Autopsy of a Scene: Full Breakdown of Writing a Scene in Fiction

Bella Rose Emmorey

book editor, rogue behaviorist, digital marketer, writer, brand builder, plant aunt, and cheese enthusiast.

Just because it’s dead doesn’t mean it didn’t live. Of course I’m talking about words, and therefore the autopsy of a scene. Specifically, writing a scene in fiction because it’s not as easy as most people think.
That’s why most people don’t write books. Cool people do. Cool people who like to torment themselves.
I digress.
Writing a scene is actually balancing a bunch of various elements that make up the construction of events in a specific way that conveys what you’re going for. There is a bit of technique to it.
The scene we’re conducting the autopsy on today is from The Hunger Games, when Katniss volunteers as tribute. It’ll be used in the examples, but you can apply these tips to any scene. 
Dissection: Elements to Balance When Writing a SceneThese elements are different from the goals of your scene, which I’ll cover below. With these, you’re thinking more about the parts of writing a scene. 
These are the tools you have to work with in order to construct it the scene, or rather, what we’ll use to dissect it:
Description: What does everything look like? Sound like? Feel like? What’s some background of what’s going on (exposition)? Create the visual with description and clue the reader in on need-to-know info.
Characterization / Inner World: Accomplished in many ways, characterization also often comes from the inner world—what they’re thinking and feeling—and it’s super important in any given scene. The way a character feels can set stakes. 
Dialogue: Who’s saying what. It’s pretty self-explanatory.
Action: This is where description in the narrative is specific to what is happening, the movement of the characters and events within the scene.
Rhythm: Are all your sentences monotone or is there a certain rhythm created that’s more interesting to read? Do you utilize rhythm to help with pacing?
Pacing: How fast or slow the scene is moving. Slower scenes often have more description and inner world. Faster scenes typically have more short dialogue with more action. Rhythm would slow or increase as the pacing does.
There will be varying degrees of each of these depending on the goal of the scene, your pacing, and overall style. Some authors naturally include more of a character’s inner world while others prefer to have the description do more of that heavy lifting.
The genre also makes a difference, as Young Adult tends to have more inner world, thriller has faster pacing, etc.
Some of this is easier to actually see than read. Here’s a snippet from The Hunger Games scene color coded for the various elements:
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As is fairly obvious, pointing out both pacing and rhythm is difficult to do, since they take place within the other elements. But you can visually see that the more dialogue and action, the faster paced the scene moves.
The more description and inner world, the slower it’s paced.
Discovery: How to Write a Scene in Order (Sort of)The exact order of a scene isn’t something you can just copy the template of. Scenes are varied in structure. It depends on your genre and your story. But in general, there should be a consistent motion of a scene.
You can move your scene through these pieces and add them as notes to your $ scene cards $ when $ outlining$ .
Step 1: Establish Wants, Motivations, GoalsThe reader should know what the characters wants in any given scene. Unless your goal is to truly craft a scene that’s mysterious in this way, we should have context based on their inner world and the story thus far.
This is why the beginning of stories are interesting, though. Because we don’t know the motivation until we get to know the character.
Either way, the goals of what they’re after should be clear.
In The Hunger Games, the goal of this scene becomes obvious through context. People die in the games. It’s tense as she stares at the paper slips. 
The goal, I would say, is still more nuanced. You might think it’s "don’t get picked" but in reality, the goal of the first chapters, and Katniss’s life as a whole, is: keep me and my family safe.
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Step 2: ObstaclesThe obstacles in your scene create the conflict and tension in the story. Something should be moving against the main character’s goals and motivations. Sometimes this is clear in an antagonist they’re facing off with. Other times it can even be their own behavior or weaknesses.
What is keeping the character from already having what they want in this scene?
In The Hunger Games, the ceremony and potential to be chosen for the games is the obstacle. But notice now the obstacle can actually move and change within a scene.
Here, there are two things keeping Katniss from keeping herself and her family safe:
1. Possibly being chosen for the games = her family is not safe because she’s the main provider, she will probably die
2. Prim being chosen for the games = her family is not safe because prim is 12 and will certainly die and her mother will be even worse off
When Prim is chosen for the games, the goal Katniss has also changes, in a way. She’s still focused on keeping her family safe, but discards her own safety in the process.
