The Expanded Ultimate Story Checklist: Is one of the scene partners not planning to have this conversation (and quite possibly have something better to do)?

You’re writing a scene. A man learns some shocking news. He goes home to tell his wife. He walks into his apartment, where she’s been waiting for him to come home. She asks what’s wrong. He tells her everything. 

What does she say in response? Well, we don’t care what she says because the scene is already dead. Why was she just waiting for him to come home? She had nothing better to do?

In how many ways does this sabotage the scene?

• She has nothing to do but talk, because she has nothing in her hands and no business to complete. 
• She has no goal of her own to accomplish rather than have this conversation. 
• The scene is drained of conflict because she wants to have this conversation and in fact needs to have it, since she has nothing better to do. 

No matter how loving she is, what if she doesn’t want to get into this discussion and she needs to complete something else important? That’s two more sources of conflict right off the bat.

But, more important, you’ve hobbled your own thought process. If you had taken the time to figure out what she would actually be doing all day, then you would have had to create a much richer, fuller character, because you would have thought about what these people do for work and play. In other words, you would have thought about what they value. And that would inform every conversation.

Look at Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. In this airless, weightless, computer-rendered world, every actor stands around in front of green screens and blandly converses about who gets to control the universe. If you listen to two seconds of dialogue, you know the movie is bad, but you don’t even have to listen that long. Just look at any still frame that features their homes and offices. Where is all their stuff? How do these people live without stuff?

As far as I understood it, Natalie Portman’s character is queen of a planet and a senator in the galactic legislature. Those are two big jobs! Where is her desk? Where are her papers? Is there no paper at all in this universe? Okay, so do they use computers instead? No? Do they write everything on their hands? Can she at least have a pen? No? There’s not a single usable prop on any set.

This lack of stuff makes the visuals look hopelessly unconvincing, it makes the performances painful to watch, and, more important, it makes the highfalutin ideas they’re discussing sound vapid and pointless. Why should we listen to you people? You obviously don’t do anything.

These people have very important jobs, or so we’re told, but they do nothing, and they have nothing, so they are nothing. And out in the audience, nobody cares. Don’t make the same mistake. Never let anybody enter a room and find somebody waiting around to have a conversation.

For this Scenework series, we’re looking at these scenes:

The 40 Year Old Virgin	Andy goes home with a drunk woman from a Bachelorette party.
Alien	After the deaths of Kane, Brett and Dallas, Ripley becomes captain, so she has a meeting with the other survivors, Ash, Parker, and Lambert, to decide what to do next.
An Education	Jenny is amazed as David gets permission from her parents to take her on a weekend trip to Oxford by claiming to know C.S. Lewis.
The Babadook	Amelia chases her son Sam down to the basement, where he knocks her out, ties her up, and drives the Babadook out of her, temporarily.
Blazing Saddles	Bart arrives in town, then takes himself hostage to save himself from hostile townspeople
Blue Velvet	Jeffrey spies on Dorothy and Frank, then Dorothy catches Jeffrey in her apartment and has sex with him at knifepoint.
The Bourne Identity	Jason and Marie are attacked at her family’s farm by the assassin known as The Professor. Jason blows up a propane tank to distract him and kills him, but as the Professor dies he convinces Jason to come back.
Bridesmaids	Annie is driving angry after feuding with Helen when she gets pulled over by a cute cop, who gives her his number under the pretense of recommending a place to get her tail light fixed.
Casablanca	Sketchy crook Ugarte asks cool club owner Rick to hold onto the letters of transit for him.
Chinatown	Jake confronts Noah Cross with the glasses
Donnie Brasco	Lefty seeks to go behind Sonny Black’s back to set up his own meeting in Florida with Trifficante. He has Donnie borrow a boat for this purpose, but Sonny Black knows everything, and he crashes the party.  Lefty bitterly assumes that Donnie has betrayed him, and shuns him.  Sonny takes Donnie aside and elevates him above Lefty.
Do the Right Thing	Buggin’ Out notices that there are no brothers on the wall of Sal’s Pizzeria and decides to organize a boycott.
The Farewell	Billi finds out about Nai Nai’s diagnosis from her parents.
The Fighter	Micky and Charlene confront Micky’s family about his career.
Frozen	Anna confront Elsa in her ice palace
The Fugitive	Gerard confronts Kimble atop a dam, but Kimble leaps off.
Get Out	Chris sneaks out for a smoke in the night, has creepy encounters with Georgina and Walter, then finds Missy drinking tea.  She implores him to sit down, he repeats that he doesn’t want to be hypnotized, but she does it anyway with her teacup.  She gets him to admit the facts of his mother’s death, then sends him to a “sunken place” in his mind.
Groundhog Day	Phil takes Rita to a cafe and tries to convince her that he’s living the same day over and over. He convinces her by predicting what Larry will say.
How to Train Your Dragon	Hiccup and his students are in an arena competing to defeat a dragon, but Hiccup is quizzing their instructor to find out how to better commune with his own dragon, Toothless. Along the way, he uses what he learned from Toothless to peacefully subdue the dragon they’re fighting, infuriating the others.
In a Lonely Place	Laurel has made secret plans to leave town, but Dix makes her go to his favorite restaurant to celebrate their engagement with his agent, his alcoholic friend, and others.
Iron Man	Tony has built a better chest-device to keep shrapnel out of his heart, so he calls Pepper in to reach into his chest and replace the old one with a new one.
Lady Bird	Lady Bird flirts with Kyle in the parking lot.
Raising Arizona	During Hi and Ed’s first night with Junior, brothers Gale and Evelle show up having just escaped from jail, and begin to suspect the truth.
Rushmore	Max introduces himself to Ms. Cross on the bleachers.
Selma	King meets with Johnson in the Oval Office to try to get him to commit to a new Voting Rights Act
The Shining	Jack finally takes a drink from the ghosts in the ballroom. A waiter spills a drink on him, and takes him to the bathroom to clean it off.  While he does so, Jack realizes that the waiter is actually Grady, the former caretaker that killed his family.  Grady encourages him to do the same, but Jack is uncertain.
Sideways	Miles has struck out with Maya, but Jack comes back to the motel after a wild night with Steph, intending to go back out. Miles tries to get Jack to stay by forcing him to call his fiancé, but she doesn’t answer and Jack takes off with Steph after getting Miles to return his unused condom from the night before.
The Silence of the Lambs	Clarice first meets Lecter in his cell, under the pretense of getting him to fill out a questionnaire, but he quickly figures out that it’s really about Buffalo Bill, and that Clarice is hiding other things as well.
Star Wars	The gang takes over the Death Star command office.
Sunset Boulevard	Joe discovers Norma, who assumes that he’s there to plan her monkey’s funeral, but when he explains that he’s a screenwriter, she hires him to rewrite her screenplay for Salome instead.

