over losses, the WTF do we do now moments, the resolve to continue and win or die trying. The memories of what was lost, and what we are fighting for. The joy and release of consummating love and the well-being that follows. The decisions made.
For example, when Luke Leaves Hoth after a battle, we have a "recovery" scene in which he makes the decision (At Ben's instruction) to NOT rejoin the Rebel Fleet, but travel instead to Dagobah to train under Yoda. R2D2 objects. There is a conversational conflict and a decision is made that the entire plot for this movie turns upon, separating Luke from the other heroes for a significant amount of time. To me that is hardly "static"; the whole of the "action" may be punching a button to change course and begin this journey, but the audience is left in anticipation. Wondering what happens next, why is this Yoda important, etc.
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