And … Scene!
From “Imprint” by Robert Grubbs, Thread (Photo by EBB)
A writer should set an inviting scene to welcome a reader into her universe. Context allows a reader to feel in safe hands. Even if that place is unfamiliar. The right detail can initially draw a reader in but it’s the scene that keeps them there. Readers can then settle in to follow the storyline and feel the feels.
This month, I’m diving into the second of Ellen’s Eight Essential Elements: scene.
In the one-sentence essay below, “Imprint” published in my literary magazine, Thread, Robert Grubbs describes an experience that from start to finish takes only a few minutes, but is built on many small scenes. Each help anchor the reader in space throughout the piece.
As I chase Lucy, our new puppy, down the hallway after she has just peed on our rug, it evokes a memory from early childhood, not
just any memory, but what I am certain is the first one I have of my mother, a young mother and a young me, somewhere between
two and three years old, having just done something I wasn’t supposed to do, although what exactly I can’t recall, and her taking
what she felt were the necessary steps to punish me and prevent me from doing it again, and like most young children I didn’t like
being punished so I ran from her as quick as my tiny legs would take me, first through the kitchen and then into the hallway, which in
my memory is so big that every footstep echoes but in reality only spans about ten feet, and I end up in my room, where in the
corner sits a play tent decorated with Disney characters and that because it is white and the room is dark is practically glowing and
lures me to jump inside and hide, even as I hear my mother’s voice yelling my name from down the hall, her Filipino accent getting
stronger as she becomes enraged by my disobedience, with each threat I feel my fear growing inside the tent, the thin nylon walls
unable to protect me and where eventually my mother’s shadow appears and grows menacingly as she approaches, and after she
finds me, I receive a firm spanking that is as much about my mother’s need to release her frustration as it is about correcting my
behavior, but what has stayed with me through the years is how consumed with anger she was and how fearful I was of her, the
person who at that point in my life I loved the most.
By my count, Robert set four scenes. He chases his new puppy down the hall which reminds him of a memory as a young child running from the kitchen into the hallway and into his bedroom where he takes us into his play tent where the “thin nylon walls” were unable to protect him.
In many ways, scenes are characters in your story. So much of our sensibilities are formed by place, especially the places where memorable things happened. They not only create a visual, but a mood and have a way of sticking with us just as certain people do.
Which brings me to the way scene impacts our lives beyond words.
Taking note of your environment - specifically how you feel in it - is living wholly in the present tense. Staying there not only cultivates observational skills that are useful for writing and other creative endeavors, but can also nurture curiosity and gratitude.
When you become more aware of how a place leaves its mark, you have the chance to make different choices.
Coming Up
“When Everything Changed: Writing Your Marker Story,” Story Studio Chicago (online), Tuesday, April 29, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm.