Day 2 – What I learned …

[Deb Johnson]

What I learned rewriting my scene:

This scene is where the hero and his former love interest reunite after not seeing each other for 10 years. I wanted to create a scene that delivers strong characterization, where each character speaks and acts from their character profiles.

The conflict comes from their differences… and they quickly go into attack mode.

As a twist at the end of the scene, I added some dialogue between two conspirators who pretend they don’t know one another… some subtext that will pay off later.

[Isti Madarasz]

When Harry meet Sally… what a great scene! We get to know a little our two character just by watching them argue while eating. It’s not even the dialogue yet, the way Harry eats his sandwich, big bites, talking while chewing, we can see into his mouth but he’s not embarrassed at all – he’s always right, a real macho. Whereas sally, on the other hand, eats like a fine, feminine woman. She scoops all the ham out of her sandwich and ends up with a cheese sandwich. She takes small bites, eats elegantly and maintains her delicacy throughout.

When she starts faking the orgasm the good thing is that she doesn’t stop halfway. She’s not afraid to be loud, she doesn’t care if everyone is watching – she goes through with it. Harry watches her quietly, but his look, his quiet shame, has it all – this woman is gaining on him now.

What I learned, that I have to take every opportunity to colour the character further. General action is the stupidest thing ever, every movement, even a simple walk out the door is a great opportunity to further detail my characters.

[Mary Dietz]

Watching the Harry Meets Sally clip, I noticed that even the way the characters handled their food was unique. The dialogue was very clear about the issue: do men really understand women?

I’m working on a scene where a family is gathered to make major decisions after a death in the family. This is a perfect time for me to emphasize the hopes and fears, habits and interests of the various characters. I need to get more explicit and emphatic. I’m working with six characters in two generations and two genders.