Okay, in the previous post I talked about getting through a difficult scene in your story (or article) by getting it out of your system as quickly as possible. Now I'm going to show you how to do it.
To illustrate how the Turbo Scenes system works, I've constructed the following imaginary scene:
Scene: Man in parking lot makes way to car and encounters fugitive
Purpose: To let fugitive talk to cop and set certain plot elements in motion
This was done to determine the purpose of the scene, because, well... in writing every single word, scene or chapter should serve a purpose towards the whole. That said, once you know what purpose the scene would have within the overall story, you can break it down into three chunks: beginning, middle and end.
You can also determine your word count based on this. Three parts at around 350 words per part would give you a 1050-word scene. The higher your word count needs to be per scene (determined before you start writing), the more you need to bulk up what happens in each section. Note that I’m not talking about word count in the sense of a daily goal to work towards, but more as a guide per scene, based on how long your main story is going to be.
For the purposes of our imaginary scene, I will break it down as follows:
Beginning - Man walks through underground parking lot, having heated conversation with someone on cell phone.
Middle – Conversation reaches climax, and he snaps the phone shut. He senses something is wrong, and reaches for his gun as he scans the parking lot. Once satisfied that everything is in order, he gets into his car and slaps his briefcase onto the passenger seat next to him. He looks in the rear-view mirror and barely catches a glimpse of the face in the back seat when a sharp, stabbing pain shoots through the back of his head.
End – Person in back seat (fugitive) warns the cop not to move. He then claims that he is innocent; he didn’t kill the woman. The cop tries to tell him that if he turns himself in, they would let the evidence prove him right, and let the law take its course. Fugitive declines and tells cop to speak to Maloney about a drug deal that went south three years earlier. Cop wonders out loud what that has to do with anything, but fugitive pistol whips him again, and when the cop’s blurry vision returns to normal and the pain subsides, he notices that the fugitive—along with his briefcase—is long gone.
Total Time Spent: 5minutes
Note: There are no set rules about which bits of your scene you should fit under beginning, middle or end. Your gut will more or less guide you down the right path. It’s your story. YOU figure it out.
By now you must be wondering exactly what writing Turbo Scenes are, and how you could apply it to your own writing. In a nutshell, the idea is to use a few short sentences in order to get the scene from your head and onto paper (or screen) as quickly as you can. You do this by capturing the essence of your scene (the beginning, middle and end we planned out earlier) as quickly as you possibly can, and only then going back to it to flesh it out into something worth reading.
To achieve this efficiently, you need to follow these three steps:
1 - Write basic sentences. As much as you can, limit yourself to this structure: SUBJECT, VERB, OBJECT. Boy kicks ball. Dog chases car. Man flies plane. Just keep chanting “subject, verb, object,” over and over again, and you should be fine.
No. It won’t be possible to keep sentences as simple as this all the time, but the basic aim is to keep it as close to this structure as you can. Limit yourself between three to seven words per sentence. The idea is not to write a masterpiece when doing this, but instead, to rip through the scene as quickly as you possibly can. Write each of these sentences on their own lines.
2 - Turn off your internal editor. You know, that little voice in your head that second guesses everything you write. Should it be a comma or semicolon? Isn’t I before E, except after C? Erm… are you sure you want to phrase it like that?
So yeah, get rid of that internal editor and ignore all rules of writing. At least just until you’ve worked through the scene. An easy way to do this is to write the scene in Notepad instead of Word. Once all those red, blue and green squiggly lines disappear, so does your need to second guess and double check every word you’ve written.
3 - Ignore grammar, punctuation, etc. When speeding through dialogue, don’t use quotation marks. Simply just fly through the scene without thinking and without stopping to double check what you’ve written. Ignore spelling mistakes, and other errors. Fixing them will come later. Again, the idea is to get the words from your head to file as quickly as you possibly can.
That’s it! That’s the secret to ripping through difficult scenes in no time flat! Keep your sentences as short as possible, sticking to the SUBJECT—VERB—OBJECT formula, switch off that internal editor, and write without thinking. Once the scene is out of your system, most of the hard work is over.
