A Critical Scene

A Critical Scene

I needed to set aside what I was doing because a particular scene from F2 demanded explication. (Sure, that's a twenty dollar word, but it fits in this case.)

I had the scene roughed in, or roughed up as the case may be, but could not stop refining the details over and over in my mind. Time to put it all together on "paper," lest I forget.

It's a fairly long scene, involving only the two main characters A and E. I needed to break it into scene-lets so that it doesn't end up as a talking-heads-experience that bores readers to sleep. I thought I'd do this by playing up the different emotions both characters experience.

First, there's profound surprise. For both. Neither expected to see the other in this particular place.

Then A feels mild annoyance. E has stepped forth onto his tightrope. Over-stepped, he decides.

His annoyance increases as certain facts come out. Not only is she treading the rope with him, she insists on swaying it from side to side, by admitting she befriended someone he has long considered the enemy.

E responds in kind to his holier-than-thou tactics. She knows him well enough to become even more boldly aggravating.

A's annoyance becomes anger. He in turn tells E something he knows will make her furious, intending to induce her to stop playing this dangerous game.

This second surprise does fire up her temper. But as A coldly explains things to her she realizes she truly did abandon her duties and feels a terrible remorse.

E, however, is not one to weep buckets, so she soon regains her poise.

Only to lose it once more when the tightrope breaks and they both go into free-fall, giving in to the intoxicating passion both feel for one another. It's a passion stoked by anger, regret, determination, and, though neither yet admits it, love.

– Cat