Once of the maxims I’ve always tried to adhere to is that every scene in every book should always accomplish at least two things. The first is to allow the reader a window into whatever is happening on the surface, the ‘Now’. The second is to allow the reader to either get a glimpse into the future, or the past. The ‘Then’. Even if two characters are sitting around, having a cup of coffee, there should always be a subtext there, even if one character is asking the other about their day. Perhaps what they’re talking about on the surface is their day, but maybe something in the scene gives a glimpse into tension between these two characters.
On the surface, it’s just a scene of two guys having a cup of Joe. But what it one character believes the other had an affair with his wife, yet doesn’t want to full out accuse him? He wants to draw it out, suggest things, see how the other guy reacts. Perhaps that character then uses code words, acts passive-aggressively. Maybe he talks about a girl the other guy used to date, maybe he uses a bad word to see how the other guy reacts. On the surface it’s just two guys having a cup, but beneath that there’s a simmering tension, and you’re allowing the reader to feel the steam on their face.
One of my favorite examples of this is in Dennis Lehane’s MYSTIC RIVER. Dave Boyle is a character who’s been keeping a secret, and his childhood friend, Jimmy Marcus, meets him at a bar for a drink. Now, on the surface this is two guys having a few beers on a lazy afternoon. But the subtext is that Jimmy thinks Dave might have killed his daughter, and he wants to see the guy squirm. He wants to know the truth. It’s a brilliant, wrenching scene, mainly because of what ‘doesn’t’ happen. Those of you who read the book or saw the movie know what happens next, but when you’re reading the story for the first time, you’re biting your nails, on the edge of your seat. It’s just two guys having a beer…but in the end it’s really not about that at all.
Every scene can accomplish two things. Whether it’s a bloody murder, a graphic sex scene, or just a girl sitting on a swingset. Maybe the murderer cleans up after his crime, showing that he cannot bear to look at the atrocity he has just committed. Maybe a woman refuses to kiss a man she makes love to because a kiss is far more intimate than sex (yes, I have seen “Pretty Woman”). Maybe a girl on a swingset looks at a fresh mound of dirt where she buried her childhood pet. In each of these scenes there is something beneath the surface, accomplishing not just the ‘Now’ but then ‘Then’ as well. They shade the characters, giving them depth.
Their moods, the way they go about their business, each different aspect of that scene should give depth to the action being performed. The ‘Now’ is the surface. How they act in the ‘now’, what they say and how they say it, that gives the reader a tantalizing look into ‘Then’.
