Speaker 1: 0:50

The more you dig into your scenes and the more that you learn about the intricacies of your plot and your characters and your world, the more clarity you're going to get about the big picture. And then you can take all of that work you've done on the big picture and apply it to each one of your scenes and repeat the process as needed, and that's how you'll get to a story you're proud of. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilboe and I'm here to help you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming, so each week I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started.

Speaker 1: 1:37

In today's episode, we're going to talk about one of the most popular topics on this podcast, and that is writing scenes. I'm going to share the five most common scene issues I see in the drafts I edit, and I'll give you some suggestions for how to fix these issues if you find them in your own draft. So this is probably an episode you'll want to come back to when it's time to edit your draft. But if you're still in the brainstorming or writing phase, you can absolutely learn something valuable from this episode as well. So just wanted to throw that out there, because, although I do think it's totally worthwhile to keep these things in mind as you write, I don't want you to worry so much about getting these things quote-unquote right that they hold you back from finishing your draft. So just want to throw that out there. If you're in the brainstorming or writing phase, go ahead and listen. You're going to get a lot from this episode. If you're in the editing phase, then this is a great episode to help you take action on your scene edits. So, with that being said, let's go ahead and dive right into the five most common scene issues and how to fix them.

Speaker 1: 2:33

Common issue number one is that the scene is not properly structured, and you might have made this mistake if your scenes feel like they're going nowhere or if they're just not that impactful when you go back and read through them. Usually, if you have this feeling, it means that you're missing at least one key element of scene structure. So there's either no goal, there's no conflict, or your protagonist doesn't face a tough decision that helps to move the story forward. You could be missing more than one of these key elements, but I usually find that one tends to be the root cause of the issue. So if you've made this mistake, don't worry. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to throw away your scene that is quote, unquote, broken. Sometimes you just need to build structure into the existing scene that you already have. So to do this, you can ask questions like what is my character's goal in this scene? What conflict do they face as they pursue that goal? What tough decision is your character going to face near the end of the scene, and things like that. And I have a whole episode about scene structure. It's episode number 40, which I will link to in the show notes. But if you find this to be a recurring issue in your draft, definitely go listen to that episode and try to get a better handle on scene structure. So that's common scene issue number one not having the proper structure.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Common scene issue number two is a point of view character that doesn't have agency, and usually if you've made this mistake in your scene. You might have heard feedback from your beta readers or editors or whoever you're working with, that maybe said they're having trouble feeling invested in what's happening or they can't quite connect to your character, or something like that. And one easy way to identify this mistake other than that feedback is if you look at your scenes and you realize that they're always about something happening to your protagonist, versus them dealing with the consequences of their own actions. This could also show up as other characters constantly making the tough decisions in each of your scenes, or constantly navigating the way forward, or directing all the characters forward in each one of your scenes instead of your protagonist. So if you've made this mistake, it's okay.

Speaker 1: 4:36

The way to fix it is to let your protagonist make the majority of the decisions in each scene. Even if someone else does end up having to choose the way forward once in a while, your protagonist can still choose how they're going to react to that decision or what they will do now that the decision has been made. So, most importantly, you just don't want to rob your protagonist of their agency, because this is what makes for a super boring story and it's going to make your protagonist hard to root for, because, as humans, we all want to have agency. We all have a sense of agency, whatever that looks like for each one of us, and it's just hard to relate to somebody who's not exercising agency or who doesn't have agency. So just something to keep in mind, and if you need some more help with this, I'd like you to go listen to episode number 63. And that episode is called Don't Start a Scene Without these Three Things. That episode will teach you how to set up a scene so that you can make sure your protagonist is set up to have the most agency possible, and then, as the conflict comes in, you'll just want to keep an eye on it and make sure that you're giving them enough agency to make decisions and move things forward themselves.

Speaker 1: 5:41

So that's common scene issue number two a point of view character that doesn't have enough agency in the scene. Common scene issue number three is just having too much extra stuff in any given scene, and you've probably made this mistake if there are random elements in your scenes that don't serve the overarching story. So this includes things like random subplots and secondary characters, but also often includes descriptions, info dumps, backstory, explanations and or too many words, and when you're editing these scenes, you'll probably know that you've made this mistake if it feels like the scene is hard to get through. So it's hard to wade through all the stuff or to know what to focus on, because there's just so much stuff on the page, and this is really where objectivity can be your friend. So the fix is to just consider if something doesn't serve the scene or the story. Then it is time to kill your darlings and, yes, this will be hard sometimes, but, trust me, your story will be so much stronger for it.

Speaker 1: 6:38

If you're guilty of info dumping or cramming too much backstory or explanation or world building details, or whatever it is into a scene, trim it down so that you're only including what's absolutely necessary for readers to know in that moment. Otherwise you'll want to just save it for another spot in your draft or cut it all together. Now, if you need some help with kind of knowing what to keep or what not to keep, or what to write in scene versus summary and things like that, I want you to go check out episode number 74. That one's called when Should you Write in Scene versus Summary, and the reason I like this episode is because a lot of times in the drafts. I see these scenes where it just feels like there's too much stuff. A lot of times those can be converted into summary. So it's not necessarily like you have to get rid of the extra stuff in some cases. In some cases you can just convert it into a summary where it makes sense and then keep it in your draft. So go check out that episode episode number 74, and I will link to that in the show notes as well.

