Tuesday's Writer's Tip - More on Scenes Go Wrong #MFRWauthor #amwriting #scenes

I've probably had scenes go wrong in every book I write. Though I've made many of the mistakes, there are some I haven't.

The villain is weak - I really like villains and I love developing their dastardly natures but the villain must be the same strength of character, motivation and goals as the hero or heroine. Let your hero show his or her metal against an equally strong character.

The scene is trivial. We've all done this. Written a scene and then realize what happens does nothing to advance the plot, develop the characters or give information. Either fully develop the scene or drop it. You don't want to bore the reader.

The monotonous scene. The characters say or do the same things as they've done in previous scenes. Unless something different happens there's no reason for the scene. A twist or turn will enliven this scene.

The disaster in the scene that hopefully drives the action forward isn't strong enough. Bring your characters to their knees. And maybe hint to how they can solve the dilemma.

Or the disaster doesn't belong in that scene. This is rather like the gods stepping down from outside the story to produce a disaster. The disaster in a scene has to be logical.