1. Introduction
2. Mastering the Scene – Where Action Happens
3. Crafting the Sequel – Where Characters Process and Decide
4. Weaving Scenes and Sequels – Advanced Construction Techniques
5. Writing Exercise: The Scene-Sequel Chain
6. Conclusion
7. Additional Resources

Introduction

Picture Katniss Everdeen stepping forward to volunteer as tribute, or that moment when Darth Vader delivers his crushing revelation: “I am your father.” These lightning bolt moments grab us by the throat and refuse to let go. But here’s the question every writer needs to answer: What happens in the space between those dramatic peaks? What keeps readers turning pages when the explosions stop and the dust settles?

Most writers obsess over creating exciting scenes—the car chases, the passionate kisses, the devastating betrayals. But they struggle with what comes after. Here’s the secret: every story is built from alternating units of scene and sequel, and mastering this rhythm is the key to compelling plot construction. This isn’t about movie sequels, but about the structural element that follows every scene in your story. Today, you’ll learn how to craft both elements effectively and use this foundation to build plots that maintain momentum while allowing for character development and emotional processing.

Mastering the Scene – Where Action Happens

The Anatomy of a Scene

A scene is a unit of immediate, dramatic action that takes place in continuous time and space. Think of it as a mini-story with its own beginning, middle, and end. Every effective scene contains three essential components: Goal (what your POV character wants), Conflict (what stands in their way), and Disaster (the outcome that prevents them from achieving their goal easily). These elements work together to create forward momentum and keep readers invested in what happens next. I use two templates for my own scenes.

Scene Type	Story Beat	Description
Character-Focused	Exposition	Introduces character, setting, and emotional context
	Inciting Incident	Disrupts the character’s status quo, sparking internal change
	Rising Action	Builds tension through emotional or relational developments
	Dilemma	Forces the character to confront a difficult personal choice
	Climax	Emotional peak where the character makes a defining decision
	Denouement	Reflects on consequences and hints at future growth
Plot-Focused	Inciting Incident	Launches the external conflict or goal
	Progressive Complications	Escalates stakes through obstacles and twists
	Crisis (Best Bad Choice or Irreconcilable Goods)	Presents a high-stakes decision with no easy outcome
	Climax (Decision)	The protagonist acts, determining the story’s direction
	Resolution	Shows the outcome of the decision and sets up what’s next

This is something I’ve worked out through my writing practice, pulling from the teachings of others. You’re welcome to use, adjust, or totally disregard this approach.

Goal-Driven Momentum

Every scene must begin with a clear, specific goal that matters to your character and advances your overall plot. Weak goals like “I want to feel better” or “I need to figure things out” leave readers feeling directionless. Strong goals are concrete and urgent: “I need to convince my sister to lend me $500 before the bank opens tomorrow” or “I have to get past the security guard without him seeing my face.” These goals create immediate stakes and give readers something to root for. The key is making sure your character’s goal is something they actively pursue, not something that just happens to them.

This is something that I struggled with in my early stories, and which led to some scenes being abandoned. One way I like to keep my goal-driven momentum up is to focus on how this scene adds to or subtracts from the overall story goal. If the story goal is to save the world, then every scene leading up to that point should either contribute to your character’s goal or take away from it. So, break it down, what are the top ten steps to saving the world? Then what are the top ten ways to hold your character back from saving the world? That could be twenty scenes, or you could overlap these. Either way, it makes sure that your scene is maintaining a goal.

For example, you can look at The Knife of Never Letting Go where Todd Hewitt is focused on survival, and this is clear even from the opening of the book. Each scene brings him not only closer or further from physical survival, but also the survival of innocence. If you haven’t read this great book by Patrick Ness, I highly recommend it!

Conflict as the Engine

Conflict drives your scenes forward through opposition, obstacles, and complications. Conflict isn’t always physical; it can be a disagreement, a problem, or even an internal struggle. You can use person vs. person conflict (the security guard questions your character), person vs. environment (the bank’s security system malfunctions), person vs. self (your character’s conscience battles their desperation), or person vs. society (the bank’s policies prevent the loan). The key is escalating tension throughout the scene, making things progressively more difficult for your character.

The Story Grid method approach to scenes is a great way to look at this. They encourage focus on tiered progressive complications that build on one another. This has made my scene conflicts flow more naturally as I work through what would be the next level of oh no! Be careful with focusing negative conflict in this, it can make a depressing story. Remember that there’s positive conflict, like the character getting the dream job, only to realize it’s not everything they imagined.

The Disaster That Hooks

Scenes that end with a disaster, an outcome that creates new problems or complications for your character, work as stronger hooks than those that don’t. This doesn’t mean every scene ends with a catastrophe, but it does mean your character can’t simply achieve their goal and move on. Disasters can range from complete failure (the security guard catches them) to “yes, but” outcomes (they get past the guard but trigger a silent alarm) to “no, and” results (the guard stops them and recognizes them from a wanted poster). These disasters compel readers to continue because they create new questions and raise the stakes for what comes next.

Crafting the Sequel – Where Characters Process and Decide

The Sequel’s Essential Function

The sequel is your character’s emotional and intellectual processing of the scene’s disaster. While scenes are about action and conflict, sequels are about reflection and decision-making. They provide necessary breathing room for both character and reader, allowing for emotional development and planning without losing story momentum. Think of sequels as the bridge between scenes, they’re where your character processes what just happened and decides what to do next.