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Step 3: The StakesThe stakes are usually set with context and overall understanding of the character. In the case of The Hunger Games, the stakes are life and death, primarily. To Katniss, there is also the risk that her family will be harmed, go hungry, because she’s the main provider.
This is actually already established in chapter 1 when Gale is trying to convince Katniss to run away with him.
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Here, we learn how much Katniss’s family relies on her. So later when we learn there’s a risk she will leave if she’s chosen to compete, we know it’s dire for more than just Katniss.
When writing a scene, it’s important to make sure there’s some context for the stakes, or they’ve been established earlier in a different scene so when the obstacles arise, we know just what they’re keeping the character from achieving.
If the reader doesn’t care about the cost of what could happen, they won’t care about the scene.
Step 4: ProgressionA sense of progression is necessary for any good scene. Keep it moving forward. Sitting and spinning the same inner world wheels of the protagonist gets really annoying.
A huge complaint readers have with books is when "nothing happens".
Progression is the feeling of accomplishment and forward momentum, even if things aren’t being solved.
Naturally, in this scene’s example, progress has happened when they announce a name. A name is chosen. The plot continues.
When writing your own scene, think about what will happen next. What’s the result of this scene? Where does it take the story? If the answer you find is that your characters are in the same exact place as before the scene, you might want to rework it.
Of course, characters can get stuck and not progress in the way they want. But there should still be more plot when the scene is done. Something that came as a result.
After Prim is announces as the tribute, for example, Katniss doesn’t just sit and let it happen. She acts quickly and moves the scene forward by volunteering. This took the scene from:
No one is chosen > Prim is chosen > Katniss volunteers and will now compete.
That’s a lot of forward momentum in quick succession, which is pretty standard for the inciting incident of a YA book.
Step 5: Something UnexpectedThis is optional. Not every scene has to have a "twist", nor is every unexpected result actually a twist.
The point is that a protagonist has a plan (goal). They take action (progression) despite or because of their odds (obstacle). A result happens. Sometimes that result is something the character and reader wouldn’t have seen coming.
In this example, Katniss was focused on herself not being chosen. She talked about her own odds not being favored as of late, and also that she put 20 slips of paper with her name on it in the ball. She’s the main character.
So when Prim is called—previously established helpless and young Prim—it’s unexpected and throws both the reader and Katniss off.
Sometimes, you can have your character respond to this unexpected occurrence immediately, which is what Katniss did. Other times, your character would chalk it up to a failure and need to loop back and figure out what to do now. So that unexpected result becomes a new obstacle for a new scene.
Step 6: ResolutionThe outcome of the scene should be explored. This is when the pacing will slow down again, and we’ll get more of the internal world of the protagonist. When writing your own scene, this would look like cleaning up the weapon after a battle while deciphering where their assailants came from.
It looks like the long, slow walk home after failing to capture dinner after a long hunt and struggle, the MC kicking themselves and contemplating the consequences.
Re-establish where the main character is in terms of their emotional state and proximity to their main goal of the whole book.
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In this example, there’s a quick round-up of the rest of the events, and an establishing of where Katniss’s thoughts and feelings are as the chapter comes to a close.
TIP: Structuring for read throughTo get readers to continue reading, you can split scenes right at their peak. The reader will move to the next chapter to learn what happens (and if you want to $ earn more on Kindle Unlimited$ , it’s a good hack).
The first two chapters of The Hunger Games is a great example of how to split scenes. A scene and a chapter are different. You can have multiple scenes within a chapter and you can also split your scenes among chapters.
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Here, chapter 1 ends on a cliffhanger because we learn Prim’s name was chosen. The scene picks up immediately with the next chapter (though some would argue these are now separate scenes because the goal has now changed but we don’t have to be so nit picky).
Cause of Death: Loss of BalanceMore than anything, if your scene feels broken, go back to the basics and see where it’s unbalanced. Are you using all of the elements effectively? Are you doing too much inner world and description when you mean for it to be fast paced?
Have you established the goal and there’s a clear obstacle? Are you making progress or is nothing really happening?
Writing a scene takes practice. This all can seem convoluted and confusing, but if you pick up a few books and start identifying these elements in a scene, you’ll find them all there. Write your scene, then see what it needs to come alive.