I’m reviewing my manuscript and noticing that my scenes tend to trail off towards the end. This has been a long, arduous project and moving from scene to scene where the enthusiasm appeared was one way to keep on track with targets. Now I need to knit everything together into a cohesive whole. What tips to people have for rounding off scenes? How can I best make sure there is continuity between scenes/chapters/segments?
What do you mean by “trail off?”
@CaptainMinnette I mean that writing the decisive action in a scene is not a problem-- working out how that action concludes is what I’m struggling with. Another way to put it is that my scenes are beginning or middle heavy, but don’t have a satisfying end that transitions to the next.
Without knowing more of the specifics I can recommend some general tips. It sounds like, from “knit everything together”, you have a bag of scenes that you started because you liked them but didn’t necessarily have how they fit together in mind. That’s ok but it’s a little bit the “we’ll fix it in post” approach - but that’s what editing is for! Just takes longer.
Ok, if that’s the premise I would say my favorite way to tie scenes together is by them ‘rhyming’, Fifth Element does this beautifully. Every transition somehow rhymes with the how the scene before it ended. It’s not a copy however, a character lighting a cigarette at the end of a scene isn’t matched by another lit cigarette but it could be a plume of exhaust from a car, or characters around a fire, or perhaps someone coughing from a punch in the stomach. All you’re doing is rhyming with how the scene before ended. Bonus points if it emphasizes the scene somehow, totally fine if it’s just a transition into something engaging.
And I just reread your comment for what sounds like: editing tips so scenes don’t go on too long. Make them shorter. An apparently misquote attributed to Mark Twain goes “if I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” Terrible ‘tip’ I know, but by finding what it is you’re trying to accomplish with a scene and then trimming all the excess it is like refining a jewel so it shines more brightly.
@Revolving_Glass thanks for the suggestion. I’ll bear this in mind as I edit.
Here is very helpful scene structure video
Its an excellent video about how to approach and improve your scenes, no matter what youre doing. (Check out her whole channel actually, very solid and straightforward writing advice all around.) :)
