I am a terrible underwriter. I would spend months planning a novel only to have it come out to thirty thousand words. EVERY SINGLE TIME. One time as part of a writing conference I had an industry professional examine my work and they gave me 10/10 for voice… 2/10 for pacing. Yeah, I mean, not surprising. I write like the impatient level 5 tornado that I am. So I did a lot of soul searching. Spoke to my higher self. And this technique popped into my mind like the godsend that it was.
And I am going to share it with you, dear writer. Because this has absolutely saved my writing life.
I call it “The Rainbow Technique”. And it’s a way to structure individual scenes.
The idea of The Rainbow Technique is that you can structure an individual scene using the seven colors of the rainbow. First, you figure out your three primary colors. Which would be the three major components of a scene: The set-up, the conflict and the resolution. (If you prefer, you can think of it in Dwight V. Swain’s phrasing, “goal, conflict, disaster”.) For the sake of this technique and rainbow imagery, the three parts of a scene are assigned these colors:
Red – The set-up (the character’s goal)
Yellow – The conflict
Blue – The resolution (or disaster)
But of course, those aren’t the only colors of a rainbow. There are colors in between. For whatever reason, this is the imagery that helped me to appropriately slow down my scenes. You need red, yellow, blue but you also have orange, green and purple. Just as you need a set-up, conflict and resolution, you also need moments in between that transition and build.
So therefore, “a rainbow structure” could look something like this:
Red – The set-up
Orange – Lead up to the conflict
Yellow – The conflict
Green – Lead up to the resolution
Blue – The resolution
Indigo – Character’s emotional reaction
Violet – Character makes a plan for the next scene
Note that the scene doesn’t end at the resolution. It’s a resolution of the conflict but the character still needs to react and act to whatever happened. This is called “a sequence” and it’s very helpful to readers to connect with your character.
The idea of “lead ups” might be kind of weird to grasp at first, so I’ll give you an example of how to use this technique to rewrite a scene that’s too short.
A skimpy scene I might write could be something along the lines of:
Sir Gallant arrived with his men to the castle and knocked on the door. Suddenly, an enormous red dragon burst through the wood, sending shards flying around Sir Gallant’s men. “Retreat!” someone cried as a stream of roaring fire blew through the dragon’s mouth. The knights mounted their bucking horses and retreated to the hills. The men sought shelter in a cave. “We will have to figure another way in,” Sir Gallant said panting and wiping his brow.
Okay let’s take that scene and expand on it using the rainbow technique.
So, first we’re going to have a set up (RED).
In the skimpy version my set up is “Sir Gallant arrived with his men…” But how did they arrive? What did they look like as they arrived? What did the horses’ hoofs sound like? Was the ground muddy or rocky? The set up is all about painting the scene and tone. Take time here to give us as many sensory details as you can.
Next, we’ll have a lead up to the conflict. We’re not having the conflict yet, we’re just going to allude or foreshadow the fact that we are about to face some conflict (ORANGE).
I always first draft my conflict into this Hollywood jump scare. AND THEN THE DRAGON BURST THROUGH THE DOOR KABOOOOM! AND THEN SUDDENLY HE LOST CONTROL AND YELLED AT HER. Buuuut. These moments are much much more impactful if you build tension and alert the readers that the goal might not be accomplished. For example, let’s say that when Sir Gallant arrives at the castle, they don’t knock on the door right away. Let’s write that it’s eerily quiet. Maybe the horses act nervous and stop. And then there’s a dialogue between Sir Gallant and his right-hand man, wondering why there’s no one manning the gate. Maybe they notice there isn’t a single voice to be heard. Not even bird song. With “ORANGE” we’re basically cueing the audience that something is wrong. We’re about to be met with a problem.
Now, the real conflict (YELLOW)
The dragon bursts through. Details, details, details! In all your “primary color” segments you must add lots of sensory details. Hollow knock on the tall castle door. Wispy white smoke billowing from the crack underneath. Not just what the dragon looks like, but what he smells like. What his roar sounds like.
We’re not going to have a resolution right away. We’re going to do the same that we did before and bridge the two elements together. This character WANTS this goal. They will FIGHT this conflict. Show that they want it, don’t let them accept defeat so easily. (GREEN)
In the skimpy version we had the men retreating pretty quickly. But in this edited version, Sir Galland is not going to allow that to happen right away. We’re going to have ‘Stand your ground, men!’ and the sound of swords clanging. Certainly, we’re going to have some minor characters killed in this moment. Maybe a young man that Sir Galland had interacted with earlier. Either way, this is going to take a LOT to get him to back down. It’s going to take his right-hand-man pleading and begging him to retreat before he leaves.
Then they are forced to accept the resolution (BLUE)
Back through the woods and to the caves. You can mirror this section with the “red section” to showcase the change. Are the horses hoofs softer now that there are fewer? Is the once dry and rocky forest now smoldering and raining ash?
Now we’re not done quite yet! The character has to have a reaction and show how this resolution has affected them! (INDIGO)
We need a moment for Sir Galland to angrily throw his helmet onto the ground. Or quietly ask his right hand man “How many were lost?”. This all depends on your individual character and how this particular conflict would feel for them.
Then what is the plan? What is the hint for the next scene? If we see this proactive character formulating a plan it will keep us turning the page to see if they do indeed get this goal! (VIOLET)
Sir Galland gathers his men and explains they can no longer get into the castle through the gate or over the walls, so they’ll have to make a plan to go under the dragon. Then he asks his right-hand man where they can get shovels.
That is just a quick example of what I’ve been doing, but it’s been really effective! I personally give myself a word minimum of 300 for each color. That has extended each of my “scenes” into 2,000+ words a piece. Which makes them better suited for chapters. It works the best for me, because my previous drafting of 30k word novellas can easily be turned into appropriate length novels without having to add major changes to the plot or subplots. (Usually)
This technique helps with both plotting or editing. If you do give it a go, please let me know. I would be curious if this helps other underwriters!
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