scene

Quick Link: How Do You Know When To Start and End a Scene?

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

How do you decide when a scene begins and ends? I just finished a story that was written well so that even though the story wasn’t the greatest, I kept having to read the next chapter because I wanted to know what happened next. That is talent. Randy Ingermanson, owner of Advanced Fiction Writing, shares his tips on how to find the best places to define a scene. What are your tips?

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How Do You Know When To Start and End a Scene?

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How do you know when to start a new scene in your story? And how do you know when to end it? What’s the reasoning you use?

Yvonne posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:

when writing a scene in fiction, how do you know when to move to a new scene? Time, place, pov, deleted or added characters, and what, are the reasons for a scene change?

Randy sez: This is a question that vexes most beginning writers, and rightly so, because it’s a hard question.

The key thing is to understand what a scene is, and what a scene is supposed to do.

How Scenes Work—A Review

A scene is the smallest unit of fiction. It’s a story in its own right. The ability to write excellent scenes is arguably your most important skill as a novelist. By that, I mean that if you can write great scenes, you can get away with a mediocre premise, a mediocre plot, a mediocre setting, and mediocre characters.

Read the full post on Advanced Fiction Writing

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: 3 Tips for Seamless Scene Setting

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Today we travel to Writers In The Storm, where not only do they have a great blog name but Sonja Yoerg cheekily shares tips on using your environment to help bring depth to your character.

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Hikers at sunset3 Tips for Seamless Scene Setting

February 17th, 2016

Sonja Yoerg

Lost in Space. Remember that TV show? No? Sigh. It aired in the 60s and featured a family in Jiffy-Pop space suits roaming the galaxy in an attempt to return to Earth. I mention it because, as fun as that show was, you don’t want your characters lost in space. In fact, you want to pin them to a specific spot on the map, put them in a headlock and give them a noogie while you’ve got them there.

Settings aren’t just hang-outs for your characters. Let’s talk about ways to put your fictional places through their paces.

1. Relax your reader.

First and most obvious, readers will relax once they know where they are and what sort of a world to expect. Nail down the location with few accurate strokes and you’re one step closer to being able to lead your reader by the nose. (And that’s what you want, after all: dominion over readers!)

Unless the mystery of the setting is part of the story, it’s best to bang the stake in the ground right away. These words appear in the first paragraph of my latest novel, Middle of Somewhere: “Yosemite, wilderness, backpacking, adventure.” Yeah, I’m subtle like that.

Read the full post on Writers In The Storm

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.