Perceiving the Dramatic Purpose of Scenes
A Review of the Opening Chapters of The Hunt for Red October
by Bill Johnson

The essay sets out some guidelines for writers to understand the dramatic purpose of individual scenes and their relationship to a story's core dramatic purpose. With such an understanding, writers have a way to test the dramatic strength of a story's scenes.

To demonstrate this process, I outline, scene by scene, the opening chapters of The Hunt for Red October.

To understand this story's scene structure and how it operates to create a quality of drama that engages its audience, one should start with its title,

The Hunt for Red October.

With this title, the story's audience is set up to anticipate action around the Red October. This may sound like a minor point, but every word/scene in the opening of a novel/screenplay/play should operate to give a story's audience a reason to feel engaged/drawn into the story. The title of this novel is part of this process of setting out that the Red October has a dramatic purpose to fulfill in this story.

Next, page one begins, "The First Day, Friday, 3 December." This suggests that this story has begun, i.e., it's day one of the hunt. It's an important issue to understand. We know from the title that the Red October will be hunted. We know from being told this is "Day One" that the hunt begins immediately: thus, we are primed to anticipate dramatic purpose and action from the story's opening lines.

The point is that the storyteller chooses every element of a story for its effect of creating a quality of purposeful dramatic movement for an audience, a "moving" experience. Anything that doesn't serve that purpose on some level is dead weight to a story.

In the first sentence of The Hunt for Red October, we're introduced to Captain First Rank Marko Ramius. Ramius is the first person we're introduced to because he has the largest dramatic purpose to fulfill in the story. Some writers struggle with the openings to their stories because they use them to introduce characters, not set their story into motion. If a writer uses the first ten pages of their novel to introduce ten characters, it limits the ability of the story's audience to be able to perceive a story's dramatic purpose.

Also note how the dockyard workers "watched his ship sail in stolid Russian fashion, without a wave or a cheer." We're being set up - moved -- to have a mindset about the Russians. That's Clancy's dramatic purpose in using those particular words to describe the dock workers.

In the second paragraph, the Red October is under way. The ship -- and this story -- is moving forward. Because the Red October is a significant character in this story, Clancy also introduces it on the first page of his novel. This cues the audience to the dramatic importance of the ship.

In the third paragraph, we're told that the Red October is the Soviet Navy's newest missile submarine. It's important to give the elements of a story a sense of dramatic scale. Because the submarine is THE newest submarine of the Soviet Navy, the audience is drawn one more degree into the story than if there were nothing special about the Red October. The newness of the submarine also suggests it will have a better ability to be part of Ramius's escape.

In the fifth paragraph, we're told how dirty and oily the water in the fjord is, "as though from the bath of a slovenly giant." Ramius, via his thoughts, makes the contrast between what he was taught about seamanship and what the Russians practice. The audience is being set up to anticipate the conflict between Ramius and the Russians, and the reason for that conflict. It's NOT simply a description of the fjord; the description has a dramatic PURPOSE. This dramatic purpose reaches down into the words Clancy uses to describe the fjord and the kind of thoughts he wants to "move" his audience to have about the Russians. If the Russians were not presented as oppressive, they wouldn't serve the dramatic purpose of the story. Therefore, there are no loving, generous, big-hearted Russians described. That would confuse the dramatic purpose of the story.

In the sixth paragraph, the Red October continues down the channel that leads to the sea. Again, physical movement in the context of our expectation of the beginning of the hunt. Storytellers are always looking for ways to set out that their story is moving forward. Describing physical action that has a dramatic purpose to the story -- if the Red October weren't leaving port, Ramius couldn't use it to escape -- is one way to create a quality of dramatic movement in a story.

The seventh paragraph is another important step in the story's development. We're told,

"The ice (mentioned in paragraph six) was something else to worry about. And so, for Ramius, was a great deal else."

The audience is being primed to anticipate that all is not what it seems; primed to understand that this is a dramatic story, not just a series of events describing the Red October going out to sea. Further, that even this simple action is ripe with dramatic purpose... and the author cues in the audience to that fact. The author doesn't explain it, he simply sets out a dramatic "barb" to hook his audience, to whet their appetite to discover the meaning of this barb. A storyteller creates drama not only through something like conflict, but also by setting up their audience to anticipate action. By cueing his audience that action is impending, Clancy draws -- moves -- his audience forward. That's the dramatic purpose of that line, "And so, for Ramius, was a great deal else."

