Cause and Effect

One of the most powerful plot skills for a writer to master is the ability to link a series of scenes through cause and effect.

Cause and effect means that each scene comes directly out of the scene that came before it. In other words, the action in one scene causes the next scene as the effect of the first. A character responds to an individual event in scene one.

One of the most powerful plot skills for a writer to master is the ability to link a series of scenes through cause and effect. Cause and effect means that each scene comes directly out of the scene that came before it. In other words, the action in one scene causes the next scene as the effect of the first. A character responds to an individual event in scene one. In scene two, the outcome of that action is shown. That response, in turn, becomes cause for another effect. This creates a satisfying story to readers because each scene is organic, from the seeds you plant in the first scene arise the effect of that in the next scene.

Test for Cause and Effect

1. List your scenes with a short description of each.
2. Next, move from scene to scene, saying to yourself, “In this scene, this (whatever it is) happens. Because that happens in scene one, then this happens in scene two. Because that happens in scene two, then this next conflict arises in scene three.” Do you notice the rhythm? The second scene cannot happen without the first scene happening first. The third scene cannot happen without the first two scenes unfolding before it. In this example, the scenes are arranged by cause and effect and if someone had been listening to you explain the story from scene to scene, they would ask: “Why?” Your scenes are linked by cause and effect.
3. However, if you find yourself moving from scene to scene merely reciting what happened in each scene and finding little linkage from one scene to the next, you likely have not yet mastered the art of deliberately arranging a series of events by cause and effect. In other words, if you look at each scene in order and say to yourself, this (whatever it is) happens in scene one, then this happens in scene two and then this happens next and then…. You get the picture. If someone had been listening to you, they would ask: “what happens next?” This is what we call episodic and if you ever hear an agent or editor tell you that your story is too episodic or not tight enough this is what they are referring to. Your scenes are separate episodes without any linkage to the scenes that come before or after.

Random incidents neither move us nor do they illuminate or provide meaning. We want to know WHY one thing leads to the next-to feel the inevitability of cause and effect. Your readers will expect that the events that unfold in a scene will have repercussions; an effect on what comes next. More simply put: this is not cause and effect –The King died. Then the Queen died. This is cause and effect –The King died. Then the Queen died of a broken heart.

      If you find that a scene, or two or three, in your story do not arise from the scene that comes before it, then see if you can, without shifting the focus of the scene, at least introduce an element(s) designed to lead into the next scene in a sentence or two. For instance, have the protagonist playing with the change in their pocket in the first scene, then start the next scene with the protagonist again playing with the change in their pocket. If you find that even this strategy does not work, then you may need to either cut that scene or see if you can tweak it in such a way that it becomes the effect of the scene that comes before it. You cannot stick a scene in your story just because the writing is beautiful or the format intriguing. You owe it to the reader to provide meaning.

So, just remember that conflict is scene, or the cause. The character’s reaction to that cause is the effect-the effect the conflict has on the character. Then the character responds to the conflict and that creates yet another cause and then another effect follows and the story moves from scene to scene by cause and effect. Every part plays into the whole and you end up with a satisfying story.

With cause and effect you are also providing depth to the dramatic action plot because it helps define the character’s emotional development. When the dramatic action changes the character at depth over time, the story becomes thematically significance.

      We learn a lot about each other, ourselves and the characters in movies and memoirs and novels by the choices made or not made in response to individual events. Place a character in the middle of causes that make it easier not to respond, or more convenient or less uncomfortable, less confrontational, keeps the peace, doesn’t require taking risks or confirms their low self-image. We get to see how the effect of all that on the character. The more uncomfortable the causes, the better insight we have into their character emotional development.

In The Beginning of a story, scenes set the character in varying situations, thereby showing the reader or the moviegoer how the character usually responds. In other words, we are given a sort of baseline data about who the character is.

      In the Middle of the story, the stakes steadily rise until The Crisis, the most highly charged event in the story so far. At this point, the dramatic action causes the character to have to open their eyes, perhaps for the first time, of how the events themselves are not responsible for keeping them from achieving their goals, but that the choices they make are.

      Based on how the character reacts in that crisis, we may then begin to see them responding differently. If their feelings of hopelessness and a lack of control start to wane, we know that their emotional development has undergone a change as a result of what they have learned over time from cause and effect.

      The character may then start to see the outcomes in their life begin to improve — both internal and external. Because that happens, the antagonists in their life begin to intensify their resistance to the protagonist’s change and growth, and the stakes rise even higher. For example, family members, co-workers, and friends, resistant to accept of this shift in the protagonist turn up the heat. Because that happens, the character has to stretch. Because of that, they will make mistakes and sometimes will fail again.

      The more mistakes the protagonist makes the more the protagonist can learn.

      The climax of every story is the final outcome as a direct result of how the protagonist responds to individual events that occur throughout the story. The build-up to the climax shows the reader or the moviegoer whether or not the character is capable of changing. How they respond to the highest event in the entire story will show whether or not they have matured and been changed at depth.

      This entire scenario is an example of a character-driven story, but it remains true on some level no matter what kind of story you are writing. People go to movies and read books 70% for the character. Show the character’s responses and the outcome in scene through cause and effect and you have yourself a tightly knit thematically significant project.

      All of us long to make sense of the world around us. This is why the universal plot form is so satisfying. When we have the sense that life is not random, but that one is able to control life by the responses we make, it gives the rest of us hope.