Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Balancing Scene and Sequel #MFRWauthor #writingtips #Swain

As a writer, there needs to be a balance between scene and sequel. Too much scene and the characters bounce from one adventure into another without time for the reader to draw a breath. On the other hand too much sequel and the reader might fall asleep. The character can only obsess over a decision and react emotionally to what has happened before the boredom element sets in. You do not want to bore your reader, neither do you want him of her to feel breathless and wish the story could end so they can take a breath.

Blending scene and sequel are important to the flow of the story. They also perform different parts of the whole. If the pacing of your story seems to drag, a scene where action is the king needs to take place. If the story begins to become just one adventure after another give the characters time to reflect on what just happened and what that means to them and their quest for their goal.

How big should the scene be? There much to consider. Where does the scene fall in the story? If you open with a scene like a volcano erupting or a major battle unfolding, what kind of scene do you follow this with.  I look at each story like a rollercoaster. The ride takes you up and then down and up and down. That's what scene and sequel do but each must build a little higher than the last one.

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Wednesday's Writer's Tip - More on Scene and Sequel

Just a little summing up on using scene and dequel. My thoughts on this technique taken from Techniques of  the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain.

To me, scene is the show part of writing. We're all told to show and not tell. This is generally the right thing but not necessarily so. Tell belongs in the sequel segment. Now to backtrack.

Scene is show and what you need to know here is that with each new scene, the setting, the characters, goal for the scene and the reasons for choosing that goal are needed. If you don't show the reader where the scene takes place and who the scene involves, the reader can be confused. Now this doesn't mean you have to go into great detail about the setting, especially if the characters have been there before. A few details about the space can bring the reader into the scene. The other thing is to show the reader who the focus character of the scene will be. This doesn't necessarily mean this is the viewpoint character. Sometimes seeing the character through someone else's eyes can reveal things the focus character believes he or she has successfully hidden. The little change in the mouth, the shifting of a gaze can mean much to the observing character. A scene needs to march forward until the problem seems solved but a new one looms.

This brings us to sequel and here you can tell. Often the sequel focuses on the reaction of the focus character to what happened or didn't happen in the scene. Here a bit of the back story won't intrude, especially if that has an impact on the decision for the next move on the way to reach the character's goal.

So using scene and sequel moves the story toward the conclusion. These can be long or short. Much depends on the importance of a particular scene and sequence.