First some great news: my forthcoming teen series debut, THE BOOK OF NONSENSE (Oct. 14th) has been named by The Association of Booksellers for Children to its Best Books of 2008 list!

Okay, thought I'd throw out one more post about Plot, this time on the subject of great scenes. Try this on for size: “Great scenes are not what they’re about.”
Let me explain.

The best writing involves the reader. It lets her participate in making meaning from the text she’s engaging. One of the more pleasurable experiences in reading is when you nod your head because you “know what’s really going on,” or you simply “understand.” Readers want to figure things out for themselves, and this is the reason for rule #1 in every writing class: Show, don’t tell. Ever wonder why that rule is so often belabored? Think about it. If you tell a reader Little Sally is sad and doesn’t want to cry, what mental work is there for her to do? None, that’s how much. Now, if Little Sally is biting her quivering lip and digging her nails into her palms, the reader realizes she is sad and doesn't want to cry, i.e. the reader is involved. Granted, this is not heavy lifting, so let’s take it a bit further.

Since you’ve all gone out and gotten copies of THE RING BEAR, let me use an example from it if I may. (You haven't? Shame on you ;) ) I choose this because often when reading it to groups, I get that magical noise at one particular scene (Awwww).

Westley, misunderstanding his mother’s request for him to be the ring bearer at her recently announced wedding, decides he’ll transform himself into a real bear to wreck everything so he can keep his mom to himself. When she finally realizes what he’s going through (after he leaps out of his “lair” roaring just before the ceremony), she doesn’t say, “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry for neglecting your feelings in all my excitement, Honey. I should have been more sensitive to your needs. I really want you to be in the wedding, to carry the rings for me.”

Instead we have this scene:

Mom’s eyes went round, but then she nodded. “Mr. Bear,” she said, “I’m very sorry, but we were hoping for a Ring BearER. That’s a boy, a special boy like Westley who is chosen to carry the wedding rings. Mr. Bear, could you please tell Westley I love him more than anything in the world? Could you tell him how much I want him to carry the rings for us? We can’t have a perfect wedding without our most important guest.”
So the attempt here is to have the reader understand what she’s doing and so realize that the scene is not what it’s about (pretending he really is a bear).

See what I’m saying? Good, ‘cause your bizy.

Best and thanks for reading,

David Michael Slater
www.davidmicahelslater.com

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