In the eighth paragraph, we meet Captain Second Rank Ivan Yurievick Putin, who appears on the control station "without permission, as usual." The dramatic purpose of that comment is that it sets out that Putin "moves" into Ramius's space in a way that antagonizes Ramius, that has been part of this oppressive system Ramius desires to escape. We learn that Putin is the ship's political officer. As the standard bearer and authority for the Communist Party, we're introduced to Putin in a way that primes the audience to expect/anticipate conflict between Ramius and Putin. That's the dramatic purpose of this scene and not simply the introduction of Putin as a character. So his introduction acts out his dramatic purpose in the story, not merely his appearance.

There is an exchange of dialogue between Putin and Ramius that on the surface is good-natured, but Ramius adds via his thoughts that "Putin was an easy man to fear." It says a great deal about the system that Ramius operates in without saying a great deal to make the point. We're being cued again to perceive this oppression that smothers Ramius.

Page four opens with a paragraph where Ramius compares dirty Russian cities to the Lithuanian coastal city he grew up in. This is followed by the fact that he's only allowed to command the Red October because his father was a Hero of the Party. The point of these revelations is we're not only offered Ramius's background, which explains his actions, but set up the audience for the payoff of this material,

"His father's prominence had made his current goal a possibility, and Marko (Ramius) planned to wreak his own vengeance on the Soviet Union."

The "hook" of this story is being set. Putting together the title and this latest bit of information, the audience now expects that something is going to happen that revolves around Ramius and the Red October, a nuclear missile- armed submarine. The audience doesn't know what, exactly, but that's not the issue. The issue is that the audience has been set up to anticipate dramatic action around Ramius act out his vengeance on the system that has oppressed him. This scene has taken the audience a step deeper into the dramatic purpose of the story, this acting out of the conflict between freedom and oppression via Ramius and his intention to "wreak his own vengeance on the Soviet Union."

The danger for struggling writers is that they might have withheld this information to create a revelation deeper along their plot line. But withholding this kind of information simply denies the story's audience an opportunity to be aware of -- and potentially moved by -- a story's dramatic purpose. By giving this information to his audience, Clancy clearly advances his story along both its story and plot lines in a dramatic way.

Clancy also uses the setting out the dramatic purpose of his story to create an anticipation of the story's dramatic action. Statements about the story's dramatic purpose...

...that Putin is oppressive, that communists are oppressive...

...do not set up this anticipation of dramatic action and outcome.

On page 5, Ramius talks about having two wives, the sea and a wife on land... but now that wife has passed away. We're told that Ramius holds the Soviet State to account for his wife's death. Again, another step to explain Ramius's actions. Note how these events are all being mated with states of emotion: fact/dramatic emotion. Fact, Ramius's wife has died; dramatic outcome of his emotional response to her death: Ramius is going to make the system that oppresses him and led to his wife's death pay for his loss. This is a heightening of the story's dramatic purpose for the audience by their being primed via the story's main character's emotional response to the story's previous events. The point is were not being told about Ramius' past to make a statement about his character, but to show us some of the fuel that feeds his burning hatred of the communists and his plan to exact revenge. That's the dramatic purpose of letting us know about the death of Ramius' wife.

Next, we get into another exchange between Putin and Ramius about whether any Los Angeles Class American submarines might be lurking in the open sea nearby. Again, the audience is being primed to anticipate the appearance of an American submarine. The conversation about it, and Ramius's cryptic thought that he hopes that no Americans are about, has a dramatic purpose of priming the audience to anticipate an encounter between the Red October and an American submarine. Why, exactly, does Ramius not want an American submarine about? To get the answer to this question and the answer to the question of what exactly Ramius intends as revealed by his cryptic thoughts draws the audience deeper into the story.

Now Ramius becomes even more explicit when he thinks about Putin:

It would almost be worth leaving you alive.

Again, the audience is given just enough information to pull them deeper into the story while on the surface we have an exchange between Putin and Ramius. The important point is that this exchange advances the story itself, as well as highlighting what is the chapter question,

Can Ramius put his plan into effect and get around Putin?

We still don't know what he intends, but we've been primed to expect dramatic action.