The Three-Part Structure

Every sequel contains three components: Reaction (immediate emotional response to the disaster), Dilemma (weighing options and consequences), and Decision (choosing the next course of action). The reaction shows your character’s authentic emotional response—fear, anger, relief, or desperation. Their dilemma lies in considering options, often revealing character through choices considered and rejected. The decision becomes the goal for your next scene, creating an unbroken chain of cause and effect that drives your plot forward.

Emotional Authenticity

Sequels are where you develop character depth through authentic emotional responses. Match your character’s reactions to the seriousness of the situation. More importantly, each character’s unique personality should influence their processing patterns. A naturally optimistic character might quickly focus on solutions, while a pessimistic one might dwell on worst-case scenarios. This consistency helps readers understand and connect with your characters.

Pacing Through Sequel Length

Sequel length dramatically affects your story’s pacing. Short sequels keep action movies exciting. Imagine a thriller where the character has to act fast. Longer sequels allow for deeper character development in literary fiction, giving space for introspection and emotional complexity. The key is matching sequel length to your story’s needs and genre expectations. Fast-paced genres need shorter sequels, while character-driven stories can support more extended processing time.

Weaving Scenes and Sequels – Advanced Construction Techniques

The Chain Reaction Effect

The decision in each sequel becomes the goal for your next scene, creating an unbroken chain of cause and effect that drives your plot forward. This structure ensures that every scene connects logically to the next while maintaining escalating tension. When your character decides to confront their ex-partner in the sequel, that decision becomes the goal for the next scene. The disaster from that confrontation feeds into the next sequel, and so on. This creates the relentless forward momentum that keeps readers engaged.

Varying the Pattern

Once you understand the basic structure, you can manipulate it for specific effects. Speed up action scenes by combining short scenes, especially when the character’s in danger. Expand sequels for character-driven moments where emotional processing is more important than action. You can even break the pattern occasionally for dramatic effect, but only after you’ve established the rhythm. Advanced writers might layer multiple goals within a single scene or show abbreviated sequels through action rather than introspection.

Common Structural Mistakes

Watch out for these frequent errors: scenes without clear goals that leave readers confused about what’s happening, scenes that end with your character achieving their goal easily (no disaster), sequels that drag without moving the story forward, missing sequels that leave characters’ emotional responses unaddressed, and goals that don’t connect to your overall story arc. Focus on the basics: each scene needs a goal, conflict, and disaster; each sequel needs reaction, dilemma, and decision.

Genre Applications

The scene-sequel structure adapts beautifully across genres, but the emphasis shifts. Romance stories often emphasize emotional sequels where characters process their feelings and relationship dynamics. Thrillers use compressed sequels and rapid scenes to maintain breakneck pacing. Literary fiction extends sequels for introspection and deeper character exploration. Fantasy and science fiction might use sequels for world-building and explaining complex concepts. The structure remains the same, but you adjust the proportions based on what your genre and story need.

Writing Exercise: The Scene-Sequel Chain

Setup (2 minutes): Think of a simple conflict your character faces: asking for a favor, confronting a problem, or trying to get information. Write one sentence establishing your character and their situation.

Round 1: Build Your Scene (5 minutes) Write a short scene (150-200 words) that includes:

• Goal: What does your character want in this specific moment?
• Conflict: What obstacle or opposition do they face?
• Disaster: How does it go wrong? (Complete failure, “yes but,” or “no and”)

Focus on immediate action and dialogue. Keep it moving forward.

Round 2: Craft Your Sequel (5 minutes) Write the sequel that follows (100-150 words) including:

• Reaction: How does your character feel about the disaster?
• Dilemma: What options do they consider? What are the consequences?
• Decision: What do they decide to do next?

This should be more internal—thoughts, emotions, and planning.

Round 3: Chain Into the Next Scene (3 minutes) Start the next scene using your character’s decision as the new goal. Write just the opening (50-75 words) showing:

• The setup for the next disaster
• The character pursuing their new goal
• Immediate conflict arising

Conclusion

Scene and sequel form the fundamental rhythm of storytelling, creating the pulse that keeps readers engaged from beginning to end. This structure provides a reliable framework for plot construction while allowing for creative flexibility and genre adaptation. It’s not a rigid formula but a flexible foundation that supports whatever story you’re trying to tell.

Here’s your challenge: Take your current work-in-progress and analyze one chapter. Identify the goal, conflict, and disaster in each scene, then ensure each sequel includes reaction, dilemma, and decision. Start small, master this rhythm in a single chapter before applying it to your entire manuscript. You might be surprised at how this simple structure transforms your plotting problems into manageable, solvable challenges.

Scene-sequel structure reflects life: we act, face results, reflect, then plan our next move. By mastering this natural rhythm, you can create stories that feel both dramatically satisfying and emotionally authentic. Your readers will thank you for it, even if they never understand why your story was so impossible to put down.

Additional Resources

Recommended Reading

• Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain (the original source for scene-sequel theory)
• Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell (modern applications)
• The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass (emotional depth in sequels)

Study Examples

• Literature: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• Classic examples: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Genre examples: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

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