How to Make a Scene Work for You

You have to make sure your character motives are expressed well. You can see the big difference between a plot where, man, these characters, if they would just talk, this book would be over. If you can get across to me that this character legitimately, who they are, then I'm on board with that as an obstacle in the relationship. And there's a lot of other reasons beyond dragging out the suspense that you wouldn't want characters to talk to each other. One of my favorite scenes in all of literature is the big dinner party and the first part of Dune where they have arrived,. It's one of the tensest scenes in the book.