Beloved Moments
My favorite movie is Shawshank Redemption. If you knew me you would find this strange. You would know that when I go to a movie, I’m looking for mindless entertainment. Romantic comedy? I’m in. Series of explosions and gunfights strung together in a casualty-laden adrenaline fest? What time are you picking me up? Farm boy struggles to save New York from a fog-like evil presence and its religious-zealot henchpeople? Whose house is the sleepover at? Slow-moving intellectual flick that contemplates male friendship and the eternal flame of hope burning in the human soul? Mmmm… maybe.
So why do I love Shawshank so much? Because even though the subject-matter isn’t my normal choice, the scenes used to tell the story are the ones I crave. In the midst of this male-friendship/indominable-hope story the viewer gets an able hero fighting an evil but competent anatagonist, a man torn apart over the loss of a past love, a cold-blooded murder, a desperate escape, and a surprise ending. Wait, is this a thriller? Harder to answer than you thought, eh?
The point, at last, is this: A writer who is aware of the kinds of scenes readers crave in any story gives herself the opportunity to tell her story in a way that grips and satisfies readers. Don’t misunderstand me; I don’t think all books should be a reshuffling of so-called classic sure-fire scenes that readers love. I do think the savvy novelist recognizes these scenes and creates new and interesting reincarnations of them to satisfy and delight the reader.
Take a moment and identify what your top three scenes are. Which are those few pages that get you every time, that leave you with a sigh, and make the eight bucks you spent on the book worth it?
These are a few of my favorites:
- The tragic betrayal by the one who is supposed to love you the most.
- The moment when the hero/heroine goes from scared victim to pissed-off seeker of justice.
- The verbal sparring match that results in words spoken that cannot be called back.