Now let’s put that into practice, shall we?
Now that you know what’s required to smash through that mental block, let’s return to that parking lot scene, and using the steps described previously, let’s go and write that scene we outlined earlier:
Beginning:
Rick walks through parking lot
clicking of shoes echo between the cars
ricks lookd around nervously
cell phone chirped to life
looked ons screen
knuckles whiten
it’s david
hey dave please tell me you’ve got good news
unfortunately not, no. he must have anticipated our arrival or something. was long gone by the time we got there
damnit, david! If he gets away im throwing you under the bus this time getit?
he wont get away rick we already have a few leads that were working on
Middle:
just do what you do, but faster! I want him behind bars before sunset, understand?
where are you by the way? it would sure help if you were here to—
click
Ricks snapped shut phone. Something felt out of place. He pockets the phone and unclipped his gun holster as he eyed the parking lot. Shadows danced around. Light playing tricks on his eyes.
youre losing it, banks pull yourself together
chuckles and unlocks car door
took last look around parking lot before closing door and slapping briefcase on the seat next to him
He looks in rear view mirror and just as he sees the face, feels a sharp, stabbing pain at the back of his head
End:
what the hell man!
dont move a muscle man in back seat threatened
were on to you. Theres no hiding anyore.
Im innocnet! Didn’t do it! Palmer framed me
If thats true, then just give yourself up so we can talk about this. If you really are innocent the evidence will prove it and the law will take its course
It’s not that simple. Was framed. All evidence tampered to make me look guilty
We’ll find a way
Not good enough
So you’re gonna kill me?
No i need you to do something for me
looked in mirror – wondering if he should make a move and subdue the fugitive
gun presses against back of head
decides against it
what do you wnat me to do?
i need you to speak to maloney. Hes the only one the can clear me
why? What does maloney have to do with your wife’s murder
talk to him about that drug bust we did last year
what does that—
pain shoots through head. When blurry vision clears, Rick notices that the man and briefcase are long gone
Total time spent: 15minutes
From the brain dump above, you would probably notice the following:
- Terrible spelling (innocnet)
- Mixed tenses (Rick snapped / he looks)
- Words very seldom capitalized
- Apostrophe almost never used (youre instead of you’re)
- No quotation marks for dialogue
- No action in-between dialogue (eg: “What the hell, man?” Rick asked and rubbed the back of his head)
Despite all the issues listed above, the fact remains that I have a complete scene to work with. It’s crude, sure, but it’s out of my head. It’s no longer this mountain of an issue that’s hindering me from completing my story. All it needs is a little fleshing out, and voila! The scene is done. Depending on your writing skills, fleshing the scene could take about ten minutes or so, if un-interrupted. That means that between planning, writing and fleshing, you could have a completed scene in half an hour. Depending on your schedule, you could easily churn four or even more of these scenes per day using this system.
This would be a good time to take a step back and see if the scene flows in the direction you wanted it to go. Making major changes should be much easier, and you might only lose a few minutes of writing time instead of days.
Oh yes… You will also notice that some of the sentences above are longer than 5 words. Always remember that this system is merely a guide, and not cast in stone. You need to do what works best for you, so if you only write a string of 3-word sentences, that’s fine. If you prefer to flesh it out a bit more and use 15-word sentences, no one will hold it against you. The aim is not to see how many words per sentence you use to write the scene, but instead, to get the scene out of your head and onto the blank doc in front of you as quickly as possible.
In today’s world, there are a million ways to get distracted when trying to write. We’ve been programmed and conditioned to divert our attention spans to hundreds of different things at once, so it’s only natural to want to check your e-mails or Steemit feed every other minute.
The problem comes when every other minute means breaking your writing speed and pulling your mind out of its productive zone. It takes a lot of focus and effort to get yourself to that place again where you can continue where you left off, and once there, you only have about a minute of quality writing before your phone rings, you have a new mail, or you feel the need to make another cup of coffee.
There is a way around this, but it will take some effort and conditioning on your side to make it part of your writing lifestyle. The good news is that it takes the average person only twenty-eight days to develop a new habit. If you can thus stick to this routine for one month, it should become second nature to you by month two onward.
