Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Create an argument

Let’s say you’re stuck writing a flat scene. No matter how you’ve approached it, the scene just lays there.

No energy.
No zip.
No nothing.

Do what producer Larry Gordon told me: Create an argument.

Get your characters screaming at each other. That ought to put some heat into the scene.

For example, you’ve got a scene with a lot of exposition in it. Exposition scenes are notorious for being hard to handle because…

Well, you’ve got a lot of exposition to deal with.

Since exposition is largely facts and information… and facts and information are largely devoid of anything resembling excitement…

You’re pretty much looking at the cause of a flat scene. Like this:

Okay, the scene did get out some exposition: Sandra’s father’s 70th birthday is coming up. There’s going to be a party. Her family will be there. And Brad doesn’t want to go. But it’s not terribly entertaining, indeed, it’s basically a flat scene. Now what if we created an argument?