'mode' for a scene?

<begin process musing>

I often see words like 'mode', 'critical mass', 'theme' etc applied to the
book as a whole. One of my muses seems to need something like that for each
scene, sometimes for each passage ('transition' etc)....

I might say 'slant' or 'angle'.... Some might say 'the focus of the
passage'. When something like that clicks for me, then suddenly I get the
words, the sentences, the shape and flow of the passage -- quite quickly.
And it all hangs together when looked at later. There was a *point* to it
(whether spelled out or not, whether definable or not*).

Mostly I've been looking to form for this point, this hang-together. But
(thanks to the subthreads with Patricia and Catja and Helen about
'unforeseen difficulties', and 'topic sentences', and 'theme of the
transition) now I'm getting a glimmer of how content might provide this
hang-together also.

Maybe part of my feeling of a 'click' is when a form meets the right
content.... Or when the content point is strong enough to hold it together
regardless of form, just so the form doesn't distract from the point....


R.L.
--
RL at houseboatontheganges dot com
for Indian river read styx


*(Kind of like in art or layout, where you move logos and blocks of text
around til they 'click', and if you did geometry later you'd find there
were 'composition lines' holding it all together.)

May I borrow the "three embarrassed people" pattern once more? Maybe I
should just buy the thing. Pretty shopworn by now, as much as I've used it.

Another example might be the Spock amnesiac scene I described in a recent
post. Hm, it has a repeat motif:

----
Spock: "You risked your life for me?"
Crew N: "Yes."
Spock: <silence>
-----

Each time the motif is repeated, Spock's unspoken words become stronger;
the repeats make a design for the whole scene. The Spock scene is heavy on
form, but it's also about content. Pointed content.... :-)
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: mode for a scene?
    ... One of my muses seems to need something like that for each ... >> scene, sometimes for each passage ('transition' etc).... ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: Accidental Resemblances
    ... passage that is echoed in "Madam Butterfly", in the scene in Act I ... where Cio-Cio-San sings about her visit to the mission where she ...
    (rec.music.classical.recordings)
  • Re: Usual Cuts....
    ... Rimsky-Korsakov took the wonderful basic work of Mussorgsky and polished it ... with superlative and interesting, musical orchestration. ... > Lohengrin's Narrative in the last scene of Lohengrin. ... > admire Konya's delivery of this passage in the Leinsdorf recording, ...
    (rec.music.opera)
  • Re: Usual Cuts....
    ... apparently with the composer's sanction -- is the second verse of ... Lohengrin's Narrative in the last scene of Lohengrin. ... admire Konya's delivery of this passage in the Leinsdorf recording, ...
    (rec.music.opera)
  • Re: mode for a scene?
    ... One of my muses seems to need something like that for each ... sometimes for each passage ('transition' etc).... ... For the next scene all I ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)