Want a jump start a scene? Try pretending.
Pretend you’re the character that you’re trying to write about, and pretend you’re about to go on stage to deliver your lines. What are your lines? Think of three sentences your character would say aloud, and then think of three different people who would respond to these lines. Write this down.
Then take the three lines you have designated for your protagonist and add the answers to the following questions:
What is the setting for the “stage” (landscape) where your protagonist has to go out and say something? Are you on Broadway and 42nd Street, auditioning for a musical? Are you in Gulf State just before a hurricane hits? Are you in an elevator just after the power has gone out?
What time of day is it? What time of year? Is your protagonist appropriately dressed? Cold?
What is the one quirk you need to give your protagonist? For example, is she a doctor who can’t stand the sight of blood? Or a trapeze artist who gets vertigo?
Now, mix it all together. The landscape, the external feelings of cold or heat mixed in with the anxiety of not being able to perform one’s duty. Toss in the inappropriate responses by the three people at beginning of the exercise and you’ve got the crunchy outer shell of a scene.
Bon Appetit!