{"id":12675,"date":"2023-07-14T13:25:07","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T20:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=12675"},"modified":"2023-07-14T13:25:24","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T20:25:24","slug":"beats-plunge-readers-into-scenes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/beats-plunge-readers-into-scenes\/","title":{"rendered":"Beats Plunge Readers Into Scenes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Guest Blogger Jan Pezarro shares what she learned about beats, using her experience with lung cancer to illustrate physical, emotional, and setting beats.<\/em> I\u00a0 hope you enjoy this entertaining and informative writing about different kinds of beats as much as I did.<\/em> \u2014 Marlene<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan Pezarro:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cA few beats missing here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first year of my MFA program, after 40 years in business and on my way to fulfill a long-held ambition to write a book, my mentor added this comment to my submission. I was pretty sure she wasn\u2019t referring to golden or purple beets, but neither did I know exactly what she meant by \u201cbeats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My knowledge gap of storycraft tools and techniques was formidable. Lectures on structure, place, scene, and character sent me repeatedly to the internet for supplemental tutoring. The process reminded me of trying to read a text in the original Greek by translating each word in turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mentor\u2019s margin note sent me scurrying back online, where I learned there are several kinds of beats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may be familiar with the \u201cBlake Snyder beat sheet<\/a>,\u201d a method for sequencing screenplay scenes, which Snyder describes in his groundbreaking book,\u00a0Save the Cat!<\/a>\u00a0His fifteen beats offer screenwriters a template for tracking their heroes\u2019 pursuit of their goals, from \u201cOpening Image\u201d to \u201cFinal Image\u201d and all the plot events, wins, losses and subplots in between. Jessica Brody has since adapted Snyder\u2019s beat sheet for novelists and memoirists in\u00a0Save the Cat! Writes a Novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the kind of beats I\u2019m focusing on these days relate to smaller units of storytelling\u2014sentences or phrases\u2014that help plunge readers into the scene. Action beats, for example, depict what the character is physically doing, emotion beats reveal the character\u2019s feelings, and setting beats provide context and depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Action seemed like a suitable jumping-off place. I went hunting for a place in my draft memoir where I could replace a dialogue tag (he said, she said) with an action beat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I was not sufficiently recovered from surgery, we would have to cancel the trip. \u201cI should be OK with a September date,\u201d I said. \u201cThat leaves two months for post-op recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revision:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI should be OK with a September date.\u201d My shoulders slumped as I sighed in despair. But in the next moment, I straightened and looked at Andy. \u201cIt still leaves two months for post-op recovery.\u201d I would just have to heal faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just writing the action beat took me back to the moment. I could feel the hopelessness that I would be unfit for travel, and the moment of resolve that I would make it work. The beat added to the wordcount but made the narrative more interesting and moved the plot forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, I looked for opportunities to replace an emotion (sad, happy, angry, etc.) with an emotion beat that would reveal more about my character\u2019s internal state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave you ever experienced stigma because you have lung cancer?\u201d Linda asked sadly. \u201cIt really hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revision:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave you ever experienced stigma because you have lung cancer?\u201d Linda hugged herself as her eyes filled with angry tears. \u201cIt really hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emotion beat disposed of a dreaded adverb and added insight into the motivation for Linda\u2019s next action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A setting beat avoids halting the forward pace of the story by having a character take action within the setting, talking while observing the setting, or emotionally reacting to the setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The operating room looked like an ordinary room: four white walls with just a few cabinets and a long table covered with a gleaming array of medical instruments. The surgical team stood around a narrow bed in the centre of the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revision:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The orderly wheeled my gurney into the operating room, maneuvering around a long table covered with a gleaming array of implements that looked like a buffet carving station. I didn\u2019t recognize the room from what I\u2019d seen in television medical shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turned my head to look at him. \u201cIt looks like an ordinary room, not an operating theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The orderly arched a tweezed eyebrow and waved a hand at the assembled surgical team of ten. \u201cWhat do you mean by an ordinary room?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding action beats and dialogue to the setting picked up the pace while providing additional detail about the orderly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding and using beats with purpose has enriched my storytelling and breathed life into my characters. Best of all, I can\u2019t wait to begin the revision process\u2014to find places and spaces to achieve different effects and improve my scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All I had to do was get the beats in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally posted as \u201cI Have The Beat<\/a>,\u201d in Brevity\u2019s Nonfiction Blog, June 28, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan Pezarro<\/strong>\u00a0uses the power of storytelling to entice consumers, influence politicians, and motivate employees. She is currently querying a series of essays exploring the psychological impacts of illness caused by personal behaviour. Jan is an MFA student at the University of King\u2019s College in Nova Scotia and is 40,000 words into her first book, a memoir called\u00a0Breathing Lessons: How To Outlive Lung Cancer With Medicine And Mindset. Read more on her\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Blogger Jan Pezarro shares what she learned about beats, using her experience with lung cancer to illustrate physical, emotional, and setting beats. I\u00a0 hope you enjoy this entertaining and informative writing about different kinds of beats as much as I did. \u2014 Marlene Jan Pezarro:  \u201cA few beats missing here.\u201d In the first year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[1907,755,1852,1906,1908],"class_list":["post-12675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-blake-snyder","tag-brevity","tag-brevity-non-fiction-blog","tag-jan-pezarro","tag-save-the-cat"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-3ir","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12675"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12682,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12675\/revisions\/12682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}