Scene Suck

Sometimes a scene doesn't do much of anything. Have you noticed? It doesn't provide any additional information about a character; it doesn't propel the story forward; it feels like filler.

How do you react when you read one of those scenes?

• Do you even realize it at the time, or do you wonder later why that scene was in the story? 
• Is it irrelevant to you?
• Are you mildly disgruntled?
• Are you over the top ticked-off and feel cheated?

I'm working on a scene now for my new book that I really want in the story. It does show some additional characterization but I think it needs to also do something for the plot. 

Without contrivance.

I've decided to give myself a day, two at the most, to see if I can dream up something that would work. If I can't, my single-mother detective isn't going to meet up with the new guy in town who's a volunteer firefighter as well as a professor at the local college.

Just sayin'.

It's all better with friends.

My Bad

Okay, maybe writing out of sequence isn't all it's cracked up to be. At least all I cracked it up to be.

After making this big wahoo-discovery (last post) and thinking I'd latched on to something pretty spectacular, well . . . mea culpa.

To be honest, I find myself in a place where I need—desperately need—to know what happens next. And because I've not written sequentially, I'm all discombobulated about what has already happened. So now, I'm reading through the scenes that are linked. Scenes that are in order. Scenes I'd written before my Great Discovery.

Ugh.

I still think, when supremely stuck, or when a certain scene falls into your head fully formed, non-sequential writing is okay. But I took a good thing and, as I often do with chocolate and peanut butter, I overindulged, resulting in an upset stomach. For me, moderation is the key.

Some people may be able to put a jigsaw puzzle together willy-nilly. I need to frame it first.

CR: The Halo Effect by M.J. Rose

It's all better with friends.

Three Reasons to Cut the Chapter Cords That Bind You

I used to write chapter by chapter, scene by scene. A sequential recording of events. Chapter One was always followed by Chapter Two, followed by Chapter Three. It was unimaginable for me to write Chapter Eighteen because I wouldn't even know for sure it was Chapter Eighteen, and what about everything else?

And heaven help my mental state when I decided that Chapter Four and Chapter Twenty-Two needed to be switched.

I now write using Scrivener, and love it beyond reason. But the first manuscript I wrote using Scrivener, I wrote the same old way. Chapter by chapter, scene by scene. Scrivener makes it easy to move scenes around, but they still needed to be renumbered and it was tedious.

By not writing chapter by chapter, I am finally free!

• I can moves scenes around and when they're moved, I'm done;
• I can add scenes in between scenes, and when I do, I'm done;
• When I'm not quite sure what comes next, I can write what comes later.

If you have a plot concept, you are wildly ahead of most other writers, and can fill the story in as you go. I have found it immensely freeing.

Today, I'm writing a scene and the only thing I know is that it's important to the story. Where it finally gets placed is irrelevant, and I love it.

What about you? Have you tried this?

CR: The Halo Effect by M.J. Rose.

It's all better with friends.

Next Scene, Anyone?

I've been talking off an on about how much I'm enjoying writing this new manuscript.

Preparation met creativity with this one.

I was attending a writer's conference late last year, and that strange combination of boredom and antsiness crawled under my skin. Know the one? I left the session I was attending, and wrote the gist of the idea by hand in my moleskine notebook in a quiet corner of the otherwise frantic main floor of the hotel. It was both calming and exciting. An altogether different combination that I loved.

It felt like destiny. Except that I had another manuscript I needed to finish. So, this one, a romantic suspense (my first) with some dogs as prime players (my heart) had to be shelved (until a couple of months ago).

I made myself pull the pieces together, because this one's a bit more layered and complicated than the first one I wrote. I did some research, and brainstorming with trusted friends. On my desk right now are 13 file folders ranging from Biological Threat Agents to NecroSearch to Prisons/Supermax to Timeline. Also on my desk are three reference books with sticky tags hanging out all over them, helping me get this thing done right. I hope.

So, I have notes and plot points and character studies . . . and the one thing that makes me stumble?

What will make the Best Next Scene?

I ended the last scene with one of the best hooks I've ever written. Seriously. I'm not sayin' it's the best hook anyone has ever written, it's just one of the best ones from moi. So, the following scene needs to be powerful.

I thought about jumping to the antagonist, but that would diminish that fabulous punch. And if I were a reader I might be ticked off. So, one more scene first. And it has to be amazing.

So, writers out there . . . how do you determine your next scene?



CR: Shadow Dance by Julie Garwood. (Have you checked out her website?)

It's all better with friends.

Cliff Hangers

I'm so excited. I just left my male protag hanging on a cliff. Literally. In the middle of a storm.

Ya gotta love it.

What I'm floundering with right now is how to pick up the simultaneous scene at the key moment—and well, what is that key moment. One of the best pieces of advice any author can follow is to come into a scene late and leave early. It keeps the action taut and the pace strong. Obviously this is a key to a suspense novelist.

I'm tempted to just go ahead and write the thing, and then go on a word-whacking expedition. But I'd really rather not. I've whacked enough lately. I believe that if I put enough thought into it (with my internal editor whacking away) I can come upon the most amazing entry spot. Better than tears. Better than anger.

I'm thinking fear. Gut-wrenching and visceral. The core.

Then the question is . . . whose point of view? The rule of thumb is that the POV belongs to the person who, for that scene, has the most to lose. My nature is to test "rules of thumb" so my mental Olympics have popped into high gear. And the medal goes to . . . the Rule of Thumb. It means initiating yet another POV, but it will create such an intensity that the scene will practically write itself.

Leave the scene early (Chase is in trouble).

Come into a scene late (Angela isn't wondering if she's being stalked . . . she knows it).

Who has the most to lose? (While Bond, as the mother, could be justified as the POV character, it is, after all, Angela's life that's being threatened—so Angela it is.)



Currently reading: The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield.

It's all better with friends.