How intent and obstacle can sell your novel.
understanding how to use the two to move the story forward with conflict and pace.
When writing a scene you can make it either boring or exciting. In order to decide which one we have to understand what makes a scene boring or exciting.
In this blog, we will be talking about How intent and obstacle can sell your novel...
HOW INTENT AND OBSTACLE CAN SELL YOUR NOVEL
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What can you add to stop a scene from being dull and bring it to life? Something the reader will feel compelled to keep on turning the page. It all comes down to what Aaron Sorkin says is “intent and obstacle”. When you have those two things in a scene it brings it to life. Making the reader want to know how it will be solved.
When a character walks into a room they need to want something, “intent”. It could be an object or information, clarity, the actual want/intent is not important; the important part is knowing there is intent. But that’s only half if it, what makes it interesting is when there’s some type of “conflict/obstacle” stopping the person from getting what they want.
WHAT IS MISSING FROM THE SCENE?
Imagine a scene where someone walks into a room and stops. Sounds straightforward, but not much to it. Does it sound like something you’d want to read? Probably not, why? Because it’s straightforward action, it means nothing. But what would happen if we gave that person an intent? Imagine if they had to pick up a book off a table, that is intent. But do you want to read it? Probably not because not much is happening. Picking up a book isn’t exciting. But what if the book has codes to disarm nuclear bombs. Now it’s sounding better, but not enough to make you want to turn the page.
What’s missing? We’re missing conflict/obstacle. Now, let’s add a conflict. Lets say in the room is a sleeping guard dog where any sound will wake the mean dog and the codes are needed to stop nuclear bombs that will go off in 5 minutes. Now you have a scene you want to read. But how did we just take a straightforward scene and made it better? By adding intent and obstacle.
INTENT CAN BE MINOR OR MAJOR
As a writer when starting any scene you want to ask, “what is the characters intent and what is the obstacle?” by answering those two questions before you start writing you can make any scene better. It will give the reader a reason to keep on reading. They’ll want to know how the obstacle will be overcome for the character to achieve their want.
The “intent” to can be a minor thing or a major thing, but as long as the reader senses a want along with an obstacle they’ll wonder how it will achieved.
YES THEIR’S INTENT, BUT NO OBSTACLE
Without an obstacle, a want/intent can be reached without any problem making the reader not care about reading on. They will know the “want/intent” will be achieved. If a thief has to walk into an empty building late at night to steal a file and leave, the scene will come across as straightforward. Yes, there is intent, but no obstacle. But if there’s a security guard with a gun walking around with security camera everywhere now the reader will want to read on. We have given the “intent” an “obstacle.”
In “All the Presidents Men” we see a group of men in the Watergate Hotel going through an office while a security guard walks around. Without the security guard the scene means nothing, it lacks interest. But now the audience sees the security guard and wonders, “What will happen next?” Later in the movie, we see two reporters Bob Woodward and Carol Bernstein investigating the Watergate break-in. (intent) but when they try talking to anyone they get doors closed on them, (obstacles) nothing was easy. They face non-stop obstacles from start to finish. Even their own boss acts as an obstacle. If they had investigated the Watergate break-in and gotten answers right away there would be no movie, no tension. It would’ve been over within ten minutes. The more obstacles with every meeting and phone call the better the movie.
GIVE ALL THE CHARACTERS INTENT AND OBSTACLES
When writing a scene and there are two people, don’t have one person with an intent, give both of them an intent/want. Then give both of them an obstacle from obtaining the want. You can have the other character the obstacle. They both want information from the other person but neither one will give up their answer right away. This creates conflict leading the reader to want to turn the page to see how it’s resolved.
But you don’t feel you have to apply “intent and obstacle” to your lead actor only. It can apply to all the characters in your novel. In fact, if you give everyone in a scene an intent and conflict it makes the scene that much better. It’s not about having two characters in a scene and giving them intent and obstacles you can have countless people in a scene. Just always keep in mind what each character want/intent is, and know what their obstacle is. Don’t mix them up and confuse the reader. And remember the character has to stay true to their personality to get their obstacle resolved. Don’t cheat by having the character act out of character to speed up a scene. New writers make this mistake a lot.