So how do those scenes do with this question?

The 40 Year Old Virgin	NO, they’re both planning on having this conversation.
Alien	NO.
An Education	YES. Jenny wants to study her homework.
The Babadook	YES. She just wants to kill him, not to talk.
Blazing Saddles	NO. they’ve all come together on purpose.
Blue Velvet	YES. Dorothy isn’t prepared for this.
The Bourne Identity	YES. Jason and Marie wanted to leave.
Bridesmaids	YES. She just wants to get home.
Casablanca	YES. Well, Rick is “busy” playing chess with himself and would rather keep doing that.
Chinatown	Yes and no: they’re both eager to have this conversation, but they’re both standing, indicating that they’d each like to get this over with and get somewhere else as quickly as possible.
Donnie Brasco	YES.  in the second half, where Donnie gets cornered by Sonny.
Do the Right Thing	YES. Sal doesn’t expect to or want to converse, he just expects Buggin’ Out to pay and go away.
The Farewell	YES. The dad doesn’t want to discuss it.
The Fighter	Yes and no, they’ve all planned to be there, but they’d all rather be anywhere else.  Alice has planned on ignoring Charlene but isn’t allowed to.
Frozen	YES. Elsa: “You should probably go.”
The Fugitive	YES. Kimble definitely has something better to do.
Get Out	YES. He just wants to smoke or go back to bed, not have a discussion with his mother-in-law, and certainly not be hypnotized.
Groundhog Day	YES. She wants to get going.
How to Train Your Dragon	YES. Nobody wants to have the conversation Hiccup wants to have.
In a Lonely Place	YES. Laurel has something better to do but is forced to stay.
Iron Man	YES. she was otherwise occupied before he called her in.
Lady Bird	YES. He’s reading a book when she approaches him and he’s reluctant to put it down.
Raising Arizona	YES. Ed and Hi just want to sleep.
Rushmore	YES. She was trying to read.
Selma	YES. Well, they’re both planning to have it, but Johnson makes clear that he feels he has something better to do (the War on Poverty)
The Shining	YES. Jack just wants to get back to the party.
Sideways	YES. Jack had not planned on having a conversation.
The Silence of the Lambs	NO, both welcome the conversation and have nothing better to do.
Star Wars	NO, they’re all in mid-conversation already.
Sunset Boulevard	YES. he just wants to get out of there.