Speaker 1: 7:35

And that's common scene issue number three putting too much extra stuff in any one of your scenes. Common scene issue number four is not having enough interiority on the page. So you're making this mistake if you read back through your scenes and you see that you haven't shown enough of your character's internal reaction on the page. So, for example, if your character gets fired but we don't see what they think or feel about getting fired or how they react and process what just happened to them, then the reader is going to feel cheated. And that's just because novels are the most interior form of storytelling and readers want to know what a character is thinking, what a moment means to them, what they believe and how their perceptions are changing after each conflict they come across.

Speaker 1: 8:17

So the fix here is you just want to show your character's thoughts and feelings, or the way that they are processing what's happening to them in any given moment. So make sure their reactions to what's happening around them in every single scene are on the page. Readers need to see your protagonist make sense of every single thing that happens. So what is the character feeling? What are they thinking? How does this moment change their perception or beliefs, and things like that? Now, for some writers this comes really naturally, but for others it doesn't. So if you're one of the writers who kind of squirms a little bit at me giving you this advice, just give it a shot and see what happens and when in doubt, include what you think is too much of this interiority or too much of this internal processing rather than too little, and then get some feedback on it.

Speaker 1: 9:02

I find that in most cases it's a little easier to pair the interiority down than it is to ramp it up. So just let me to keep in mind and if you need some help with this, go listen to episode number 94. It's called how to Reveal your Character's Inner Life on the Page, and I will link to that one in the show notes as well. So that's common scene issue number four. Not enough interiority or that internal processing on the page.

Speaker 1: 9:25

Common scene issue number five is having point of view slips or head hopping within a scene, and you've probably made this mistake if you notice that you've jumped from one point of view to another point of view in the same scene. Unless you're writing in the third person omniscient, which most of us are probably not doing, most of us will be writing in first person or third person limited, and in that case jumping from head to head or point of view to point of view is confusing and frustrating to the reader. So I just want you to look out for instances where you've shown what one character is thinking so your point of view character in that scene, and then you've jumped into the head of another character and shown what they're thinking. That's a point of view slip. It's often called head hopping. So you just want to look out for that and the fix to this is you'll just want to stick to one character's perspective per scene and you'll want to get into their perspective so that you can show their interiority, so their thoughts, their feelings, reactions and things like that, kind of like what we just talked about a few seconds ago. And then, when you need to change point of view, you'll want to just include a scene break to signal to readers that the perspective or that point of view character is changing. So you can definitely have multiple points of view. You just want to make sure it's super clear and you want to avoid mixing up the points of view within a scene.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Now, if you are at the editing stage, it's always a good time to rethink how many point of view characters your novel will have, because sometimes having less points of view is actually more impactful. So just let me to keep in mind. So that's common scene issue number five point of view slips or head hopping within a scene. Now, of course, there are a handful of other things that you can look for when it comes to writing and editing your scenes, but if you just address these five issues in one of your drafts or during one of your rounds of editing, you are naturally going to solve a lot of the other problems your scenes might have.

Speaker 1: 11:11

So let me recap those five common issues for you really quick. Number one is not having the proper structure. Number two is having a point of view character that does not have enough agency. Number three is including too much extra stuff, so too much description, too much role building, too much backstory and things like that. Number four is not including enough interiority on the page, so the way that your character is internally processing stuff. And number five is having point of view slips or head hopping. So again, these are the five most common issues I see, and if you focus on these for, let's say, your first round of editing, your draft will drastically improve.

Speaker 1: 11:46

Now the other thing I want to mention is that by going through your draft and looking for these five issues in each one of your scenes, you might realize there are some big picture things that you need to address in your draft. So, for example, let's say you realize your character lacks agency in a handful of your scenes. That realization might point you in the direction of sharpening their overarching goal and motivation. And then, once you get clear on that, you're going to realize that probably some of your scenes need to be completely thrown away or need to be changed because you've gotten so much more clear on who your character is, what they want and why. And I just want you to know that this is totally normal and it's actually a good thing. The more you dig into your scenes and the more that you learn about the intricacies of your plot and your characters and your world, the more clarity you're going to get about the big picture, which is good, right. And then you can take all of that work you've done on the big picture and apply it to each one of your scenes and repeat the process as needed, and that's how you'll get to the story you're proud of. So that's it for today's episode.

Speaker 1: 12:46

As always, thank you so much for tuning in and for showing your support. If you want to check out any of the links I mentioned in this episode, you can find them in the show notes listed in the description of each episode inside your podcast player or at savannahgilbocom forward slash podcast. If you're an Apple user, I'd really appreciate it if you took a few seconds to leave a rating and a review. Your ratings and reviews tell Apple that this is a podcast that's worth listening to and, in turn, your reviews will help this podcast get in front of more fiction writers just like you. And while you're there, go ahead and hit that follow button, because there's going to be another brand new episode next week, full of actionable tips, tools and strategies to help you become a better writer. So I'll see you next week and until then, happy writing.