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Regardless of the medium used to tell it, a story set in an imaginary world has several elements so crucial to it that if it’s missing even just one, it comes apart at the seams. One of them, fantasy scenes, is arguably the most important one which means you must take your time to ensure that each one of them is exactly how you envision them and advances the plot in a meaningful way.
The best way to have the scenes be precisely right is to use the correct terminology. That is, you use the right words to describe everything that transpires within each one. You want to communicate with clarity what is going on so that your audience can easily understand what’s happening and how it connects to the larger plot.
Don’t underscore the importance of emotions in fantasy scenes. They don’t just tell your viewers what your characters are feeling, they drive them to make decisions that affect not just the other characters but the plot itself. Emotions wield immense power and it’s up to you, the creator, to harness it and use it in a way that advances the story while making for compelling drama.
While emotions drive characters’ decision-making processes, so too do the actions they take in scenes. In fact, character-dictated actions are equally monumental as emotions since they can lead to long-ranging effects and change how other people perceive them, for better or worse, which can cause them to continue either making the wrong or right choices.
This is the thirty-second article in The Sunlit Hearth series. Want to see what else we have to offer? On our blog page is a fantastic medley of many more, all covering a topic of creating a fantasy world from the ground up. You’ll find one that catches your eye before you know it!
At its core, a scene is part of the story where something happens. It could be as simple as two people discussing something of the paramount importance or one person riding horseback in the middle of the night, desperate to reach his destination. As such, choosing the right words to convey what’s going on is imperative in that using the incorrect terminology can lead your audience astray.
Part of using the right words in fantasy scenes is to use those that make it clear what’s going on. Having the correct descriptors makes it easy for your viewers to visualize what’s unfolding at that point in the plot. To accomplish this, use words that have clarity in their meaning, not those that are ambiguous.
Using the right terminology applies even when you’re deliberately trying to muddy the waters to keep your audience in a state of bewilderment. This occurs mostly in mystery stories where creators try to keep their audience guessing at what’s going on but it also can be used in fantasy scenes. Maybe a powerful, legendary sword is hidden deep within a forest and the path to it is maze-line and foggy and the protagonist has to figure out how to navigate it. Using the right descriptors here can add gravitas and tension to the scene, making the audience curious how he’ll make it to the sword.
When characters do something in fantasy scenes, communicate clearly what they’re doing using the right words to describe said actions. The right words can make the difference between what your viewers perceive they’re doing and what you think they’re doing. For example, suppose you have two characters in a heated argument. You could simply say they’re arguing vociferously about something or having a disagreement of opinion. Using the former paints a picture of them having an intense argument that could very well lead to a physical altercation breaking out whereas the latter illustrates them merely being at odds with each other and the prospect of a physical fight occurring is nonexistent. Each scenario leaves a different impression in your audience’s mind which showcases why using the correct terminology is vital.
Characters have a gamut of emotions, all of which affect their thinking process and what they say and do in fantasy scenes. Thus, it’s important to effectively showcase to your viewers what they’re feeling at critical juncture points, both leading up to and afterward. Doing so enables them to understand why they do the things they do even if they disagree with them.
Much like the previous section where using the right terminology is important, so is choosing the correct emotion to describe a character’s emotion. There are a variety of words to describe an emotion so you want to go with the one that articulates exactly what a character is feeling. For example, when it comes to the angry emotion, you have words such as mad, irate, enraged, and so on. Even though they fall within the same group, each one of them conveys a different element of the emotion which can lead to your audience thinking something else than what you want them to think.
While selecting the correct word to showcase an emotion is vital in fantasy scenes, that isn’t the only purpose emotions in stories serve. They affect the plot in several ways, both good and bad since they cause characters to make moves that don’t just affect themselves but how others perceive them. Their frame-of-mind spurs them to make decisions that go against their better judgment and they must find a way to cope with them.
Emotions impact the plot in meaningful ways, from a heated argument escalating into a physical altercation to someone grieving the loss of a loved one. They don’t just affect the story at key moments, they impact them long afterwards, leading to characters being markedly different at the end of their arc. For instance, in the latter, the grief-stricken character could never get over his loss and instead seek ways to resurrect his loved one or be so despondent that he essentially becomes a recluse, seeking instead to dwell in the Past and not move on with his life.
When it comes to storytelling, character-driven actions are king. They move the plot in a medley of ways and nowhere is this more evident when it comes to the fantasy scenes they occur in. Nearly all of a story’s critical juncture points feature a character-driven action that forever alters the trajectory of the plot itself, originating at said scene.
In scenes, these actions are par with emotions and the two are intertwined, meaning one affects the other and vice-versa. They can upend the plot, generating wholly new plot-lines or cap off the end of one, as well as lead to changes in characters’ relationships. Imagine a close ally of the protagonist chooses to betray him and he reveals his change in allegiance at a time where his enemies capture him. The protagonist is angered at the duplicity of his ‘faithful’ friend but at the same time he laments how their friendship came to an end.
Character-dictated actions move the plot along in fantasy scenes, leading to lasting repercussions that persist until the story comes to a close. These actions change the world around them, from sailing the high seas in search of treasure to falling in love with someone else, leading to changes in how other people perceive them, for better or worse.
There is great power in emotions and they affect how characters make the choices they do in the plot. In one case, they can set them on a path where they are essentially trapped with no choice but to continue making one bad decision after another with no way out. In another case, they could make the right decision and win accolades from other people.
In the end, fantasy scenes are a centerpiece of telling a story that sticks with people long after they’ve reached its end. Many things take place in said scenes, from a couple kissing for the first time to the protagonist and villain facing off in a duel that determines the fate of the world. As a creator, it is incumbent upon you to create scenes that pull your viewers in and keep them invested so that they spend more time in the world and the characters you’ve created!
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Sunfire
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