WRITER'S BLOGG | A Blog For Story Writing

How To Write Scenes

Now we come to the real good sh!t.

Writing the scenes.

You have an idea, you have a world, you have characters and a plot, if you followed my guide so far.

Now you also chose a writing program, and it's time to bring it all down.

How, you may ask?

Divide your scene into parts.

Like I mentioned in the How To Plot chapter earlier, a scene is made out of three parts.

1 - starting point

2 - middle section

3 - end

This formation doesn't change, whether it is a prologue, epilogue or chapter in general.

1 - The Starting point

Your reader has to be brought into your scene. Understand that your reader doesn't understand everything that you do.

They don't know everything that you do.

This can play into your favors partially, e.g. writing plot twists - something I'll get back to in further chapters.

Key points your starting point should include:

- name of the character

- place

- time

- motive

The name of the character should be mentioned, no one would know who plays what role in that scene.

Tell a rough outline of the place if it's not relevant, or go into detail if it plays a crucial role (not too much, I'll get back to good storytelling soon).

The time is also a crucial factor. People should know whether it's evening, daytime or 7 years in the past or future.

The motive. Your character has one. Every action can be divided into three segments: the thought, the act and the consequences.

What does your character want to do in that scene? Mention it. Do think about what action/motive is of importance, e.g. you don't have to mention that a character's action is to mundanely fill a glass of water.

2 - The Middle Section

Since your reader now got the basic concept of the scene at the beginning, go into detail. Bring action into the scene, make it believable, make the reader want to find out more.

RULE: If you're bored when writing the scene, your reader will be too.

The middle section explains the act of the character. What happens to them, what happens coming from them, what happens around them.

The middle part is the most essential.

3 - end

Every action has an end.

What happened to the character's motive, what happened around them and where are they now, in what way does it affect them?

The end can either:

- tie together the loose ends from the starting point to the middle section

Or

- keep it at a cliffhanger - the motive/action is not further explained, rather a sentence makes the reader excited for more.

My tips:

Include your character's thoughts.

Seeing someone's thought process makes the character appear more realistic and biased.

Avoid time skips in-between, if you do use time skips, form the next scene after that time skip in the same order (starting point, middle section, end). Your reader can't grab hold on the scene if you switch in-between POVs/time segments in one scene.

Focus on human details.

What faces does the character make (frown, smile, grin...)?

How compliant is the character? Willing to make offers, to follow, make orders?

You can write resilience, it makes it more realistic.

Give your character problems next to their own problems in that scene.

Example: gas leak from a pipe - the MC instantly thinks about what would happen to their younger sibling if they died.

Avoid flashbacks in a scene.

Just like I mentioned with time skips, if you use flashbacks (which I'll get back to in a further chapter) make it good, and make it a separate chapter at best.

Next Chapter I'll get into How To Write A First sentence of your story, after that How To Write Prologue.