Several posts ago, we discussed the most powerful question in developing a scene: What if …?
A fiction writer has the most unbelievable tool in the world to work with and that is his/her imagination. Whatever a scene involves, through the writer’s imagination, the reader gets pulled in and the story goes forward.
You may think a particular scene is already well-described, carries the story forward, and has ample drama and excitement. Does that mean there’s no room for improvement? Asking What If…? will help you answer that question.
As an example, in Home Again, one of the protagonists, Zach Harkin, finds himself up a tree during the Battle of Shiloh. He is a Union sharpshooter and his position in the tree afforded him visibility to do what sharpshooters do. The tree was in the middle of a Union camp which was over-taken by Rebel forces late on the first day of the battle. Zach had no chance to get down, so he stayed hidden in the tree while the Confederates occupied the camp directly below. He was in a real pickle. To make it worse, a terrible thunderstorm swept through during the night leaving him wet and miserable. The rebels were sleeping in tents under his tree. What could he do?
What if…? Well, he could stay in the tree until morning, then sneak out—not very exciting. He could climb down the tree and try to escape—maybe. He could fall out of the tree, break his leg and wind up captured—no, doesn’t really carry the story forward in the right direction.
The answer for me was to have Zach climb down the tree—wet and miserable—in the middle of the storm. He pulled the flap back on one of the tents in which Rebel soldiers were sleeping, and announced he needed a place to sleep (with his best southern accent). The sleeping soldiers begrudgingly made room for him and there he slept, a Union sharpshooter sleeping with the enemy. Early the next morning that same camp was retaken by Yankee forces and Zach was back on the right side, all happening with exact historical timing—except for the fictional protagonist. Pretty cool stuff.
Asking this simple What If…? question can apply during your first draft or better yet, during revisions. There is always plenty of room for improvement with the opportunity to make a really good scene a great scene.
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