On page seven, Ramius looks at the cliffs of the fjord and thinks:

This would be the last. One way or another, he'd never go back. Which way would it turn out? Ramius admitted to himself that he didn't much care.

What we have here is a character who is committed to a course of action. Then he reveals a letter he left in a mailbox outlining his as-yet unexplained plans to his communist oppressors. Again, this speaks not only to the commitment of Ramius, but that there's no way back for him now. He must move forward. This is a well-done piece of work. The audience has been cued that this is a character who will act with every force of his being, because failure means not only death, but the victory of those who have oppressed him and even oppressed the sea he loves. That's the dramatic purpose of this scene.

The next series of scenes are concerned with the Red October submerging. Note that these more-factually-based scenes don't happen until it's been established that Ramius has a dramatic purpose, and that whatever he plans, there's no way back. So we are offered the dramatic "why" of the story before we get to some of the background information. It would be dramatically inert to use the first several pages of the story to offer information about the Red October, before the audience knew the dramatic purpose of that information. Information about the submarine is important in the story, but it's not the story's dramatic focus. So it's presented in its rightful place as a particular environment -- an important one -- across which the events of this story are acted out.

On the bottom of page 8 and the top of page 9, we're told the Red October has a "new drive system" that would "befuddle American and Soviet submarines alike." Again, this is to give the story a greater sense of dramatic scale, and anticipation. Is this why Ramius thinks he can escape? Does he anticipate needing to fool American submarines? Why? Can he in fact fool American submarines? To get the answers, we have to keep reading. The writer is always finding ways to create a sense of dramatic pressure and urgency around the story's events.

On the middle of page 9, the ship has submerged and Ramius motions Putin to follow him with the thought:

And so it began.

Again, note the care to prime the audience for an anticipation of dramatic action...and the fact that the audience is not put off too long for a resolution to the chapter question set up early in the story,

Can Ramius get around Putin to put his plan into motion?

Putin and Ramius must wait 15 minutes before a safe can be opened to read over the ship's order. Ramius thinks about the crew and its officers and the fact that "All of them were men who would do -- were specifically trained to do -- exactly what their officers told them." The authoritarian attitude behind this logic will later be contrasted with the American system of command and cooperation among officers and crew on an American submarine. A second important point, it's because his crew will blindly follow his orders that Ramius has any hope of carrying out his plan...if Putin can be eliminated.

In the following dialogue with Putin, we're offered more information about Ramius and the trust a system that doesn't operate on trust places in him.

Next, we're told the ship's orders...to be part of a maneuver whereby other submarines are to track and attempt to find the Red October. They talk about the commander of the V. K. Konovalov, Viktor Tupolev, a former pupil of Ramius. Putin lies about knowing Tupolev. Another step in setting up why Ramius hates his oppressors, the Communists, and his oppressor in residence, Putin.

On page 13, Ramius thinks:

"It was time."

Again, we have the priming of the audience to expect dramatic action.

Ramius kills Putin. He has set his plan into motion. We don't know yet exactly what his plans are, but we've been primed to know that he loathes the communists and he now commands a nuclear missile submarine. Again, it's that deliberate effort to give the story a sense of scale.

On page 15, Ramius hands over to the ship's doctor HIS version of the ship's orders, not those he took from the safe with Putin.

In the last lines of the chapter, Ramius orders the Red October in a different direction than those in his original orders. We don't know where he's going yet, but we know his plan is underway. The purpose of this first chapter has been met. We're introduced to the story's main character, Ramius. The audience is primed to care about Ramius and his plans for the Red October.

By the end of the chapter, those plans have been set into motion. He has set into motion his plan to escape his oppressors. It's the purpose of another chapter to reveal the exact nature of those plans, but again, the title of the book reveals a sense of what will follow.

What's happened in this first chapter is that the audience was primed to anticipate dramatic action around Ramius setting into motion some sort of plan. Ramius has little choice about putting this plan into motion, because he's already revealed his intentions in a letter he's already mailed. Note we're not told what he says in the letter. It's another question that we must read deeper into the novel to gain an answer to that question.

Note the mating of factual information with the dramatic purpose of this story, Ramius attempting to escape the oppression of the Soviet Union. Every scene offers new information that sets up an anticipation of dramatic action. This new information is offered in a way that it draws us deeper into answering the questions raised by the presentation of the story's factual information.