THE SCENE WILL STOP MOVING FORWARD
If you want to kill a scene quickly it’s easy to have everyone in the scene not have a want and not have obstacles. From that point on the scene feels like it’s not moving. A want and obstacle can be simple; it doesn’t have to be life-changing or threatening to end the world. It can be very straightforward. But having a want and obstacle makes the reader more engaged.
Obstacles don’t have to be an actual physical obstacle like a wall, car, or gun. An obstacle can be anything, even an inner struggle. Or another person your protagonist is in a conversion with. In fact when another person is the obstacle it makes for the best obstacle. If your obstacle is a wall the protagonist can go around it. But if your obstacle is the antagonist it makes it more difficult because they have a mind of their own who can withhold information. Making the dance that much more complicated. The reader knows what they both want from each other making each other their obstacle making an enjoyable read.
WE HAVE NO REASON TO CARE
Imagine a poker game where there’s only one player, there’s no reason to care. But imagine a poker game with two or more people, now things are slightly better. But imagine if they’re not gambling for anything and not taking the game seriously. Now we’re back to being boring. It lacks intent and obstacle. You could say the intent is to win, but win what? But what if they were the best gamblers in the world, gambling with millions of dollars on the line, it would be worth reading to see how it ends. Now we have intent, each character wants to win millions. The obstacle now becomes each other.
But now lets take it further. Now imagine if one of the men at the poker table is a bad guy who has a suitcase containing a secret code which is needed to save the world from nuclear bombs. Across from him is the protagonist needing the secret code. Now we have created intent and introduced an obstacle. The good guy has to win the game to get the briefcase which is now on the table. Now to increase the stakes you can have the bad guy the best poker player in the world and the good guy new to the game. The reader will want to see how it turns out. By adding intent and obstacle we have turned the poker game into a great scene.
FAILING TO CREATE CONFLICT AND TENSION
But to make it interesting the reader has to know ahead of time of the secret codes in the suitcase. You don’t want to make it a scene about gambling only to have the protagonist open up the suitcase and find the secret codes to his surprise. That fails to create conflict/tension. By the reader knowing the codes are in the suitcase makes it more intense.
However, you do not have to write action novels for intent/obstacle to take place. It can apply to every form of book writing. In horror, comedy, science fiction. We rarely see little intent/obstacle in horror novels. We only see teenagers running from a bad guy with a knife. The intent is to stay alive and the obstacle is the bad guy. But is that enough? What is the inner want/intent and conflict/obstacles? What is the intent and obstacle between the good and bad guy? Why bother writing a book about a crazy guy with a knife? By making it deeper you can make a horror story more complex. The Exorcist is a great example of this. It has intent/obstacle from scene to scene. Plus a deeper meaning to the story. A mother wants to save her daughter’s life (intent) the devil wants her soul (obstacle). An exorcism bridges the two.
CAN’T HAVE EVERYONE AGREE ON EVERYTHING
The backbone of comedy is to have intent and obstacle. If everyone in a scene agrees on everything nothing is funny. But when two people have opposite opinions and need to solve a problem it can lead to something funny. Monty Python made a career about intent and obstacle in their sketches. “dead parrot” “argument clinic” “pope and Michelangelo” are just a few sketches that are funny because of the “intent and obstacle” added.
Some writers will ask “can you have intent and obstacle in a family drama?” The truth is they’re the best place to have intent and obstacle. Families are always filled with drama and conflict. And they’re relatable to the reader.
BUT WHAT IS THE OBSTACLE
In a scene from “Terms of Endearment,” the daughter is at the family table and says, “I’m pregnant” to her mother. Sounds straightforward. What’s the conflict? Your average writer wouldn’t know where to add it. However, Larry McMurty adds intent and obstacle with the mother/daughter relationship. The daughter’s saying she’s pregnant thinking everyone will be happy for her, that’s her intent. But the obstacle is her mother responding with “why should I be happy about being a grandmother?”
The intent throughout the book is for the daughter to have unconditional love from her mother but theirs an obstacle, that being the mother. She will not show her daughter the love she’s always wanted. You could say the theme of the novel is built on intent and obstacle.
INTENT CAN BE ANYTHING
Intent can be anything, doesn’t have to be major like saving the world. It can be as straightforward as walking into a room to pick up a book. Obstacle can be anything, weather, inner struggle, another person, animals, objects. Whatever you come up with to be obstacle can work.
When you set out to write a scene ask “what is the intent and obstacle of everyone in the scene” and go from there.
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