Scene Analysis
1. What is the character literally doing?
Be as literal as possible; don't embellish what is happening. Find out the one specific thing he is doing that encompasses every line.
Example: A man enters a room, reaches for his pipe, searches for a tobacco pouch, takes his tobacco pouch from the desk drawer, opens the pouch, fills the pipe, and takes out matches. What the character is literally doing is preparing to smoke his pipe. Even if he puts on music, that doesn't interfere with what he is literally doing.
Some people call the literal action the popcorn moment. If you're at the movies with your friend and he goes to get popcorn, when he comes back, he might ask you, "Hey, what'd I miss?" "Well, Romeo proposed to Juliet." That's another way to think about getting to the literal action of a scene.
2. What is the essential action of what the character is doing in this scene?
Once you know what the character is literally doing, the next step is choosing the essential action of what the character is doing.
If the literal action of a scene is: Joe is getting Susan to dump Frank and become his girl.
The essential action of that scene is: Making a loved one take a big chance.
Here are a few strong, playable essential actions to get you started:
Intimidate a bully into backing off
Protect a weaker person from danger
Impress a superior
Show a subordinate who's boss
Extract a crucial answer
Threaten someone into behaving
Putting a jerk in his place
Pleading with a strict guy for a break
Making a liar admit the truth