Scenes are units of story that, when stacked together, make up a whole story. A scene happens in one time and space from one POV and must have a change arc. In this post, we are going to explore three not widely known facts about scenes that will help you write and use them to their fullest extent.
Secret 1: Scenes Are Mini Stories
Scenes are basically a mini story within the tale, and that is where most people go wrong. They think a scene is a glimpse of a situation or just wherever they decide to put in a break in their book. It’s not. Scenes must be able to stand on their own with a full story arc in itself. You must write a beginning, middle, and end.
You should plan each scene like you do your overall story. Start with exposition to set the scene. Make an inciting incident that forces the protagonist into a new conflict or situation (though it doesn’t have to be big like the overall story’s inciting incident). Throw in rising action to show the conflict build, stakes rise, and tension increase. Then make your protagonist face a dilemma where she must make a difficult decision. The character will choose, creating a climax, and then show the results of the choice she made. Lastly, put in a paragraph or two for a resolution to show how she processed what happened and what it might mean for the future.
Once you complete the story arc, then you can end the scene and start a new one. The best way to decide what scene should come next is to work off of what happened in the climax of the last scene. What will happen after the event that just went down? What consequences will occur due to the protagonist’s decision? How will the protagonist act now because of what just happened? Answering these kinds of questions in your next scene will help the story flow better.
Remember, in every scene there has to be a change from the start to the finish. How did the character grow? What has changed since the opening of the scene? No scene should end like it began, or you need to delete it. Something has to happen to shake up the story and push your protagonist on to the next step in the plot.
Secret 2: How You Put Scenes Into Chapters Controls Pacing
Scenes are a measurement of story for writers while chapters are a measurement of story for readers. A chapter can be a partial scene, one scene, or multiple. A writer can control the feel of the book’s pacing by how they create chapters. Longer chapters with multiple scenes make the pace seem slower while shorter chapters make it feel faster.
If you want to end a chapter on a cliffhanger, you can split a scene and end on the dilemma, saving the climax and resolution for the beginning of the next chapter. I recently read a manga comic called Solo Leveling, and the publishers do very well with this tactic. They always end each book right before the climax, making readers want to purchase the next book to see what happens. I don’t think that works for many series, but it could work well for chapter divisions.
Secret 3: Scenes Help You Plan Word Counts
One of the best discoveries I’ve made lately is figuring out how scenes can help plan the length of a book. Scenes are between 500-5,000 words; however, the most impactful scene length is about 2,000 words. I’ve gone back and looked at my writing, and most of my scenes fall between 1,000 and 3,000 words. Now, using 2,000 as a base number, you can plan the length of your next book.
The average book is about 80,000 words so let’s use that length as an example. Books are generally made of three acts with each one being an estimated percentage of the story. We can use that to break down how many scenes (2,000 words long) we should write.
- Act I: 25% = 20,000 words = 10 scenes
- Act II: 50% = 40,000 words = 20 scenes
- Act III: 25% = 20,000 words = 10 scenes
Therefore, if you want to write an 80,000-word novel, you need to plan to write about 40 scenes. This isn’t an exact science, but it will get you in the ballpark. Then you can either add detail or delete scenes to match your goal.
You can check your own writing to see approximately how long you make each scene and compare it to the average. While you can have shorter or longer scenes, you don’t want to stray too often from the average 2,000 words. Every scene only having 500 words will seem to lack depth, and every scene being 5,000 words means your writing isn’t focused or concise. Aim to make those mini story arcs about 2,000 words, and you’ll be closer to writing a great scene.
Final Thoughts
Like constructing a house, you have to use good building blocks to have a strong final product. Make sure your scenes are complete story arcs and keep them concise to match the average scene word count, and you will have a good base for your story. After you have solid scenes, you can arrange them into chapters for the best impact on readers.
Thanks for reading!
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