So, when you’re ready to tackle that scene, to take it head-on and get it over with, do the following:
- Allocate and dedicate the next 45 minutes to your writing and nothing else. You would be surprised how much you can write if you dedicate a few daily bursts of 45 minutes with short breaks in-between.
- Switch your cell phone to silent and shove it in a drawer or someplace where it’s out of sight and reach.
- If you have a land line phone, take it off the hook.
- Switch off the television.
- If there are dishes that need washing, soak them in the warmest soapy water your geyser can manage. By the time your 45 minutes are over, the water should be the perfect temperature for washing. (could vary, depending on your geyser’s setting).
- Open your working document.
- Go to http://e.ggtimer.com and set it for 46 minutes and click on GO.
- Disconnect your WiFi, LAN, Modem, and all other connections to the outside world (yes, without taking a final glance at your mails or messages!) Don’t worry… the timer will continue working even after you disconnect.
- Now spend the next 45 minutes just plotting, writing and fleshing out the scene that you need to get through.
Do not stress if you can’t successfully pull it off the first time. Remember, it takes 28 days of doing something specific—every single day during that time—to form a new habit. It’s going to take at least 28 days of writing scenes this way (every single day), before you might get the complete hang of it.
Another way of thinking about it is that if you can set aside two 45-minute sessions per day, and can manage to churn a mere 1000 words in each session, it would take you exactly 28 days to finish a 56,000 word novel. Not bad if you think about it that way. Imagine writing a new novel every single month! Make it a series, and you’ll be sure to gain a loyal following of readers that will support you with each new release.
Now it’s for that final stretch; that last push to finish the scene. Because the hardest part—getting the scene down on paper or screen—has already been completed, the next bit, fleshing it out, should be icing on the cake for you. This is where you can let your hair down and let the “author” in you take over the driving seat.
Going forward, you will remove the BEGINNING, MIDDLE and END labels of your scene and mash the lot together into one big block of text. Once done, go ahead and flesh it out as you see fit. Work over each sentence to the best of your abilities, and re-write them to make them flow smoothly and make sense. This is the part where spelling, grammar and punctuation counts. You might want to combine a few sentences or remove some completely, but try to get it as near to the final product as you can.
That said, it doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect. It’s still only the first draft of your story, and would need some editing and re-writing before you could consider it a polished gem. However, the better you get it now, the less you have to fix later.
Let’s see what our parking lot scene would look like with a proper once-over:
Rick walked through the underground parking lot in brisk strides as he headed for the red Volvo at the back corner of the lot. Of all days to park there, he had to do it today. He looked around nervously to ensure he wasn’t being followed, but the only thing that followed him were the echoes made by the soft clicking of his shoes.
The sudden, shrill chirp of his cell phone made him jerk, and his knuckles whitened when he saw the name on the screen: David.
“Dave, please tell me you’ve got good news,” he said, trying his best to hide the nervous tone in his voice, but failing miserably.
“I wish I could, Rick, but there’s unfortunately nothing good about it. He must have anticipated something was up, because he was long gone by the time we got there.”
“Damnit, David! If he gets away, I’m throwing you under the bus this time, getit?”
“He won’t get away again, Rick. We’re already chasing a few leads, and it’s only a matter of time before we catch him.”
“Fine,” Rick said. “Do what you gotta do, but just faster! I want him in custody before sunset, you understand?”
“Yeah,” David said. “Where are you, by the way? It would sure help if you were here to—”
Rick snapped shut the phone. He stopped walking and looked around. Something felt out of place, and gnawed at his gut that he should get the hell out of there. He unclipped his gun holster as he slipped the phone into his shirt pocket, and dropped down on his knees, looking underneath the cars to see if anyone else was in the lot with him.
Nothing.
“You’re losing it, Banks,” he chuckled as he got back up. “Pull yourself together, man.”
The last stretch to his car was uneventful, and Rick glanced around the parking lot one last time before getting into the vehicle. He slapped his briefcase on the seat next to him, and he briefly glimpsed the face in his rear-view mirror when a sharp, stabbing pain shot through his head.
