BY NANCY KAY CLARK
CommuterLit editor & publisher
I’ve been self-editing my novel-in-progress (I’ve actually lost track of how many iterations this story’s gone through) and I’m down to the nitty gritty, going through each scene in my story with a fine-tooth comb. Keep in mind, that a “scene” is not the same as a chapter. You can have more than one scene per chapter. The definition of a scene as it pertains to prose is a section of your overall story with one setting, one set of characters, one set of dialogue and one sphere of activity.
Here are a few questions I try to answer for each of the scenes in my novel (feel free to adopt and adapt for your own projects):
!. Who is the POV character?
2. What’s their motivation/goal in the scene?
3. What happens if they succeed? What happens if they fail?
4. How does the scene fit in to the structure/plot of the overall novel? (Inciting incident; backstory/flashback; character development; introduction of characters/situation; start of quest; building suspense; mid-point revelation; adding complications; climax; denouement). If the scene doesn’t play a specific role in the overall story plot—perhaps it doesn’t need to be there.
5. Do the readers know within the first two lines or so where and when the scene is taking place, which characters are in the scene, and who is talking at all times. This is particularly important if your setting, timeline and POV jumps around. You should not rely solely on taglines at the beginning of each chapter.
6. Does each scene have a beginning (problem stated), a middle (a revelation or decision made), a climax (action taken) and an end? What is the tension in the scene? What is at stake?
7. Does each scene have an entry hook? (Oh no, Lizzie is missing! What’s going to happen?)
8. Does each scene have an exit hook? (Ben has found a body in the woods! Is it Lizzie? Read the next chapter to find out.)
9. Is the scene all dialogue? All action? All summary? All one character thinking or reminiscing? Mix it up to create tension and change the pace.
10. Is there too little description to bring the world to life for the readers or too much description that it bogs them down with too much detail?
Join the Conversation
“A little too much reliance on the passive voice, I thought. The tension builds well but I found the ending was a let-down. And, yes, Patricia Bowen, even the most humdrum lives have a story inside them, and the author unlocks Will’s.” — Michael Joll, commenting on Wednesday’s story, “The Balmoria Pen Pals”
“Great short story Lincoln, it captured me from the start and your vivid descriptions painted a clear and detailed picture in my mind…” — Kathie Leckenby, commenting on Tuesday’s story, “Of Chiromancers and Albatrosses”
Contributor News
Geoffrey Heptonstall’s new poetry collection What We Do Well has launched.
Terry Trowbridge has a poem about MAD Magazine artists in the most recent issue of The Ex-Puritan.
The latest episode of the podcast, Mom and Son Book Reviews, co-hosted by CL editor & publisher Nancy Kay Clark has dropped.
