Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain

He then breaks scene down into three pieces: goal, conflict, and disaster.Įveryone pretty much wants something all of the time, and so does your character. Swain echoes this assertion by saying the purpose of a scene is to move the story forward. Swain, Techniques of the Selling WriterĮarlier I talked about how a scene changes the direction of the story with a turning point. 'A scene is a unit of conflict lived through by the character and reader' - Dwight V. I had to revisit this approach several times before it finally clicked.

And if you don't get everything the first time, you're probably normal. The first he calls 'scene' and the second he calls 'sequel.'Īnd 'sequel' is where reaction takes place.Īnd if you are already confused, don't fret. In his book, Techniques of the Selling Writer, Swain recognizes two types of the smallest structural unit. However, I think most can agree that a scene is one of the smallest recognized structural units in a story. But this definition is certainly not perfect and the boundaries can get blurry fast with the right examples. Typically, a scene is defined as a unit of action that takes place in a single location and continuous time.

The term 'scene' can be a bit ambiguous in the writing world-people define it in slightly different ways (something worth keeping in mind whenever someone talks about scene structure). This is a great place to start understanding scene structure.īut I've found that sometimes it doesn't feel specific enough to meet my needs. Nearly every scene should have a climactic moment, which is also called a 'turning point.' The bigger the structural segment, the bigger the turning point-meaning an act's turning point is going to have more ramifications than a scene-level turning point. Whether it's a scene, sequence, act, or whole story.

Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain