#128: What Are Obligatory Scenes And Conventions?

This is what's going to help you craft a story that works . Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast . My name is Savannah Gilbo and I'm here to help you write a story that works .

I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming , so each week , I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple , actionable and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away . So , whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft , this podcast is for you .

So pick up a pen and let's get started . In today's episode , we're going to talk about obligatory scenes and conventions and , specifically , how to find the obligatory scenes and conventions that readers would expect to see in a story like yours .

But before we get into definitions and specifics , I just want to do a little thought exercise , so play along with me as we imagine this scene . Let's pretend you're in a bookstore and you walk over to the romance section , and let's say that you grab a random book off the shelf full of romance novels .

What would you expect from the book in your hands before you even read the first page ?

Your answer might include things like a scene where the couple first meets , or a budding romance between the two main characters , maybe even a first kiss or more , depending on the heat level and eventually you would probably expect to get the answer to whether or not the couple gets together by the end of the story .

Does any of that sound like what you would expect from a romance novel ? I'm going to assume so , and we'll keep going with the example . So let's now imagine that you bought that romance novel , you took it home and you started reading it , but it was missing one or more of those things that you expected to see .

So , for example , maybe the focus of the story wasn't on the budding romance between two characters . If you were expecting that and you wanted to read a romance novel , would a story like this satisfy you or would it leave you disappointed ?

If you're like most readers , I'm guessing you would feel disappointed , confused and probably pretty unlikely to recommend that book to your friends . So in today's episode I want to talk about how to make sure your readers don't have this experience with your story .

So we're going to look at obligatory scenes and conventions , we're going to talk about what they are and then I'm going to share an exercise to help you uncover exactly what readers will expect to see in a story like yours .

Now , for the purpose of today's episode , we're going to say that a story quote unquote works when it delivers on and maybe even exceeds a reader's expectations . So this means the very first thing we need to figure out is exactly what a reader would expect from a story like ours .

Right , and you won't be able to do this if you don't know what kind of story you're writing . So the very , very first thing you need to do is identify your story's content genre . I have a whole episode on how to do that . It's episode number two . I will link to that in the show notes . But that's the very first thing .

Once you know your story's main content genre , you can dig in and find those obligatory scenes and conventions that readers are going to expect to see in a story like yours and then deliver those in your story in a new and exciting way . This is what's going to help you craft a story that works .

Okay , so we're going to go over some definitions in a second , but I want to say really quick I did not come up with these terms of obligatory scenes and conventions . This is something I learned from studying the work of Robert McKee . He talks about this in screenwriting , and then Sean Coyne , over at the Story Grid , adapted this into a method for novelists .

So if you do want to go deeper into learning about these things , definitely go check out Robert McKee's book Story or Sean Coyne's book the Story Grid . Now , without further ado , let's go over some definitions and we're going to start with conventions .

So conventions are a reasonably well-defined set of character , roles , settings and circumstances that are specific to a genre , so they're things that the readers will intuitively expect to be in a work of genre fiction , whether they consciously realize it or not .

Obligatory scenes , on the other hand , are the key events , decisions and discoveries that move the protagonist along their journey from A to Z . So these key scenes are what's going to help you evoke emotional reactions in the reader and , when coupled with your genre's conventions , they're going to help you give the reader the experience they're looking for .

So , as an example , let's just pretend a reader has chosen a murder mystery novel to read . They're probably expecting to feel intrigue as they work to solve the puzzle , right alongside the sleuth or the cop . Right In the beginning , they'll expect to see a scene where the dead body is found , because it's a murder mystery .

At the middle they're going to expect to uncover clues and learn new information . And then , towards the end , they'll expect to see a scene where the identity of the murderer is revealed and by the last page they'll expect to know whether that murderer is brought to justice or not .

Okay , so this is just another example of you know the key scenes and conventions that readers are already expecting when they go to a story of a certain genre . So something like a master detective that's a character role right , that would be a convention of the crime genre . Something like that detective discovering the dead body .

That would be one of your key scenes or obligatory scenes . Okay , now , beyond the obligatory scenes and conventions of your main genre or your global genre , there are going to be things that your readers expect from your commercial genre as well . So let's take the same example of the murder mystery and say that you're writing a gothic murder mystery .

Readers of a story like this are going to expect the story to be set in or around an ancient castle in the 19th or the late 18th century . Right , that's what would make it a gothic mystery novel .

If you're writing something like a supernatural romance , then readers would expect all of the key scenes and conventions of the romance genre , plus those supernatural elements and settings .

Now , these things might sound simple or obvious to you , but you would be surprised how many drafts I see that don't include these genre-specific elements or scenes that readers are expecting to see . And when a story doesn't include these key scenes and conventions of its genre , it's just not going to work .

So now that we know what obligatory scenes and conventions are , the next question is how do I find the obligatory scenes and conventions of my genre ? And if you've been in the writing world for any amount of time , you've probably heard the advice to read more .

And this is solid advice , because by reading more , you're subconsciously going to absorb all of the different aspects of your genre , and the more you read in your genre , the more these things will become automatic when you outline and write your next novel , you're going to be able to see how other writers handled those obligatory scenes and conventions in your genre

, which tropes have been done to death and so much more . So that is my primary advice to read more . But beyond that , there are three steps you can take to uncover the obligatory scenes and conventions of your genre . And step one is to identify three to five comp titles or comparable titles .

And these are stories like yours that would sit on the same bookshelf .

So , assuming that you already know your story's content genre , I recommend finding three to five books or movies that are similar to the story you're writing , that are also in that content genre . So , for example , let's say that I was writing a young adult coming of age romance , I might identify these three books as my comp titles .

So number one , the Fault in Our Stars by John Green . Number two , everything , everything by Nicola Yoon , and number three , simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli . So that's step one , just identifying three to five comp titles .

And if you're having trouble figuring out what genre you're writing in or what your comp titles are , I don't want you to give up . It is worth the time and the effort to figure it out , and you can even work with a developmental editor or book coach if you need one-on-one assistance . But you can ask yourself what story am I really trying to tell here ?

So focus on that main storyline , find similar stories to the one that you want to tell and then figure out what the genre of those three to five stories are . And then , just by going through the rest of the steps that we're going to go over now , you're going to learn so much about your story and build a really awesome framework .

So it is totally worth the effort . Okay , so that's step one identify those comp titles . And then step two we want to figure out what your comp titles have in common .

So as you read those three to five books that you've chosen , or watch the movie version of those books because that counts too I want you to write down everything you notice that they have in common . So think of this list that you're creating as the first draft of your obligatory scenes and conventions .

You're going to edit and refine this list later as you go through each of your comp titles . Then , once you're done , you're going to organize your notes into scenes and conventions and then you can summarize and combine those notes where appropriate , to get a statement that expresses the idea in a generic way in as few words as possible .

So let's say that you're watching these movies or reading these books and you notice there's always a scene in a romance where two characters come together and meet for the first time . You might write something on your list like the two characters meet or something like that , just a short little generic phrase .

And the goal of this is to create a list that you can easily work with and apply to other stories . So it's not to come up with the most perfect list . Okay , as you read more books in your genre or watch more movies , you can continue to refine this list , making changes or deleting things as needed . So that's step two .

Step number three is to refine your list of obligatory scenes and conventions . So once you've read all the books or watched all the movies and made your list , it's time to refine that list and complete your final list of obligatory scenes and conventions .

So you want to ask what character , roles , settings and circumstances do all of your comp titles have in common ? Those will be your conventions . And then you want to ask what scenes do all of your comp titles have in common and which ones had the most impact . These are going to be your obligatory scenes .

Now , yes , this is going to take time and , no , this is not actually button chair writing . However , the depth of insight and knowledge that you're going to gain from studying stories in your genre is going to be huge . It's going to give you a better understanding of how to craft a story that works and delivers on reader's expectations .

Plus , once you've done this exercise for multiple stories , you're going to have an invaluable reference kit for all the stories you write in the future , and that is a pretty neat thing to have .

If you ask me Now , if you've been listening to this podcast for any amount of time , you know that I've done a lot of this work to uncover the obligatory scenes and conventions of each genre already . I'm going to link them in the blog post that goes along with this episode . You can find the link to that in the show notes .

But remember , unless you have seen these obligatory scenes and conventions in action , a list can only help you so much . Okay , you need to see how other writers have tackled these scenes and conventions and then also experience them as a reader or a viewer would to really understand why they're necessary and why they matter .

So I do have those available for you on my website , but I still recommend going through this exercise to really internalize them and cement them in your brain . Now , with all of this being said , you might be wondering well , what about science fiction and fantasy ?

You've done a lot of the genres on this podcast before and I haven't heard you go over the obligatory scenes of science fiction , fantasy or even historical fiction .

And if you're wondering this , then I do want you to go back and listen to episode number two , where I talk about the difference between content genres and commercial genres , because fantasy and science fiction and even historical fiction , those are commercial genres or consumer-facing labels . Okay .

