Forget The Search History, If You Really Want To Know A Writer You Should Check Their Notes App...a Writer's

How to Block Your Scenes

Credit: https://www.septembercfawkes.com/2018/01/how-to-handle-blocking.html

What is blocking?

The term "blocking" is borrowed from play performances. Blocking is just about anything an actor does that isn't dialogue: where they stand, where they look, how they interact with the setting, how they move across the stage, how close they are to what, how they interact with props. 

Blocking is just as important in fiction writing! If you don't use blocking, not only does it make it difficult for the audience to imagine where your characters are relative to the setting, but you're selling your story short by not using it to your advantage. Here is what you can do to block your best scenes!

Continuity errors

One of the main problems with blocking in unpublished fiction is continuity errors. In one line, a character is sitting on a couch in the living room, and a few lines later, they’re sitting on their bed, in the same scene with no sense of motion. Continuity errors also commonly happen with food or with objects characters are holding. Also, watch out for when characters' hands are full or when you have them doing something they aren't capable of. In some cases, motions can be assumed--but make sure they can be, or that you imply them somehow, so that it doesn't read like a continuity error. Make sure you watch carefully for when characters sit down, when they’re standing, and if they do the same motions twice.

Spatial vagueness

Another one of the most common problems with blocking, is vagueness. This usually happens because the setting, objects, or characters' distances from one another or other things haven't been properly established. 

For example, take the quote, "Joey walked down the street"--yet as the scene goes on, there is no sense of what street, what city, what it looks like, what season it is, or where or why he is walking in the first place. Sometimes there isn’t any sense of setting and only conversations and body language, and then there’s a line like, "Tiff walked inside." Were they were outside that whole conversation? And what did she walk into? When blocking is vague, the audience has to fill in the blanks, which can be a problem if it's not what the author actually pictures.

Specificity

Being specific isn't necessarily the same as being detailed. Details can help make something be specific, but they aren't the same thing. And with blocking, in some cases, the more detailed it is, the more it hurts the story because it slows the pacing and changes the story's focus. In the example above, "Joey walked down the street," the sentence can be more specific by adding and changing a few words. "Joey walked down Mulberry Street, autumn leaves crunching under his feet." In certain kinds of action scenes, it can be very important to be specific in word choice, and not in details. "Margaret hit Lara in the jaw." But if you try to put too much detail into action, it can slow the moment way down. In some cases, it's helpful to establish the setting before the characters start interacting with it. This makes the setting or "stage" more specific in the reader's mind. Be specific, not vague. How much detail you include depends on pacing and the focus of the scene.

Blocking to contribute to or emphasize points

This is especially true for conversations. As an argument gets more intense, a character may invade the other's personal space. If one character is vulnerable, whether the second draws closer or steps away can convey a lot. Of course, you can use setting and props to do the same thing. As an argument gets intense, one character might throw something at the other. If someone is uncomfortable, they could put up a barrier. If they’re feeling vulnerable, they might "hide" or "block" themself. This is blocking that emphasizes and contributes to the situation or point at hand, and even heightens tension. Even in a scene where blocking is the primary focus (building an invention, forging a sword, hunting), how the character interacts with the setting and objects can emphasize points--how sweaty their hands are against a climbing wall, the way they beat the metal, how many shots they shoot.

Blocking to convey character

Similar, yet different from, the last section, you can use blocking to convey character, rather than just the moment at hand. A character who sees litter at a park and picks it up is much different than one who adds to it. A character who comforts a crying stranger is different than one who ignores them. A character who always makes sure they’re near an exit is different than one who could care less. Blocking is great to show character and their feelings, rather than tell them.

This is a great time to add in mannerisms and tendencies as well--this way the audience can get to know your character well through only their actions!

Blocking to give motion to still or stagnant scenes

A lot of beginning writers will open a story with a character sitting and thinking. One of the reasons this is a problem is because there is no motion and nothing happening in the present moment. So how do we fix this? Use blocking to add motion. If done correctly, not only does this create more motion and interest, but also gives you material for the two bullet points before this one, so that it can actually add to the introspection and characterization. With that said, some conversations are very important, interesting, have high tension, or natural draws--they may have incorporeal motion--and already carry the audience, and sometimes when you put in blocking, it actually takes away from that, instead of contributing to it, by drawing away the audience's attention. So watch for that, as well!

Blocking for natural pauses, lulls in conversations, and for beats in dialogue

On the topic of dialogue exchanges, when there is a natural pause in dialogue or a lull in conversation, instead of saying, "There was a moment of quiet," you can put in a bit of blocking to convey that. Sometimes actions really do speak louder than words!

You can also use blocking for beats in dialogue. Rather than always using dialogue tags, you can use a beat to imply who is speaking what line. It doesn’t clutter up the dialogue with tags, and it adds to the emotional impact of the scene!