While not every story should or would have the same style of writing, every well-told story would touch upon some of the principles of setting a story into motion that Clancy uses so effectively.

Chapter Two

Moving on to a more brief review of the scenes of Chapter Two, Ramius opens the chapter by offering ironic praise of the dead Putin to the crew. NOW we find out where Ramius intends to take the Red October: West. Ramius -- and Clancy through Ramius -- offers a dramatic summary of the attempted course of the Red October. Note, by setting out the purpose and course of the Red October, the story's develops drama around whether the Red October CAN make this journey. Again, this story has set up another element of its dramatic question:

Can Ramius escape his oppressors?

Now that question has been escalated in terms of its scale.

Can he escape toward America in a nuclear missile submarine?

This is a very dramatic action. To find out what he intends and the outcome of his actions, the audience has to KEEP TURNING PAGES.

That is the dramatic purpose of Ramius' revelations. By giving his escape to freedom a potential destination, he allows the audience of the story to feel moved as they take in the action of Ramius moving toward his goal. There's that combination again of the writer setting out and setting into motion a story with a dramatic purpose and setting out a character who will act out that purpose in a way that is moving to a story's audience.

If Clancy had withheld Ramius' dramatic purpose again to create another revelation, if Ramius simply set a course for America but Clancy didn't reveal that, Clancy would have maintained action along his plot line, but not along his story line. Events would have occurred, but to no clear dramatic purpose. By that I mean they would have had no concrete or visible effect on the story about freedom in conflict with oppression being acted out via Ramius advancing along its story line.

Next, Ramius wonders, are any American submarines about? To escape detection, Ramius orders that the new propulsion system of the Red October be engaged. That the Red October is an advanced submarine is mentioned in Chapter One. In Chapter Two, we find out what that means. Question, answer. Set up, resolution.

The Red October having an advanced propulsion system has different levels of dramatic purpose.

One, it makes the Americans getting the Red October more valuable, because in the larger context of the world in which the story takes place, the Americans could use the technology of the Red October in this on-going conflict between freedom and oppression.

Two, being in an advanced submarine gives Ramius an ability to escape to America. A ship with lesser capabilities would not serve this particular dramatic purpose of the story.

Three, it sets up a dramatic question to continue the process of keeping the attention of the audience engaged,

Can the Red October and its new propulsion system evade detection by the Americans?

If it can, it has even more value to the Americans.

To get the answer to the question about whether the Red October can evade the Americans, the reader turns the page to the introduction of the USS Bremerton. The Bremerton loses contact with the Red October when it uses its new propulsion system. Set up of dramatic question, answer to question. That's the dramatic purpose of the Red October coming across the Bremerton.

This sets up another question:

Will the Bremerton be able to find the Red October again?

Set up of scene question/resolution of question, but in a way that sets up another question that draws the story's audience deeper into the story. If the Bremerton can find the Red October again, that will affect the dramatic purpose of the story.

Next, we go to the mail sorter responsible for seeing that Ramius's letter is forwarded to Moscow. Will he open the letter and read it? He's opened other such letter. Opening Ramius's letter prematurely would ruin his chance to escape. That's the dramatic purpose of this scene with the mail sorter. To set up the story's audience to feel that if he moves to take a particular action, it will block Ramius from moving to gain his freedom. By setting up this situation after making the dramatic purpose of the story clear and concrete, Clancy creates a "moving," dramatic situation for his audience. The resolution of the situation that Clancy has set up is that the mail sorter takes another action. He mishandles the letter so that it will be sent a day later than intended -- an act that will have a consequence for the story. The dramatic purpose of this scene is to create both a "moving" experience for the story's audience of this moment, and to set up an anticipation of more such dramatic moments.

Note also that the mail sorter, via his thoughts, comments about the current state of the military in the Soviet Union, compared to its status during WWII. In a subtle way, Clancy makes the point that their are men and women who are patriotic not to the cause of communism, but to their motherland. The dramatic purpose of this moment is that Clancy doesn't want his Russian characters to be simple, cardboard, mindless cut outs. That would undercut the overall effect of his story.

