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How can I create an iconic scene for my book? (Attention: Spoiler alert!)

I think an iconic scene/thing is a must-have for your book. Those let the story always bring the story to light. I mean if you watch an iconic movie e.g. Star Wars. There was the one scene where Darth Vader—more or less—explains Luke he (D.V.) is his father. Or in The Shining where the crazy guy hit the door with an ax and look with his head through it and say, “Here is Johnny!”. Or in Jurassic Park where the T-Rex breaks out. But how do you create one like these—when you try to remember the story—always this scene comes first?
 
I was a young kid the last time I watched The Shining, so although I remember that scene (and have experienced the many highlights which played that clip), I don't remember the context story-wise.

The other two are plot twists or else significant turns that signal "what is past" is truly past and what comes next is going to be shaped by what happened. In other words, they are types of Rubicon: you can never go back to the way things were (up to that point) and what comes after will be significantly shaped by those iconic events.

That said...the important thing to remember is not so much those iconic scenes but what came before. In other words, the setup is just as important as those turns. So I'd consider all the ways you can build up to those moments. Also, I'd be sure to make those moments truly definitional; make sure they really do alter all that is to come after.

A lot of this will involve stakes and the way the stakes are cast in sharp relief by those moments.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
A good example of iconic scenes goes to Game of Thrones on HBO. One of the main drivers of getting that show made from the books was the number of "set pieces" craving to be iconic in a visual medium. For me, these sets pieces are what keep me writing: the twist, the counter twist, and retwist, the big reveal, the moments of pure heroism or betrayal. If your story has these elements and you write them well, you've got a shot.
 
I think iconic scenes are a lot easier in movies, comics and graphic novels and any sort of visual medium. I am more like to remember from Jurassic Park when the T. Rex shows up at the end or my favored 'Clever girl' bit. Though it can come up in books it's a little more blurry, even when Caiphas Cain is taking on a Khornite Chaos Marine or an Ork Warboss in a chainsword fight. Eh, can certainly see it in my head but it fades a little easier in the written word then it does the visual.
 

Gurkhal

Auror
I think an iconic scene/thing is a must-have for your book. Those let the story always bring the story to light. I mean if you watch an iconic movie e.g. Star Wars. There was the one scene where Darth Vader—more or less—explains Luke he (D.V.) is his father. Or in The Shining where the crazy guy hit the door with an ax and look with his head through it and say, “Here is Johnny!”. Or in Jurassic Park where the T-Rex breaks out. But how do you create one like these—when you try to remember the story—always this scene comes first?

To me theme and general concept comes first, then outline and characters and finally the details like scenes and stuff. Without knowing the themes and characters of the story I think it would be impossible to set up an iconic scene due to them being so interdependent.
 

Yora

Maester
That said...the important thing to remember is not so much those iconic scenes but what came before. In other words, the setup is just as important as those turns. So I'd consider all the ways you can build up to those moments. Also, I'd be sure to make those moments truly definitional; make sure they really do alter all that is to come after.

The two examples given are famous moments and they get quoted and referenced a lot, to the point that people know them even if they don't really know anything about the full work. But I am convined that all the people who are making these references now the full work very well and they make these references to people who know them too. But they are scenes that don't work by themselves or can really stand on their own. Their full greatness comes from their context within the entire work as a whole.

As I see it, they are moments where everything that has happened so far comes together. It's when you get the whole payoff for all the buildup that has been happening before. Before there had been hints of something that is going to happen, but the audience had no clue what it might be. And then in one moment it all comes together and the audience and the characters grasp the full extend of what they are dealing with.

Often, though I am not sure if it's always, such moments in a story have multiple different story strands that have been running paralel merging into a single coherent one. Once we reach this moment, all the different problems and concerns are one. From here on it's only one problem that makes anything else that had been going on irrelevant.
Now the heroes know what threat they are really facing, and it turns out to worse than anything they might have expected.
 
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