Multitasking blocking

Try to have your blocking accomplish more than one thing. Maybe it can hike up tension and convey character. Maybe it can emphasize a point and help us follow a fight scene. Maybe it can replace a dialogue tag and convey something important about the setting. And remember, in some scenes blocking is more important than in other scenes!

when you discover you share a birthday with a fictional character

me: * hYpErVeNtiLaTiNg*

my toxic trait is saving a piece of writing advice for later and then completely forgetting about it when i actually need it

language is literally so beautiful like in english "i miss you" comes from being unable to locate someone in the field after battle, it's "i look for you but i can't find you" but the french "tu me manques" is also about absence but it's not something i do, it's something that happens to me, as in "you are something essential lacking inside me", in portuguese it's either "sinto a tua falta" as in "i feel your absence" or, from solitude you get "saudade de você" as in "i am lonely [of] you", and in spanish the word comes from stranger and it's something one does, "te extraño" as in "i am making a stranger out of you", and, and, and

I wish people’s WIPs showed up on Goodreads because I have seen so many excerpts and WIP intros on Instagram that I NEED to read, but I can’t add them to my TBR so that I can remember I need to read them and I think that is awful.

“the ending is always the same”

war of the foxes - richard silken / waterloo - ABBA / euripides’ medea - the little theatre / anne carson / the three fates - luca cambiaso / the oresteia - aeschylus / road to hell II - hadestown / when i met you - mira lightner / andersen’s fairy tale anthology

Why do you study history

Writing advice you're not going to like.

People sometimes send me Asks wanting writing advice.  I suck at it.  I don’t really know how I do the writing, or how one should do the writing, or what one should do to get better at the writing.  All I can ever think to say is “write a lot of stuff and you will get better at the writing.”  Which is true, but hardly a bolt from the sky.

Well, as it turns out, I do have one piece of Legit Writing Advice, and I am going to share it with you, right now.  If you were in any of my writing workshop groups at a con, you’ve heard this advice already.

Warning: you’re going to fucking hate it.  But if you do it, you will thank me.

If you have a piece of fiction you’re serious about, something you might want to actually shop around, or just something you really are into and want to make it as good as you can…do NOT edit it.

Repeat.  DO NOT EDIT.

REWRITE.

As in, print out the whole fucking thing and re-enter it, every word (or use two screens).  Retype the whole thing.  Recreate it from the ground up using your first draft as a template.  Start with a blank page and re-enter every. single. word.

I hear you screaming.  OH MY GOD THAT’S INSANE.

Yes.  Yes, it is.

It is also the most powerful thing you will ever do for a piece of fiction that you are serious about.

Now, let’s get real.  I don’t do this for most things.  I don’t do it for my fanfiction.  But if it’s something original, something I might like to get to a professional level - I do it.  You absolutely COULD do it for fanfiction.  It’s just up to you and how much time you want to sink into a piece.

You can edit, sure.  But you WILL NOT get down to the level of change that needs to happen in a second draft.  You will let things slide.  Your eyes will miss things.  You will say “eh, good enough.”

The first time I did this, on someone else’s advice, I was dubious.  Within two pages, I was saying WHY HAVE I NOT BEEN DOING THIS ALL THE TIME.  I was amazed at how much change was happening.  By the time I got to the end, I had an entirely different novel than the one I’d started with.  When you’re already re-entering every single word, it’s easy to make deep changes.  You’ll reformat sentences, you’ll switch phrases around, you’ll massage your word choice.  You’ll discover whole paragraphs that don’t need to be there at all because they became redundant.  You’ll find dialogue exchanges that need reimagining.  Whole plot points will suddenly be different, whole story arcs will reveal their flaws and get re-drawn.

You cannot get down to the fundamental level of change that’s required just by editing an existing document.  You have to rebuild it if you really want your story to evolve.  You will be AMAZED at the difference it will make.

It will take time.  It will seem like a huge, Herculean task.  I’m not saying it’s easy.  It isn’t.  But it is absolutely revolutionary.

Try it.  I promise, you will see what I mean.

*PSA: Tipsy!Lori wrote this post.  In case you couldn’t tell.

is there any flowers/plants that symbolize or relate to discomfort and dissatisfaction? im trying to draw something for an art project and i wanted to draw plants/flowers in it that hold symbolism to them

Hey kookoojellyfish! Most of these mean either directly, but allow potential association because neither discomfort nor dissastifaction exist as single meanings here.

agnus castus – coldness, indifference

aloe – bitterness and pain, bitterness, grief, religious superstition

balsam (red) – impatient resolved, touch me not

bee ophrys – error

belvedere – I declare against you

bindweed (great) – insinuation, importunity

burdock – importunity, touch me not

convolvulus (major) – extinguished hopes

corchorus – impatient of absence

eglantine – I wound to heal, poetry

geranium (fish) – disappointed expectations

henbane – imperfection, fault, for males to attract love from females

hogbean – defect

hortensia – you are cold, carelessness

humble plant – despondency

ice plant – your looks freeze me, rejected addresses

lint – I feel my obligations

love-lies-bleeding – hopeless not heartless, deserted love, desertion

meadow sweet – uselessness

mimosa – sensitiveness, sensitivity

ranunculus (wild) – ingratitude

sorrel (wild) – wit ill-timed

straw (a single, broken) – dissension, rupture of a contract

sweetbrier (european) – I wound to heal, poetry, imagination

tiger-flower – for once may pride befriend me, cruelty

Discomfort could be represented by poisonous plants in art. They don’t mean it, but they most certainly cause it.

– Mod Jana

Disclaimer

This blog is intended as writing advice only. This blog and its mods are not responsible for accidents, injuries or other consequences of using this advice for real world situations or in any way that said advice was not intended.