So fantasy and science fiction and even historical fiction , they will definitely have their own set of requirements and rules that need to be followed in order to satisfy readers . For example , in fantasy stories , there's usually some kind of magic , maybe even a mentor character and a lot of world building , right .

But as writers , what we need to identify is what kind of story happens within that fantastic or magical setting . So this is why you need to know your story's content genre . Your fantasy or science fiction story needs to include the key scenes and conventions of whatever content genre best suits your idea .

So , for example , you can have an action story set in a fantasy world , a romance that takes place in outer space , or any combination that you want If you are writing science fiction or fantasy . I have another episode I want you to go check out .

It's episode number 95 , called how to Start Writing your Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel , and we will link to that one in the show notes as well

. Another question I get asked when I talk about obligatory scenes and conventions is won't using these as a framework stifle my creativity or won't this make me write a formulaic novel ?

And my answer to this is always no , and that's because figuring out how to present the obligatory scenes and conventions of your genre in a new and innovative way actually requires a lot of creativity and imagination . So , as an example , just think about Agatha Christie . Right , she writes Amazing Mysteries .

She took a tried and true convention of the crime genre , which is a master sleuth , and innovated on that convention when she created her amateur sleuth , miss Marple . So she didn't eliminate the central clue hunter from her story , she just changed the personality and the background of the investigator and came up with something new .

So she abided by the convention but delivered it in a really new and fresh way . And the cool thing is is that you can do this too .

So once you learn the obligatory scenes and conventions of your genre , you can use them as a framework to craft your story and then , inside that framework , you can take whatever you need from those more traditional quote unquote rules of the genre and innovate them by adding your own preferences , experiences , values , worldview , etc .

Right , this is the really fun part about writing genre fiction . And something else I get asked all the time when talking about obligatory scenes and conventions is how do I handle them for subplots ? Do I have to write all of those on the page ? Do I have to include them all in questions like that ?

Now , the obligatory scenes and conventions of your story's main genre or your global genre , those do have to be on the page . So , in other words , these moments or those conventions , they can't happen off page where the reader can't see or experience them . And that's just because your readers have signed up for a particular reading experience .

Right , if you leave out the key elements of the story they expect to see or put them off the page . It's likely going to be a disappointing experience .

But speaking to subplots , specifically the obligatory scenes and conventions of your subplots , those can happen off page and or be alluded to on the page , so readers don't always have to see them exist or unfold in real time , although they certainly can , but what we want is to know that they are there , even if we didn't see them unfold in real time .

Okay , so , for example , if you have a romantic subplot , you don't necessarily have to have a scene where the lovers first meet , but you do have to let the reader know that they've met and kind of how they've met .

Right , we need to know that context and this can be included through a conversation , a flashback context in a different scene or things like that .

So hopefully , this episode gave you a nice little overview of obligatory scenes and conventions , why they're important , how to find them for your genre and things like that , and we'll do a really quick recap before I let you go .

So the first key point is that in order to write a story that works , we do need to include the obligatory scenes and conventions of our story's primary content .

Genre Conventions are the character , roles , settings and circumstances that are specific to a genre and obligatory scenes are the key moments , decisions and discoveries that move the protagonist along their journey from A to Z .

And including all the conventions and obligatory scenes of your genre is going to help you give the reader the experience they're looking for and write a story that works . Key point number two we talked about three steps to finding the obligatory scenes and conventions of your content genre .

So step number one was to identify three to five comp titles or stories like yours that would sit on the same bookshelf . Step two was figuring out what those comp titles have in common . So , remember , we want to make a list . And then step number three was refining that list into one list of obligatory scenes and conventions for your primary genre .

And the last key point , or key point number three , is that using these obligatory scenes and conventions is not something that's going to stifle your creativity or make you write a formulaic novel . Instead , they're really just there to help you write a story that works and give you a container for your ideas .

And then it's up to you to bring your creativity and your imagination to that framework .

So , remember , we always want to be including those key scenes and conventions , but delivering them in a new and innovative way , and what this all boils down to is that if you don't do the work to understand your genre , then you are going to have a hard time getting your book into the hands of readers , and without readers , your story will never be experienced

, which is probably a terrible thought to most of us , right ? So to avoid this happening , know your genre and give your readers what they're expecting in a new and exciting way , and if you give them the emotional experience they're looking for , you will earn loyal fans for life , which is what most of us want . So hopefully you enjoyed today's episode .

We will link to the other episodes mentioned in the show notes and I will see you same time , same place next week . So that's it for today's episode . As always , thank you so much for tuning in and for showing your support .

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