The beginning of your story is intriguing, sure to hook anyone who picks up it. But now that you’ve reached the middle, it’s just lying there, limp and lifeless. What do you do with a saggy middle? Add a set piece to your novel.
What’s a Set Piece?
I’ve heard this term in connection with movies, specifically the thrillers by Alfred Hitchcock, so I looked it up. According to Wikipedia, the term originated when a movie needed the production team to build a new set instead of reusing sets leftover from other movies at the studio. To make such an expense worthwhile, the filmmaker made the setting part of an important scene. Now the term means a critical or jaw-dropping scene or sequence within a movie.
The rescue of Princess Leia and the escape from the trash compactor is a set piece in the middle of Star Wars: A New Hope. Foreign Correspondent by Alfred Hitchcock has several set pieces: an assassination on the steps of a large building during a rainstorm, the hero sneaking through a windmill in Holland as he eavesdrops on Nazi spies, and a murder attempt at the top of Winchester Cathedral in London.
So How Do I Use a Set Piece in a Novel?
Use a set piece when you want your story to take a dramatic or unexpected turn that will affect the rest of the story. You can use more than one, depending upon the genre and kind of story you are telling.
In my teen cozy mystery, A Shadow on the Snow, I have set piece smack in the middle of my novel because the plot takes a dramatic turn from that point on. Like in the old days of the movies when the director built scenes around an expensive set, I want my readers to have the time to appreciate what’s happening in the set piece, so I slow the narrative down. The set-up, actual set piece, and wrap up play over three chapters. The set piece itself has a shadowy figure chase my main character, amateur sleuth Rae Riley, through her small hometown in a snowstorm on the night of Valentine’s Day. This chase leads to a pivotal scene with her newly found father. In that scene, I let the dialogue take over, which also slows the story down.
Two Warnings
I said to slow your story, not stop it. Your story is a glider. If you slow it too much, it will crash.
My other warning is that any set piece can’t be more exciting than your climax. If your set piece in the middle of your novel has the heroine save London from certain destruction, she’d better be saving the world from that same fate at the end. In the climax of Foreign Correspondent, the heroes’s plane is shot out of the sky. They are forced to make a crash landing and then cling to the wreckage while they wait for rescue. If you find your set piece is overshadowing your climax, you either need to tone down the set piece or amp up your climax.
I’d love to hear from you. In your writing, had you ever had to add a set piece to your novel? Readers, what’s a memorable set piece?