This scene with the mail sorter has more than one purpose. It operates across a number of levels, setting up an anticipation of dramatic action, the outcome of that action and commentary on Soviet society. Every scene can be designed to have a number of dramatic purposes, from setting up an immediate outcome to setting up a plot revelation much deeper in the story. The issue is that they must all operate in a unified way to create that advance of the story along its story line.

Next, we're introduced to Jack Ryan. Jack is, after Ramius, the story's other main character. Ryan has a choice between working and attending to the emotional needs of his children. He attends to his children. Note the difference between the Soviets we've been introduced to (while being told that Ramius is not Russian), and this introduction to Jack Ryan. We're given some background information about Ryan, but we're also introduced to his character in a way that offers a contrast to the Soviet characters. That's the dramatic purpose of how Ryan is introduced as a character. His role in this story will be an embodiment of the values of a free society in action via his character.

Note that because the story itself has been set into motion -- this conflict between freedom and oppression -- when Jack Ryan is introduced, it's clear that he will have a dramatic purpose in the story simply by his introduction and the kind of man he is. That's why Clancy spends the time to give Ryan an introduction that cues his audience to his dramatic purpose in the story.

Next, we're taken aboard the Konovalov, the submarine that is to track the Red October. In Chapter One we're told the Konovalov will track the Red October. Question, what will happen when the Konovalov tries to track the Red October? Tupolev, its commander, commands the fastest attack submarine in the Soviet fleet. Again note the scale. The Red October is the most advanced Soviet nuclear submarine and it will be pursued by the most advanced attack submarine. It's a conscious attempt to have the story be current, just out of the headlines. It also has the dramatic purpose of showing that Ramius' pursuers have the tools to find and destroy him. If the Red October were so advanced that its detection were impossible by the Americans or the Soviets, the story would lack dramatic tension.

Note also that as the hunt for the Red October begins, the Konovalov is in its near vicinity. Many writers struggle because they go to great lengths to keep their characters separated while they introduce them. Clancy sets up his story's dramatic purpose and introduces his characters as they react to his story's dramatic purpose and the actions of the other characters responding to that purpose. By putting these characters in such close proximity, Clancy ensures they will react to each other in a way that advances the story.

Another purpose of this final scene with Tupolev is to cue in the audience to information about Ramius and the respect in which the other Soviet submarines esteem him. Also we are told that no attack submarine had ever been able to track Ramius in such an exercise, and Tupolev intends to be the first. Even this movement within the story's main movement is set up as a dramatic issue.

Can Tupolev track Ramius in this exercise?

Can he track him in the larger context of Ramius attempting to flee to America?

You have to read on, to chapter three, to get more answers. The second chapter also sets out how a storyteller advances their story across different levels of intermeshed dramatic purposes.

Chapter Three

Chapter Three, day Three, Ramius has an encounter with a junior officer. Note the care Ramius takes to train this officer. We're now being drawn into Ramius's character. The dramatic purpose of this exchange is to show that Ramius really is different than the communists.

Next, Ramius draws in his ship's doctor to observe how these junior officers handle their new duties. The doctor, unaware of Ramius's real purpose, takes on the task. It also means that the doctor will not be able to attend the ship's meeting Ramius is to head, a meeting Ramius apparently wants him to miss. That's the dramatic purpose of the exchange between the doctor and Ramius, that Ramius maneuvers him away from this meeting so he can speak freely to the ship's other officers.

Up to this point, the story has one issue it has skipped over. Was it moral for Ramius to murder Putin? On page 29, Clancy makes an effort to point out the difference between a man like Ramius and a man like Putin. We've been primed, particularly in the previous pages, to see the difference between Putin and Ramius. Clancy now makes an effort to show Ramius as a moral man driven to an extreme act by the system that has oppressed him.

If Ramius were anything less than a moral man who desires his freedom, it would undercut the dramatic purpose for the story as Clancy conceives it. That means that another writer with a different dramatic purpose for the story would create a different persona for Ramius.

For example, another writer might have the dramatic purpose of showing that this battle between freedom and oppression was designed to benefit the corporations and militaries of the world by maintaining their status and profits. In a story with that dramatic purpose, it would be just as likely that Ramius would create a veneer of morality over his escape to America to get his officers to assist him, then sell them out when he reached America and sold the Red October to the highest bidder. That kind of character action would serve the dramatic purpose of that particular story. The storyteller must always take great care to create the kinds of characters who serve the dramatic purposes of their stories. Otherwise, they create confusion for both the characters in their stories and for their audience. In the main, audiences do not find being confused and disoriented about a story's or a character's dramatic purpose "moving."