“What the hell man?” Rick shouted while trying to protect the base of his skull.
“Do not move a muscle,” the man in the back seat threatened with a growl in his voice, “or I will not hesitate to blow your head off.”
“We’re on to you,” Rick said and scanned his hand for blood. “There’s no hiding anymore.”
“I’m innocent. I didn’t do it. Palmer framed me.”
“If what you’re saying is true,” Rick said, “then just give yourself up so we can talk about this. If you really are innocent, the evidence will show it, and the law will take its course.”
“It’s not that simple, Detective Banks. I’ve been framed. That means that all evidence had been tampered with in order to incriminate me.”
“We will find a way, James, I give you my word.”
“Not good enough!”
“So what are you gonna do, James? Kill me? Will doing that prove your innocence to a jury?”
“I’m not going to kill you, no,” James said. “I need you to do something for me.”
Ricked scanned the face in the mirror and wondered for a split second whether he should make a move to subdue the fugitive.
“Don’t even think about it, Banks,” James said and pressed the gun against the back of Rick’s head.
Rick exhaled slowly. “I’m not going to do anything stupid,” he said. “What do you want me to do?”
James eased off the gun. “I need you to speak to Maloney. He’s the only one that can clear my name.”
“Maloney? Why? What does he have to do with your wife’s murder?”
“Talk to him about that drug bust we did last year. You should be able to connect the dots from there.”
Rick frowned. “I don’t understand, James. What does the drug bust have to do with—?”
Pain shot through Rick’s head and he slumped forwards against his steering wheel. When he finally came to, it took another minute for his blurry vision to clear. When he realized where he was, his hand instinctively shot to his gun holster.
But it was too late.
James, along with the briefcase, was long gone.
Total Time Spent: 25 minutes
Total Words: 704
And that’s it! There’s your scene! If all goes well, you hacked it out in 45 minutes or less. You can now take a well-deserved break before tackling the next one. Keep the break short though, no longer than half an hour, and then reset the timer and blow the next scene out of the water.
Don’t feel like this is the only way to do it. You need to tweak the bits that doesn’t work for you until you find a system that does. It’s not about copying what I’m doing, but finding your own method of getting your scenes from your head to your doc file in as little time as possible.
In a nutshell, the Turbo Scenes method of writing is all about getting the skeleton of a scene out of your brain and onto file—or even paper—as quickly as possible. From there, it’s just a matter of fleshing it out and sculpting it to its final form. Once you have all your scenes nailed down, you have a book. It’s then a matter of simply editing and re-writing until you have your final product.
To begin, determine the main action points of the scene. What should happen? Why does the scene exist? What purpose does the scene serve towards your final story?
When done, break your scene down into a BEGINNING, MIDDLE and END. Structure the scene based on your main action points, and write a few sentences under each heading to describe the events that unfold. Try to keep this within 5 to 10 minutes, max.
Now comes the part where you hit Turbo Boost and get that scene out of your system. Using basic SUBJECT, VERB, OBJECT sentences that range from around 3 to 7 or so words to capture the basic skeleton of the scene. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or punctuation. The critical point here is to just get it out as quickly as you possibly can. Depending on the complexity of your scene, this should take 10 to 20 minutes.
Finally, go over each sentence of your skeleton scene, and flesh it out to the best of your abilities. Try to get it as close to perfect as you can, but keep in mind that it would still require some editing and re-writing later. If your skeleton scene is properly structured, it shouldn’t take longer than 20 to 30 minutes to dress it up and produce your (almost) final product.
Take a small break, and then rinse and repeat. Before you know it, you’ll have a complete manuscript, ready for proof-reading and editing.
And that’s it! That’s how my system works: Simply get the scene out as quickly as you can, and then flesh it out and edit it afterwards. I hope that this method works for you during those times that writing becomes a burden, and you just need to smash through that difficult scene in order to get your rhythm going again.
I will upload my short story, Love and a .38 next time. Hope you enjoy reading it!
Cheerios!
LdR
Image Credit: The image I used at the very top is a free stock image, and does not require attribution. I'll still link to it though. You can get it here.