What's this scene doing for your story?

When you're writing a scene, it's important to know what your characters want.

What are they trying to accomplish? What tactics are they using? What stands in their way?

But there's another question worth asking, one that looks beyond the scene itself:

How does this scene contribute to the larger story?

A scene can have a clear objective, compelling conflict, and interesting character dynamics and still feel disconnected from the story as a whole.

For example, say you write a great argument between two characters. They have opposing viewpoints, they're both fighting to get their way, and the dialogue is full of tension.

But if that argument doesn't connect to the larger struggle at the heart of your story, you might have a scene that works on its own but isn't actually pulling its weight in your screenplay. And could even be hurting it.

Every scene is part of a larger pursuit

At the core of your story is the main conflict. A central struggle. Your protagonist is trying to accomplish something, or solve a problem. Whatever form it takes, this pursuit gives the story its direction.

The scenes in your screenplay work together to develop this larger story.

Sometimes your protagonist makes progress toward the goal. Sometimes they encounter a new obstacle, suffer a setback, or discover that the problem is more complicated than they thought.

Sometimes a scene changes their understanding of what they're up against, forcing them to rethink their approach.

And sometimes the protagonist isn't even in the scene. We might be watching an antagonist make a move, or two supporting characters have a conversation that will complicate the protagonist's efforts.

Scenes can contribute to the larger story in different ways. What matters is that they work together to create a cohesive, developing narrative.

Connect the scene goal to the story goal

One way to evaluate a scene's contribution to the larger story is to look at what your characters want in that scene and how their immediate objectives relate to the overall story goal.

Let's say your protagonist is trying to find her missing sister.

In one scene, she visits a former friend of her sister's. Her immediate objective is to get him to tell her what he knows.

That's a clear scene goal, and we can see how it serves the larger pursuit: she's trying to gather information that will help her find her sister.

But what happens if the conversation drifts into an extended argument about their falling-out five years ago?

That argument might be entertaining. It might reveal something about their personalities or their shared history. It might even be emotionally compelling.

But if it doesn't affect her attempt to get information, change our understanding of the search, or develop their relationship in a way that matters to the larger story, we have to wonder what the scene is contributing.

The problem isn't necessarily that the scene lacks conflict. It's that the conflict may not be contributing anything meaningful to the larger story.

Now, this doesn't mean every scene needs to move the protagonist one step closer to achieving the goal.

A scene can complicate the pursuit rather than advance it. It can reveal that an apparent ally can't be trusted, expose a flaw in the protagonist's approach, or introduce information that changes the nature of the problem.

The protagonist might even abandon an immediate objective in favor of something more urgent.

What matters is that we can see how the scene connects to the ongoing story.

When a scene doesn't directly advance the plot

Of course, not every scene needs to involve the protagonist actively pursuing the goal, or even have an obvious connection to that pursuit.

Your protagonist might be trying to maintain a relationship, deal with a personal problem, or navigate a situation that seems unrelated to the central conflict.

And that's fine. Stories need room for characters to live, interact, and reveal themselves beyond the immediate demands of the plot.

But these scenes still need to contribute something to the story.

A scene between your protagonist and her husband might reveal an issue in their marriage that will complicate her efforts later. A quiet moment alone might expose the fear driving her behavior. A seemingly ordinary interaction might establish a pattern that becomes significant when things escalate.

The connection doesn't have to be obvious or mechanical. It doesn't have to advance the plot in a literal sense.

But you should understand what the scene contributes to the audience's experience of the story.

Does it deepen our understanding of the protagonist? Change the dynamics of an important relationship? Establish something that will matter later? Develop the central conflict in an indirect way?

If you can identify the contribution, you're making a deliberate choice about how the scene fits into the larger whole. If you can't, it's worth asking whether the scene belongs at all in its current form.

The question to ask when you're writing or revising

When you're outlining a screenplay or working through a draft, take a look at each scene and ask:

What's this scene doing for my story?

Start with the immediate objective. What does the character want in this moment, and why?

Then zoom out. How does this scene contribute to the larger story? Does it affect the protagonist's pursuit, change the situation, develop a meaningful relationship, or reveal something important about a character?

If the answer isn't clear, that doesn’t automatically mean you need to cut the scene.

Maybe you need to clarify what the character is trying to accomplish. Maybe the scene needs a stronger connection to the central conflict. Or maybe the scene contains an interesting interaction that would be more meaningful if you changed the circumstances surrounding it.

A screenplay isn’t just a collection of scenes. And writing a great screenplay isn’t just about writing entertaining standalone scenes (although that’s an excellent skill to have!).

The real challenge is making those scenes work together to tell a compelling story.

Until next time,

Naomi