On page 30, it comes out that the other senior officers on the ship are aware of Ramius's plans. Again, a question,

Do these officers know?

And the revelation, yes. Question, answer.

In this scene, Ramius tells them of the letter he sent, something he hadn't told them previously. So the letter is a revelation to these men. They, too, cannot turn back now. That's one dramatic purpose of this scene. Another is to show their loyalty to Ramius.

Clancy uses this meeting to bring out the details of the origination of the escape plan, the death of Ramius's wife, Natalia. How as a child Marco (Ramius) was branded an informer for talking about something a schoolmate told him, that he passed onto his father. Ramius's real education, however, came from a grandmother who read to him from the Bible. His other education was to be a new man of the Soviet/Communist system, thus setting up for Ramius the question:

To which system would he give his allegiance?

Through the remainder of the balance of this chapter, we are taken through the events of Ramius's early life and his rise through the Soviet military. We also learn how the death of his beloved wife happened because of the incompetence of a communist-system doctor, the son of a party boss, and thereby beyond reproof. The death of his wife is first raised as an issue in a dramatic context (an explanation for his actions); only then does the story go back to offer more information. It uses the death to set the story into motion FIRST. Once you set a story into motion in a dramatically engaging way, then the writer has more leeway about introducing information about how a character came to have the particular personality traits that give them the drive to achieve their particular dramatic purpose in a story.

On page 41, Ramius sets out his utter damnation of the Soviet/Communist system that had:

...robbed him of more than his wife, it had robbed him of a means to assuage his grief with prayer, it had robbed him of the hope--if only an illusion--of ever seeing her again.

From his fury over his wife's death was born his plan to escape from Soviet/Communist control. The chapter ends with Ramius telling his officers, "Our mission, comrades, is to avoid detection."

Note, we still don't know exactly what Ramius plans. We also don't know if they can avoid detection. To get the answer to those questions, you have to turn to Chapter Four. The main purpose of the scenes of this chapter has been to set up the "why" of Ramius's actions.

Chapter Four

Chapter four opens with Ryan at CIA headquarters. The scenes in this chapter contrast sharply the difference in the cultures between the Soviet and American systems. Again, this ties into the story's dramatic purpose because the conflict inherent in this story is acted out in the clash of values between these two systems.

On page 50, Ryan brings out some secret photos of the Red October. The question arises, what is this new design of Soviet submarine? Then it comes out that the Bremerton has been assigned to track the Red October on its first voyage. Again note the introduction of characters and events in action; then, and only then, do we have a change of pace, a backstory that offers answers. It brings the audience back to the question, will the Bremerton be able to find and track the Red October? Since the audience doesn't know exactly what Ramius plans are for when he reaches America, this question becomes that much more dramatically urgent and pressing.

Because of our free system, Ryan is able to cross some boundaries to get answers to his questions about the purpose of the design of the Red October. Again, this ties into the story's underlying premise and its conflict between two different systems. To get answers about the Red October requires the use of NASA computers. Ryan says he'll get the needed computer time. The chapter continues with a trip to a facility that tracks Soviet submarines, and an update about what the American military knows about the submarines Red October, Bremerton, and Tupolev. We also are told the Dallas, another American submarine, is in the area. We're left with the expectation that it will be the Dallas that gets on the trail of the Red October. Again, an expectation, a question, that will be answered in another chapter.

Fifth Chapter

Fifth Chapter, Moscow; Ramius's letter is read by a commissar who gets the shock of his life. So we have an answer to what will the outcome of Ramius's letter being delivered, but it also sets up another question: exactly what does Ramius SAY in this letter? That's withheld. We have to KEEP READING to get the answer to that question. Question raised and answered, but in a way that sets up another question. That the dramatic purpose of this scene.

Moving ahead, in the previous chapter the USS Dallas is mentioned. In this chapter, it comes across the track of the Red October. Question, will it be able to track the Red October?

Answer, it shouldn't be able to, but an alert, capable American crewman, operating in a system that allows independent thought, is allowed to follow his intuition. That's the dramatic purpose of this scene, to both advance the story and to continue making clear delineations between those who fight on the side of freedom and those who serve an oppressive system.

