Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Time and Scene Length #MFRWauthor #Writing #Scenes

How long should a scene be? That's a question that involves maybe words or page length. There are other factors. Scenes have a number of uses. One is to give information. A second is to define the characters? A third is to advance the plot. But time works on two levels. One is literal and the other is emotional.

Think of this. When you're waiting in the doctor's office for an appointment, that twenty minutes can seem like hours. When you're excited about something the same amount of time can seem to be seconds. In your book this holds true.

A love scene may take pages to bring from the beginning to the end. I once read in a friend's book, a single kiss lasting a chapter of about thirty pages. Too long or too short. You as the writer has to decide how you're going to employ time. A sentence or a paragraph can cover years.

Why? Nothing of emotional importance happened during that time. There was nothing to do with any of the functions of a scene.

So the answer I've always heard from other writers and teachers of writing is "A scene takes as long as it must." Sort of vague but when you decide how much emotional impact the scene will have, the length usually seems right. Stopping a scene before all the emotional impact is gone will leave the reader wondering and if carried too far, the reader might become bored. It's all a matter of timing and purpose of the scene.