Making a Scene
By M.E. Proctor
One of the questions most frequently asked to a writer (on par with where do you get your ideas?) is if they know the entire story from the get go or if they figure it out on the fly—the planners versus the improvisers conversation.
I’m a hybrid. I put together a rough outline and then inevitably veer away from it as I start writing. This happens because I love to work individual scenes. What happens here and now tends to take my attention away from the high level perspective of the complete narrative.
Here’s an example from the new Declan Shaw detective novel, The Way You Say My Name.
In Chapter 4, Declan meets Sam, the local vet. He waits for her in her small office, intending to ask her about an incident with a dog. It’s a critical scene that will set in motion a succession of dramatic events. Declan is attracted to Sam and her reaction is ambiguous. She could put a firm end to his flirting attempts but she doesn’t, leaving him wondering why she’s aloof and what she isn’t telling him.
I must have imagined, pictured, and acted this scene over a dozen times in my head. I moved my actors around and changed their lines of dialogue endlessly until the interaction sounded and felt right. I didn’t sit at the keyboard to write until I was sure I’d nailed it down. This is how I built the book, scene after scene. In editing, with the full story laid out, I reworked parts to smoothen the flow.
I’m a ‘visual’ writer. I need to see the scene to be able to write it. And I need to hear it too. A storyboard with speech bubbles won’t do the trick. Like the movies, maybe closer to stage work. Two characters, face to face. They react to each other, there’s tension, and the story happens.
Here’s a small part of that scene, can you picture it?
“Please take a seat. You’re a detective who wants to talk to me about an injured dog, what’s the catch?”
“Senator Spencer hired me to find his daughter, Amanda. Have you heard about the incident?”
“Vaguely. There was a search and it was called off? Senator Spencer is the closest we have to a celebrity around here.” She sat on the corner of the desk, denim-clad legs swinging. “What does it have to do with the dog?”
They were very close. There was barely any room. If she tipped forward, she would drop in his lap. Declan hoped she would tip and drop, so he could catch her. The office door was open, which alleviated the claustrophobic feeling. Sam Chandler smelled of soap and something medicinal, like a freshly opened jar of multivitamins. It should have put Declan’s thoughts on an antiseptic track, and it did the exact opposite. He pictured her scratching the reception cat under the chin, and his head tilted back in an unconscious reflex. She sat higher than he did, and he had to look up to her, so his neck stretch wasn’t completely ridiculous.
I rolled these lines in my head so many times, I could swear I was in the room with them. The scene is told from Declan’s perspective, but I’m Sam’s head too.
So I am more a plotter than an improviser after all. I’m a compulsive nitpicker who needs to have every detail just so. The kicker is that I do it at the scene level, not knowing in Chapter 4 how it will go to hell in Chapter 6. Not until I get there. I have the general direction: Sam is in serious trouble and Declan will be dragged into it, they’ll be running from people who wish them harm, there will be a painful climax and illusions will be shattered …
But the scenes, ah, the scenes! They take shape in my mind one by one, and I ruminate over them, night after night. The guy holding the clapperboard shouts: Scene 25, Take 6 … 7 … 8 … 32 … until I get it just right.
Isn’t it wonderful that writers have no budget to worry about, and no unionized crew members who need breaks to eat and sleep?
The Way You Say My Name
A Declan Shaw Mystery
A short blurb …
On New Year’s day, P.I. Declan Shaw is hired to investigate a disappearance. Amanda Spencer, a young mother of two, slipped away from a Christmas concert without leaving a clue. What made her run and who is she running from?
While digging up shreds of info from Amanda’s parents and friends, Declan meets Sam Chandler. She’s the kind of woman who stops him in his tracks. Sexy, smart, and complicated. And skilled at keeping secrets. So skilled Declan questions his abilities as a detective. What began as an intriguing missing person case soon shifts into a cross-country pursuit with Sam’s life in the balance.
For once, Declan isn’t the searcher, he’s the one who cannot afford to be found.
“This time Proctor does something remarkable. She pulls back the curtain on Declan Shaw’s past, revealing the trauma that helped shape the man readers have come to know. This is a version of Declan that feels unexpectedly vulnerable, stripping away any illusion of invincibility and replacing it with something infinitely more compelling. His evolution across this series is exceptional, and understanding his history makes his compassion, restraint, and fierce loyalty all the more meaningful. Proctor doesn’t simply give readers another mystery to solve. She gives them a character worth investing in, a man whose imperfections make him impossible not to champion.”
—Teresa Brock for Best Thriller Books
Buy Links:
The Way You say My Name is available in eBook and paperback.
All formats on Shotgun Honey website.
M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. She’s the author of the Declan Shaw detective mysteries: Love You Till Tuesday, Catch Me on a Blue Day, The Way You Say My Name. She’s the author of two short story collections, Family and Other Ailments and A Book to Live By, and the co-author of the retro-noirs, Bop City Swing and Kansas City Breakdown. Her fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies. She’s a Shamus and Derringer awards short story nominee. Catch Me on a Blue Day was recently nominated for a Shamus Award in the Best Original Paperback P.I. Novel category.
Social Links
Author Website: www.shawmystery.com
On Substack: https://meproctor.substack.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/martine.proctor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MEProctor3
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/meproctor.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/proctormartine/
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