Books on Staging?

Jaligard · Oct 25, 2012

I am looking for a writing book with good advice on staging.

Obviously, if I google or hit Barnes & Noble search, I get books on writing for the stage. I need something on the physical movements of my characters in space.

I'm guessing a book on action scenes my help.

Any advice? Thanks in advance!

WeaselFire · Oct 25, 2012

Staging is a part of writing writing for the stage, so you aren't far off with the search results.

When you Googled/Binged "Writing Action Scenes," what came up?

Jeff

Jaligard · Oct 25, 2012

WeaselFire said:
When you Googled/Binged "Writing Action Scenes," what came up?

Nothing useful. I get little lists of advice for writing action scenes. Stuff like:

Ensure that the events unfold in “real time,” allowing the reader to feel he is participating in the events of the scene.
Make the pace quick, and include some kind of physical movement.
Force the protagonist to make quick decisions or react—to run on instinct rather than intellect.
Create unexpected consequences for the protagonist to heighten the drama.

My real problem is specific: how to make clear where everyone is when they do what they're doing. I don't want to bog people down in description.

Most of my novel is fine, but I've got one scene where it's easy to get confused. I'd like to clear things up.

I'm not worried too much about the description of the action itself, I'm just lousing up the staging some. If there was a book that covered this, even in a chapter, I'd love to read it.

Jamesaritchie · Oct 25, 2012

Good novels are the best books for this,

lemonhead · Oct 25, 2012

Jamesaritchie said:
Good novels are the best books for this,

Yeah. As a googler-galore of this specific topic, I've found this to be true.

Also, weirdly, a small book on writing sex scenes (by AW's very own Stacia Kane) helped quite a bit. One of the few writing books I've purchased. I guess because sex is very action orientated, and the same action, that it helped.

WeaselFire · Oct 26, 2012

lemonhead said:
Also, weirdly, a small book on writing sex scenes (by AW's very own Stacia Kane)...

Okay, you convinced me to buy.

Stacia, you owe him a beer.

Jeff

L.C. Blackwell · Oct 27, 2012

WeaselFire said:
Okay, you convinced me to buy.

Stacia, you owe ~~him~~ her a beer.

Jeff

I'm no stage manager, but I find it helps to do a couple of things in trying to orient the reader to a scene:

*orient from the POV's character's standpoint--where everyone else is in relation to that character.
*move in a logical line of sight--near to far, left to right, up to down or vice versa. Don't start in the middle and then try to go both directions.
*imagine you have a movie camera on. What's in focus? How does the camera move to capture the scene?

I'm sure there's much more comprehensive material out there, but these are the basics I use the most.

Edit: If that's what you were asking for. I'm not sure it was.

BethS · Oct 28, 2012

Jaligard said:
Most of my novel is fine, but I've got one scene where it's easy to get confused. I'd like to clear things up.

I'm not worried too much about the description of the action itself, I'm just lousing up the staging some. If there was a book that covered this, even in a chapter, I'd love to read it.

If you have a specific scene that needs help, maybe you could post it in SYW and let others offer some advice. Otherwise, what Jamesaritchie said.

Books on Staging?

Jaligard

tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper

WeaselFire

Benefactor Member

Jaligard

tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper

Jamesaritchie

lemonhead

Life isn't all beer and skittles.

WeaselFire

Benefactor Member

L.C. Blackwell

Keeper of Fort Blanket

BethS