Timothy's Thoughts

S tories are made up of scenes. Every story has at least one scene and most have many. With novels, we often think in terms of chapters, but a chapter is just an arbitrary means of dividing the text into chunks that can be read conveniently in one setting. The scene is a basic unit of a story. A chapter may contain several, but it is conceivable that a scene will cross the boundaries of chapters, though this rarely happens. A scene has a setting. A scene that takes place at night in a trailer is very different from a scene that takes place during the day that the White House. When a story changes setting, we change to a different scene. A scene has a cast. Suppose we place our protagonist in a trailer at night. He does something and then leaves. That is a scene. Now, if our antagonist shows up at the same trailer and has no interaction with our protagonist, does something and leaves, that is a completely different scene. A scene shows change. If we enter a scene one way, we s...

On the surface, when we consider the difference between guy fiction and gal fiction, we might say that guy fiction is about blowing things up and gal fiction is about relationships, but if we look at a guy movie like Die Hard we can see that the main character just wants to rebuild his relationship with his wife and the bad guys are getting in the way. In other words, guy fiction is about some of the same things gal fiction is. The true difference, if there is one, is in how the protagonist solves the problem. In both, the protagonist will debate until he or she figures out what action to take, but that is where things change. In guy fiction, the action that the protagonist takes tends to be more physical. He might not blow something up, but he might build something or go somewhere or stand in front of thousands of people to ask his girlfriend to marry him. In gal fiction, the action is more subdued. The action she takes might be to talk to someone, even though she fears how he will r...