In need of help with scenes...

While there is only so much I can say based on what you have told us, I would probably make the first scene a chapter ending with the arrival at the town. Being greeted by the lord and having dinner with him I would make a second chapter. The reason I say this is there is a bit of a location shift from forest to town (even though the town is within the forest) and I imagine the tone is somewhat different as well (going from danger in a forest to meeting people in a town).

I am not sure what you are asking as far as you can't make the dinner scene happen however. Do you mean you are having trouble coming up with a reason for the scene to exist? Or do you mean that the scene itself is hard to write?

 

I would say it's fine to switch to a new chapter and only have one location and/or scene per chapter. You can also have multiples scenes per chapter, it's your preference. If you're writing for kids, though, short chapters and one local in each seems to be the going wisdom.

As far as the dinner scene goes, either come up with a good reason to include details for it or reduce it to a sentence or two and move on. You don't need to kill the momentum by including unimportant scenes just because that's what happened next chronologically. Spare the readers and yourself the yawns and gloss over it to get to the good stuff.

 

I would give serious thought as to whether a detailed version of the dinner scene is needed at all.

In one of my WIP's I was stuck for a long time. The characters were in a tricky situation (guests/prisoners in an anarchic city) but instead of dealing with this situation they kept talking about long ago events. Some of this was necessary...but most wasn't. When I finally realized this, I deleted most of the conversations and moved on.

 

I think a dinner scene is a great opportunity to set a bar.

By that I mean, how will the table manners of the countrymen differ from the table manners of the citizens of the capital? And how do both of those table manners differ from the table manners of the characters? What does that tell us about the characters and the likelihood that they will stand out in a crowd, or blend in with the masses?

What can we find out from the meal that shows possibly, if any, inequality in distribution of wealth, or some other, similar bone of contention?

What better place to get gossip than during a meal or after a long night of drinking?

What better scene to fall in love or fall into a fight? What better scene to initiate a pissing match of wits?

An old trick in the film industry that I would like to see more of in novels, is the use of slap stick.

I used to hate slap stick and dismissed it for drivel. But the fact is that it's easy to find funny and it does help to move the scene along.

Someone falling, someone farting, etc, etc.

I'm not advising to write a comedy, but even briefs moments of comic relief can help to keep the reader interested.

I wouldn't avoid a dinner scene, I would embrace it as a challenge.

If it doesn't work, chop it out in the final edits.

 

I'm with KC: If the dinner scene is unimportant, reduce it too, "They ate dinner with the local lord and the next day continued on." Or don't mention it at all, like the French plantation scene cut from "Apocalypse Now."

 

I always liked that scene. It was chaotic and dreary but it did provide some historical clarity.

In The Heart of Darkness, Marlow meets with Kurtz's sister at the end.

I always felt that the French woman, was the film versions replacement for Kurtz's sister.

The close-ups of her face are haunting but telling.

The scene does not move the movie along, but I find it compelling and beautiful.

I wouldn't want to see the movie without it.

 

If your goal is to establish the characters' personality, code and fighting style, the fight itself seems like a good place for it. Assuming they have little trouble dispatching a handful of bandits, the way they do so could speak volumes. Bushido's virtues are Justice, Courage, Mercy, Politeness, Honesty, Honor, Loyalty and Self-Control. During the course of the fight, it would not be hard to demonstrate these virtues:

Justice - perhaps the leader of the ambush was actually a wanted criminal and the heroes willingly allowed themselves to be ambushed so they could capture him?

Courage - despite being outnumbered, they show no fear, doing what is right despite it not being in their best interest to do so

Mercy - Rather than slaughter everyone wantonly, they strike to injure and focus mainly on their goal of capturing the leader alive, perhaps trying to show through example why his cohorts should change their ways

Politeness - Despite the fact that they are in a sword battle, they refuse to attack an unaware foe. Or perhaps after the bandit ambush but prior to the actual fight they introduce themselves and explain precisely what they have come to do (much to the amusement of the bandits).

Honesty - When they actually turn in the leader, perhaps they are offered more than was agreed on and they turn it down. Perhaps the leader himself offers to bribe them and they refuse. Maybe they refuse to possess more than they can easily carry due to the belief that luxuries breed laziness?

Loyalty - Perhaps the two have a reputation for being sellswords who will work for whoever offers them the right price, even though in reality this is not the case. Perhaps when the bandits see things going against them, they might try and hire one against the other, or try to convince them that the government that is offering the bounty won't actually pay it.

Self-Control - There are any number of ways that the bandits could attempt to anger the heroes or convince them that the bandits were not actually bad people. They soon learn that to the heroes, right and wrong is not a philosophical argument for debate. What is right is right and what is not is not. There is no room for gray.

Anyway, those are just some ideas. You wouldn't necessarily have to include all of them to get the idea across about their philosophy, and what you had in mind for them might diverge a bit from this (I just based these things on Bushido philosophies I have studied in the past). Still, the way they deal with their first battle really sets the stage for what you expect out of how they deal with conflict for the rest of the story, so it wouldn't hurt to really explore that through the battle.

 

ChasingSuns,

You need to answer two questions:

1. Why is the scene needed?

You've answered that here:

This is the information you need your scene to convey to the reader.

2. Why is this scene interesting to the reader?

How do you convey the information in part 1 in such a way that the reader doesn't want to pluck out his eyeballs in boredom? Typically, this involves some kind of tension.

To me, these two questions are the essence of a scene: What do I convey and How do I convey it?

 

IMHO:
The carriage ride with the ambush, good opening action, especially if it ties into later problems.

The meeting of the lord, a quick meeting then right to dinner, see below:

The dinner is a good place to introduce the people more in depth. The Lord doesn't know them, so it isn't an info dump to have them tell of themselves.
If everyone knows everyone else, it becomes a "As you know..."conversation info dump. Meeting people allows more of the character to introduce themselves to the reader as well as the new person in the book.

[It's funny how much I see writing mistakes in old tv shows. Of course, I see it occasionally in modern tv too.]