Writing Tip: Go for A and Get B

-each scene should go for A and get B. 

A common phrase in TV and film, but what does it mean? The 'A' is a character going for something related to their want/their emotions/stakes and then gets something else. It's the expectation you set up for the audience. 'B' is the unexpected thing that happens in the scene. 

How do you define the unexpected "B" thing? According to David Ball's "Backward and Forward" there are only 2 things that 'B' involves: a reveal or a reversal. So you are invited to a 'small party' and when you get there...everyone is doing drugs. Even your high school teacher. That is a shocking reveal. You expected a party...you didn't expect 'this' kind of party. You get invited over to someone's house to meet their boyfriend, and when you get there, you find out you are meeting their boyfriend...'in the midst of a wedding ceremony, and you are the main witness who is there to sign the marriage certificate.' You did meet the boyfriend but not in the way you expected. So the reveal is unexpected in some way. The other is a reversal which is a lot easier to understand...you go to a wedding and end up a funeral. You go for a job interview and end up on a date. The terms have been totally changed and the main character is either adapting to this or intiating the go for A and get B. 

When you lay out your scenes, there should be a flow of 'go for A and get B.' So most movies and TV shows have scene-to-scene architecture that unfold like... reveal, reveal, reversal, reversal, reveal or reveal, reversal, reversal, reveal, etc. You don't want too many reversals in a row or the story starts to feel like a melodrama or a soap opera (unless that is what you are writing). You don't want too many reveals in a row without a reversal or the story may start to feel flat. 

Reversals don't have to be huge to have an impact. In the movie "Frances Ha" the lead character spontaneously flies to Paris for a weekend...and then spends most of her 2 days sleeping b/c of jet lag. It's funny. She went to Paris for romance/adventure as all the great movies promise, and she ends up groggy and disappointed in herself...which is both a reversal and keeping with the character's flaw/feature: she doesn't know how to 'act right' according to expectations. She could have saved her money and slept in a Holiday Inn in New Jersey. 

Good scenes go for A and get B.  Great scenes go for A, get B, which leads to C. The 'C' is how the character adapts and transforms in response to the unexpected thing. These are the megascenes that stand out in movies.  The character goes through a major change. In "Wicked" Elphaba is finally invited to the cool kid party. She arrives with her best witch outfit and finds that she is totally dressed incorrectly and ostracized. Ppl laugh at her, and she feels embarrassed to the point of breaking into tears. She went to the party to be accepted and she ends up even more 'an outsider.' Most scenes end there with the character running out. What I liked about this scene is that they didn't wait for the 'C' in another scene. Some times the transformation happens in the same scene and the character takes control. So Elphaba turns her 'ostracism' into a style choice and starts to dance like she doesn't care. A mortified Galinda gets courage from Elphaba and joins her, and then everyone starts dancing like Elphaba. It was go for A, get B, and then transform into C all in the same scene. 

In "Carrie" the outsider goes to the prom in a beautiful white dress. The cool kids dump a bucket of pig blood on her and laugh. This causes Carrie to go into a psychotic state and use her psychic power to lock all the doors to the gym, start a fire, and kill all the students. The 'C' is, of course, Carrie killing everyone but it's also the full reveal of Carrie's real psychic power. The trauma makes her blossom into her full madness but also her power that she's been reluctant to use. The difference in 'C' choice is that "Carrie" is a horror movie and "Wicked" is a musical at a midpoint. By the end of "Wicked" Elphaba's "C" is more aggressive and dangerous against the system. She's not just dancing off her problem. She's 'defying' the entire system...and gravity. 

A satisfying story has A-B and A-B-C scenes. The C is how the character grows unexpectedly in the moment. And these are built on expectation (A) leading to reveal or reversals (B) which some times leads to (C) character action that transforms themselves and the world.