Question: Tent Pole Follow-up
21 Sep
A reader writes:
A few months back, you posted (here) on the idea of carefully crafted “tent poles” — which, as I read it, meant key scenes, Big Moments, not necessarily with fights and explosions but with a lot of propulsive (even if intellectual) energy. You didn’t say explicitly in your post to construct the tent poles first, and then go back and cover them with canvas (as it were). But that’s what I’ve been experimenting with. And I think it’s working. So far.
My question: can you think of a handy set of guidelines for how to establish a rhythm of such scenes? This might factor in the length of the novel, the kind (action-y vs. less so), maybe the number of characters, the POV, whatever. I’ve got one HUGE tent-pole moment — the climactic chapter — and maybe six or eight lesser ones. Structurally, I can imagine a plotline in which the tent poles were gradually ramping up to the huge one; I can imagine a rhythm established by the lengths of these scenes, and the lengths of the scenes which tie them together; I can imagine a rhythm in which the energy alternates more or less evenly, going UP, down, UP, down, etc. until finally there’s a sort of pause — an extended down, I guess you could say, followed by the big UPPPP of that last one. Not looking for some precise mathematical or geometric rule, of course. Just wondering if you see relative value in one vs. another.
Without seeing the work it’s impossible for me to give you feedback on structure, but I think you’re on the right track in how you’re thinking about tent poles:
You seem to get that the number of tent poles is finite
If you feel you have 27 key scenes then you either can’t tell the major from the minor or you’re trying to do too much in one work.
You’re right about rhythm
Go too long between tent pole moments and your reader might get bored. Pack them too close together and your reader might feel overwhelmed. Finding that right balance between tension and release is key.
You’re also right that tent poles don’t have to involve plot, big character movement, etc.
While pondering this question I kept thinking about the scene in the film Gone with the Wind when Scarlett O’Hara is at the train depot and the camera cranes up to reveal wounded Confederate soldiers stretching to the horizon.
A tent pole moment can be as seemingly insignificant as a transition or an aside, but it has that “wow” factor that makes you love the work and want to keep going.
Final thought:
Getting back to your question about sequencing, I think the best thing you can do is to stay loose and playful.
Screenwriters and television writers often write the gist of scenes on note cards and pin them to a cork board.
See what happens when turn your tent pole moments into building blocks that you can move around in space.
Thanks for the bit about not every scene being a tent-pole scene. I don’t think of it this way, because I tend to write major scenes that “pivot” plot and character, but I have a scene in my book where the MC is talking to his little brother because their adoptive father has died. The crit group unilaterally loved the scene but I also got several comments along the line of “what’s the revelation in it?”
It’s actually a bridge scene. It’s meant to be that. It shows world and character and the MC becomes a bit more determined about what he must do. But there are no reversals in it. And I know, for the pacing of the book, that’s all right.
This is great advice. Thanks!
After your August hiatus you said you hoped to focus more on craft, less on marketing. Fwiw, that sounded great to me; this post is a perfect example.
P.S. And I like what bets added, too. I’m leery of “Thou shalt/shalt not” absolutes!