Three Quick Ways to Save a Boring Scene
How often does this happen to you: you have an idea for a dynamite scene for your work-in-progress and you rush to your laptop to get cracking on it only to find that it sounded a whole lot better in your head?
Been there, got that t-shirt.
However, before you scrap the whole thing, as always, you should step away from the keyboard. Give the scene some breathing room then come back to it with a fresh set of eyes. As always, ask yourself what is the overarching purpose of the scene. Is it to bring your love interests closer? Keep your detective from uncovering a vital clue in his case? Provide your heroine with a major (or minor) revelation?
Once you’re clear on what the scene is trying to accomplish, here are three quick lifelines you can use to rescue your sinking scene.
1. Introduce Violence or Danger (or the threat of it)
Depending upon the type of story you’re telling, this can be a highly effective technique. It can take an ordinary, do-nothing scene and amp it up to ten. Take the opening scene of Pulp Fiction. On the surface, Ringo and Yolanda are talking about absolutely nothing (okay, technically, they’re having a casual conversation about robbing banks and eventually the diner they’re sitting in. However, that’s not evident right away). Out of nowhere, they’re on their feet, wielding guns, screaming that this is a robbery. So, we move from this random conversation about robbing banks, to now everyone in this diner is in danger from these two nutjobs.
“All drama is conflict. Without conflict, you have no action; without action, you have no character; without character, you have no story; and without story, you have no screenplay.”
― Syd Field, Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting
Look for opportunities to take a dull scene and insert either actual danger or the threat of it into the action. In a romance/romantic suspense story, you could have two characters in a coffee shop talking about their feelings when someone bursts in with a gun. This presents your hero (or heroine!) with the opportunity to save the day, thus shifting how the other person see them, thus shifting the dynamics of the relationship. This is just one example, but the possibilities, across all genres, are limitless.
2. Introduce Sex (or the promise of it)
Similar to violence, depending upon what type of story you’re telling, a little sexy time or again, even the hint of it, can rev things up in a blah scene. Maybe your love interests keep trying to get it on and keep getting interrupted each and every time. We keep reading to see when they finally do the do.
How about the bathtub scene in “Pretty Woman?” No, not that one. The one where Edward tells Vivian about his father. If he was telling her this story over dinner, it wouldn’t be interesting. At. All. BUT, they’re sitting in a bathtub and Vivian has her legs wrapped around Edward. We know they’ve either had sex or are about to (or both) and suddenly, it’s a fascinating scene that accomplishes a few things. It delivers a tidbit of Edward’s backstory, brings them closer together (literally and figuratively), and is charming and sexy all at once.
Embrace the opportunities that a little bow-chicka-wow-wow can bring to your scenes.
3. Introduce a New Character
Remember the love interests sitting in a coffee shop above? Instead of a random gunman bursting in to interrupt their conversation, the hero’s (or the heroine’s) heretofore unknown ex-wife could come sauntering up to the table. Suddenly, that conversation that’s going nowhere has some real tension. A new witness could phone our detective with some urgent information about the murder. Or that new character could be used to spin the action into a wild goose chase). Norma Bates’s first appearance in “Psycho” turns a run-of-the-mill shower into cinematic history.
Think about fun and unusual ways you can introduce your antagonist (your protagonist, too) by using them to intrude upon the proceedings. That new character can be an overbearing mother, an annoying best friend, a sneaky co-worker—the sky’s the limit! Just be sure that you’re not introducing a new character for the hell of it— especially if it’s a secondary character. Take some time to think about how to incorporate them into the fabric of the story moving forward and what role you’d ultimately like them to play in the action.
What are some of your tips for resuscitating a DOA scene? Tell me below!
