So you have a great story idea, engaging characters, a sense of your structure, but when you sit down to write you feel overwhelmed by this rolling wave that is threatening to crush you. Or perhaps you are paralyzed with fear when you think of the sheer volume you need to write. Learning how to write a scene, be it one full of action, or one that quietly furthers the plot through character development, is a skill you must learn if you want to become a professional writer. 

 

Scenes are the building blocks of your book. A novel will have about 50-80 of these little guys. 

 

I like to think of a book as building a house. The scenes are your building materials - you will take great care to choose what you love, of the best quality with variations in textures such as bricks, wood, glass. Your characters are the people who will inhabit the house, or perhaps just visit. And your story is how you will build - how big, how dramatic, over what period of time, and where.

 

Take a look at my scene template to get you started.

 

What is the most important piece of information that needs to be revealed in this scene?

 

A scene almost always occurs in one place

A scene describes someone wanting something

A scene, like the story, has something at stake. If the character doesn't get what they want, what are the consequences? 

A scene advances the plot.

 

A new scene starts when a character enters or leaves.

 

Ask yourself, why am I starting the scene here? What is the importance of this scene to the overall story? If there is no importance to the scene then get rid of it. Remember, every sentence and every scene must feed the themes of the book.

 

Four things that will enhance your scenes:

 

Sensory details.

If you want your reader to feel emotionally engaged in your scene then don't just tell them what is happening, make them feel it! Her mouth watered as she chewed the salty fish. The light was so harsh her eyes squinted, a searing pain through her temple.

 

Choose verbs carefully 

Verbs are the action of your story. Consider the following verbs -

Run saunter jog dart sprinted

Ate, shovelled the food, chewed

 

Don't forget about action

Starting a scene with action is a guaranteed way to engage your reader. The action doesn't have to be dramatic like a car crash or someone falling from a bridge. It can be as simple as arriving somewhere new, cooking dinner, planting something in the garden. Action means motion. Try to avoid slipping into a characters mind if they are lying on the sofa, or sitting on a park bench. Think of how much more active your own thoughts are when you go for a walk - the momentum of your body bringing clarity, the details of nature affecting your experience, and of course the possibility of external stimulus.

 

The power of mystery

Does one character know something that the other doesn't? Is one character trying to discover something? Is the character, or perhaps more than one, entering a new place such as an abandoned house, a hotel, a lover's apartment for the first time, onto a tiny plane that they don't entirely trust. This element of the unknown adds instant tension