Brainstorm Scene

[Emmanuel Des Meaux]

Novels should be populated with believable characters, who have core motivations and beliefs based on their past. I discuss this in many posts, as I feel the key to a great novel is centered around truly believable characters. So by mind mapping characters to explore their core needs, deepest fear, and the lies they believe (based on their wounds), you will come up with original, compelling characters. This is where I always start when plotting out a novel.

Think of worse and worse complications. What is the worst thing that can happen to thwart her? Who can betray her? What can she lose that she thought was vital? A friendship or marriage? A business? A child? Keep in mind to make things as bad and messy for your character as possible. By mind mapping all kinds of plot ideas, you will have enough to sort through to get your basic framework set up.

I could spend many posts just talking about developing subplots. I would highly recommend you create another mind map once you finish with your main plot one. This one will be your subplot mind map. State your plot summary in the middle of the paper. From there, brainstorm ideas of subplots that can help support your plot. What do I mean? This again ties in with your themes.

If you are writing a novel about a woman who is infertile and desperate to have a baby, you could brainstorm subplot ideas and scenes that will have her face this issue head-on. You can have her best friend accidentally get pregnant while engaged in a fleeting relationship and have an abortion, thinking nothing about it. Or you could have her be given a baby to foster, assured she will be able to adopt it, only to have the birth mother change her mind. The subplot could involve this young mother having problems in her life, which throw the two characters together with clashing needs. The key is to make your characters clash, so as you brainstorm scene and subplot ideas, think of ways to do this. And of course these types of subplots bring the themes of your novel to the forefront.

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Give yourself permission to step away from your outline and consider some wild possibilities. What if a car smashed through the wall? What if your hero choked and died? What if a young boy vomited up a finger?

Depending on the nature of the scene, getting the dialogue right may be most of the work. Regardless, focus on choosing the best words to describe the characters, the action and tone, so your readers will see the same scene in their heads.

It\u2019s like driving a car. Most of us don\u2019t think about the ignition and the pedals and the turn signals \u2014 but we used to, back when we were learning. It used to flummox the hell out of us. Every intersection was unbelievably stressful, with worries of stalling the car and/or killing everyone on board.

It\u2019s the same with writing a scene. The first few are brutal and clumsy. But once you\u2019ve written (and rewritten) say, 500 scenes, the individual steps sort of vanish. But they\u2019re still there, under the surface. It\u2019s just that your instinct is making a lot of the decisions your conscious brain used to handle.

Imagine the projectionist screwed up and accidentally lopped off this scene. Would the movie still make sense? If the answer is \u201Cyes,\u201D then you don\u2019t really need the scene, and shouldn\u2019t bother writing it.

Tough. Put that drama or that comedy into scenes that are crucial to the movie.2 One thing you learn after a few produced movies is that anything that can be cut will be cut, so put your best material into moments that will absolutely be there when it\u2019s done.

Scripts are often clogged with characters who have no business being there. But because words are small, it\u2019s easy to overlook that \u201CHaversmith\u201D hasn\u2019t said or done anything for five pages. And sadly, sometimes that\u2019s not realized until after filming.3

Always consider what the characters could be doing, even if it\u2019s not directly related to the focus of the scene. A father-and-son bonding moment at a slaughter house will play differently than the same dialogue at a lawn bowling tournament.

There\u2019s nothing so dispiriting as writing a great three-page mega-scene and realizing that you could have accomplished just as much in two-eighths of a page.4 So ask yourself up front: How much screen time am I willing to give to this scene?

The classic advice is to come into a scene as late as you possibly can. Of course, to do that, you really need to know how the previous scene ended. There\u2019s often a natural momentum that suggests what first image or line of dialogue would be perfect to open the scene. But don\u2019t stop at the first option. Find a couple, then\u2026

The first couple of times through, it\u2019s really rough: a blocking rehearsal. But eventually, you start to hear the characters talk to each other, and the vague motions become distinct actions. Don\u2019t worry if you can\u2019t always get the scene to play through to the end \u2014 you\u2019re more likely to find the exit in the writing than in the imagining.

A \u201Cscribble version\u201D is essentially a cheat sheet so you\u2019ll remember the great scene you just saw in your head. Don\u2019t write sentences; don\u2019t write full dialogue. It shouldn\u2019t take more than five minutes. Just get the bare minimum down so that you won\u2019t forget the scene in the next hour as you\u2019re writing it.

It\u2019s kind of a mess, and really wouldn\u2019t make sense to anyone but me \u2014 and only shortly after I wrote it. But that doesn\u2019t matter. The scribble version is only there so you don\u2019t get lost or confused while writing the full version of the scene. Yes, it\u2019s finally time to\u2026

The scribble version is your outline for the scene. Yes, allow yourself the chance to detour from your scribble version if a truly better idea comes along. But if you\u2019ve really spent the time to play it through in your head (#8), it\u2019s probably on the right track already.

I\u2019m neither pro nor anti-outline. They can be a useful way of figuring out how the pieces might fit together. They\u2019re nearly essential in television, where many minds need to coordinate. But sticking too closely to an outline is dangerous. It\u2019s like following Google Maps when it tells you to take Wilshire.

Do my own scripts hold up to this (admittedly harsh) standard? Yes, largely, but feel free to correct me where you disagree. Big Fish has quite a few meanders and detours, but that\u2019s very much on-topic \u2014 it\u2019s the reason the son is so frustrated.

Loosen up your sketching hand by creating a bunch of quick character sketches. The objective here is not to create perfect characters, or even good ones. Instead, you should focus on simply putting ideas down on the page quickly, and without self-consciousness.

Using the character designs you've come up earlier, create some scenes specifically with them in mind. You can place them in the locations you've already come up with, but using new camera angles. This will let you focus in closer on these scenes, while also exploring new ways to view your existing environments.

You will begin the first lesson by learning how best to plan out a concept for your world. Next, Kleiner will cover various sketching basics. Finally, you will begin your project by working on some of the widest shots of your environments.

In this lesson, you will get a closer view of your environment. At first, you will establish various general scenes showing daily life, before starting to design the look of specific locations that might be more important to the story.

In this lesson, you will finalize your sketches. Kleiner will take you through several finishing methods, including line art sketches, color frames, character sheets, value sketches, and large-scale environment plans.

Pictured filming a scene from the movie are Christopher Walken (left), Joe Bryan Jr. (owner of Sandy Lane Farm, where part of the movie was filmed), and Louise Fletcher. Local resident Jack Carter, behind Walken (with black beard), is one of many locals who appeared as an extra.

Using the melodic starting ideas from class I have played around with them on the keyboard on Garageband and see if any of them stick with me to grow into something Voldemort-esque to incorporate in my soundtrack.

I am quite satisfied with what I have so far, however, some of the timing of the various tracks were not syncing up in time so I have increased the grid units to further make the alignment more accurate.

Going back to my brainstorm ideas near the beginning of this process I recorded down some examples I would potentially like to use (on the Garageband keyboard). Check them out here =1UuApHLQmgIvxzMbvS_y8pc0bsoAzDeGg

In the final update to my soundtrack you will be able to hear the leitmotif in its entirety. I have chosen to incorporate it at the opening as this is where the audience is introduced to his authority over Harry. From there it sets the mood effectively into this final battle scene. Somewhat, the strings are setting up this leitmotif with similar pitches and intervalic relationships between their notes.

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