(From What If? By Ann Bernays and Pamela Painter, contributed by Suzy Spraker)

Objective: This exercise is for writers to be able to scene a scene using both showing and telling techniques.

Important Terms

Scene - deals at length with a relatively short period of time.

Characteristics:

• Has its own "mini-plot." Contains its own conflict and follows pattern of plot - exposition, rising action, resolution-while it advances the main conflict
• Details one time and one place. Each scene should have its own setting
• Doesn't resolve any major conflicts. Scenes are building blocks for the development of the conflict. Any conflicts resolved should be immediate ones coming out of that scene.
• Highlights confrontation, crisis, complication

Summary - covers a relatively long period of time in a short amount of text.

Characteristics:

• Gives information
• Fills in a character's background
• Let's us understand motivation
• Alters pace
• Creates a transition
• Leaps in time (years or moments)

Stories are best when scene and summary work together because they increase anticipation, intensify the mood of the story, and when used in balance heighten the scene.

ASSIGNMENT: Write a brief scene in which character A is in conflict with character B. You may develop the scene from a central idea and add appropriate characters, or you can create a main character and show her or his reactions as events unfold.

Use any ideas you may have generated previously as your starting point. If you get stuck, here are some suggestions:

• Character A tries to talk office B out of giving a speeding ticket.
• A parent and a child disagree about the child's outfit/wardrobe.
• A fistfight.
• A husband and wife argue over the checkbook balance.
• Customers argue standing in a check-out line.