Continuing, the audience has been set up to expect a reaction to Ramius's letter. That reaction comes via the Russian attack submarines that go into full throttle. Whatever Ramius said in the letter, it has had an effect. Note how this roundabout way of answering the question draws the audience, again, more deeply into the story, to desire even more an answer to the question,

What exactly did he threaten TO DO in that letter?

The dramatic purpose for Clancy setting out these scenes in this particular order is to again draw his audience forward deeper into his story.

Now the CIA picks up the report of the unusual, urgent activity of the Soviet Navy. Every Soviet submarine and ship has been ordered to find the Red October. This sets up a question,

How will the Americans respond?

Note, we still don't know exactly what Ramius plans. But we know the deeper purpose of his plans,

To be free of the Soviet oppression and brutality.

The story question that arises out of this story's premise has been set out in a way that fully engages the attention the story's audience. It's characters act in ways that clearly have an effect on the story's course and outcome. To get the answers to the story's core dramatic question and the question that arise during its telling, one must keep reading.

Story Review

The Hunt for Red October is an excellent example of the craft of constructing a well-told story. First, we're shown Ramius putting his plan into action. Then, as others try to decipher what Ramius intends, we get further answers. Where does he intend to escape? Toward the U.S. Coast and Cuba. What does he intend to do when he reaches the coast of America in command of a nuclear-missile armed submarine?

Note how what's at stake in the story, Ramius gaining his freedom from oppression, is set up in the story's opening chapters. Then, for each step Ramius takes, Clancy offers new information that in turn sets up new questions -- it's the working out of the thrust/counter thrust of the story.

Writers struggle when they withhold what's at stake in their stories for a dramatic revelation. It's never a mystery that Ramius is seeking to gain his freedom from his oppressors. It's the dramatic issue at the heart of the story. The story develops its drama over the outcome of this question. The playing out of the drama at the heart of this story takes place over a number of scenes/chapters. Each scene and chapter serving to dramatically advance the story. If the dramatic purpose of the story had been withheld, Clancy would have created a story with a plot line but not a story line. And a story that lacks a story line lacks a mechanism to "move" it audience, because a plot that lacks a strong story is inherently dramatic muted. It's food that looks wonderful on the plate -- all the right steps have been followed to prepare it -- but it is utterly lacking in seasoning.

Stories that inadvertently create a plot line without a strong story line have the same result, they look fine, but when you taste/read them, they have no real flavor.

Just as every scene in Clancy's story has a dramatic purpose, every character action and story event have dramatic purposes acted out across a story's scenes, events and chapters. Every writer should be able to understand and state the dramatic purpose of every scene in their story. To not have this ability is to write blindly, hoping to create the effect of a well-told story. The successful storyteller does not create stories through luck, but through an understanding of the process of storytelling.

What's important to see in a novel like Hunt is this issue of revelation and resolution of issues, what's revealed and when.

First, the story opens with Ramius putting his plan into action -- movement. The exact purpose and nature of the plan itself is withheld to create drama over the question, just what does Ramius intend to do with this nuclear-armed submarine he now commands?

But it's the deeper issue the novelist must see. That Clancy communicates that Ramius is in action. The purpose is not made clear immediately, but we know Ramius is a character committed to action. We know his action revolves around using the Red October to escape his oppressors.

Inexperienced novelists struggle because they don't set their story into motion a character clearly compelled to act. They want to set up the environment, they want to describe characters, they want to withhold important information to create a dramatic revelation. But note in October, the important story question is set up early and clearly -- can Ramius escape his oppressors?

First, the plan is set into motion. THEN, as a back story to the story's dramatic action, we learn more about WHY Ramius is acting. Writers who struggle want to start with the WHY, and not the action itself.

Note that once Ramius goes into action around his personal goal and around the story's question -- can he escape his oppression? -- Clancy paces Hunt with a series of broad strokes. Each operates to create a constant pull on the attention of the story's audience as scene/character/chapter questions are raised and resolved against a backdrop of the story's overall dramatic question being answered.

For The Hunt for Red October, that process starts with the novel's title and chapter headings... NOT forty, or a hundred, or two hundred pages into the novel. It's a big reason why this novel found, engaged, and entertained its audience.

©2000 Bill Johnson