Transitions keep your story moving and the reader clear about who's speaking, what location characters are in, and why the reader should keep reading. Sentence, paragraph, scene, and chapter transitions all play a role in a smoothly delivered story. Successful transitions also show the reader that the writer is in command of the reader's journey—that they can trust the writer and surrender themselves to the plot and characters.
Transitions are not in the index of The Chicago Manual of Style because they are not grammar elements per se. They're in my Grammar Tools because most stories I read on Wattpad are not using them correctly, or, sometimes, not using them at all.
Before we get into sentence transitions, we have to have a Sentence.Many Wattpad stories are not using sentences, but are making do with unpunctuated strings of phrases. A sentence starts with a capitalized word and ends with a period or question mark. If the writer is quoting something, a quotation mark might follow the period. In Chapter 1, "Why Fix Your Story?", I already suggested not using exclamation points, colons, or semi-colons, so we don't have to worry about those—except in rare cases.
Two sentences can be put together using ', and', ', or', ', but', or other less common conjunctions which are fine in descriptive passages, but bad in action sequences. Such complex sentences slow down your story.
Sentences have a Subject, a Verb, and an Object. In "Why Fix Your Story?" the Subject is Implied, Ex: "Why (should you) fix your story?"
Exercise #1: Take the first five sentences of your story and check they are punctuated correctly and have one Subject, one Verb, and one Object.
Before you Publish a new section, repeat Exercise #1. If you find a mistake, check the rest of your submission. Why wait for people like me to comment on your grammar? I'd rather be commenting on your fine story and interesting characters and giving you my votes.
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Sentence Transitions: Within a sentence commas transition from one element in a series to the next. Rule #1: Each element in a series, whether nouns, verbs, or phrases must have the same grammatical form as the other elements in the series. Ex: "I like hunting, to fish, and tennis." is wrong. "I like hunting, fishing, and playing tennis." is correct. "I like to hunt, to fish, and to play tennis," is also correct. You don't need to know the terms gerunds, participles, or tenses to get the idea or to fix the example sentence. Doesn't your prose flow better when you parallel parts of speech?
Conjunctions like and, or, and but can hook complete sentences together to make complex sentences. Rule #2: Don't use complex sentences in dialogue or action. Peoples don't usually talk that way, and bits of action are slowed down by stretching out the sentence length. In older novels, sentences can actually run several pages and still be understandable, but modern audiences won't tolerate it.
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Paragraph Transitions: Rule #1: Change to a new paragraph when a new character speaks, or the action or location shifts. A special case concerns a shift in time. Alert the reader by using an introductory clause to immediately tell them what is happening. Ex: Later, we... (later time same location - new paragraph) or After seven years, I ... (massively later time - new scene or new chapter).
In the dining room over breakfast, we.. (Time and location changing at the same time - new scene or new chapter)
Dialogue: Another special case.
Paragraph Transitions: Rule #2: A new speaker should begin a new paragraph. If the same speaker changes their subject or gets long-winded, you alert the reader that the same speaker is continuing to speak in a new paragraph by omitting the final quotation mark of the preceding paragraph's speech.
Exercise #1: Examine every character speech in a chapter. If two or more characters speak in the same paragraph, give the second character a new paragraph.
A different character's action is also a reason to begin a new paragraph.Such action often precedes that character speaking.
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Scene Transitions: Use a line-centered separator like '#' with a blank line before and after to separate scenes. Because scenes are identified by significant changes in location, characters, or time, a scene transition is often introduced at the end of the prior scene with a phrase to let you know a break is coming. Ex: "I wouldn't have gone if I knew what was waiting from me at the store." Then, at the beginning of the new scene, you must identify the POV, if that has changed.
Describe the location, if that has changed, and, if time has changed, include that too. Ex: "Two hours later at the clothing store, Fred met me." If the POV character is not named (i.e. 'me') it's assumed to be the same as in the previous scene, but don't say, "Two hours later at the clothing store, she met Fred." Now 'she' refers to a noun in the previous section which requires too much sleuthing for the reader. Instead, repeat the name of the character from the previous section avoiding using the pronoun.
Exercise #1: Read a chapter of your scenes and and be sure you do not need to refer to a prior scene to understand who your POV character is, or to name your location, or to understand if time has passed.
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Chapter Transitions: These transitions begin on a whole new page, and they do not use POV pronouns referring to a character in a prior chapter or scene, and they must establish an understandable context for the reader in the same way Scene Transitions do. One difference is that the scene prior to a new chapter should end with a Hook. A Hook is a statement that piques a reader's curiosity so that they continue reading instead of stopping at the convenient Chapter page break.
A good Hook suggests the action of the upcoming chapter without revealing significant details. Conflict is at the heart of every story and should drive what the new chapter is about. If there is no conflict, delete the chapter and begin again.
Think of scenes and chapters of scenes as they are used in movies. In a movie, if a camera has to be redirected, create a new scene, or relocated, start a new chapter. To establish a new setting for conflict, it requires a transition. Rule #1: All scenes should be entered late after the action and conflict have already begun, and they should be left early before the reader is put to sleep with details that aren't needed and that don't move the story forward.
Assignment #1: With a highlighter, mark where the conflict begins in your chapter, and then mark where you could leave the chapter without losing what it's been accomplished. See if you can trim a few of the unnecessary sentences.
